The Decline of the EPL

EPL as a product is a complete melt. Might change my mind if I could actually afford or be bothered to go to a game but the older I get the more pathetic and unappealing it is to watch grown men scream at a 22-year-old nine dtone millionaire from their barstool.

The winners may not come from the EPL but with 5 of the last 16 from the league you would have to say its the league with the best strength in depth at the minute.

Territorial wrote:

Double Maxim wrote:

EPL clubs created history tonight with all five clubs successfully qualifying for the knockout stages of the CL .

No country has ever had five teams in the last-16 stage of the Champions League before.

You'd still have to expect the winner to come from one of the Big Five - Barca, Real, PSG, Bayern and Juve, with only Man City likely to make it the Big Six.

But that said, the EPL is showing great strength in depth beyond their top one or two teams eg topping half the eight Groups.

And if you compare their aggregate record against the other big leagues, it stands out, too:

ENG - PL.30 W.21 D.6 L.3 Pts.69/90 = 76.7%

ESP - PL.24 W.11 D.10 L.3 Pts.43/72 = 59.7%

ITY - PL.18 W.8 D.4 L.6 Pts.28/54 = 51.9%

GER - PL.18 W.7 D.3 L.8 Pts.24/54 = 44.4%

They've pissed an awful lot of money up the wall in recent years, but it may finally be beginning to pay off now.

And in my opinion, the key is not players, academies, facilities, stadia etc, but coaches - all five coaches of the English teams in the CL are foreign, with only one of them (Mourinho) having long experience in the country, and Pochettino a reasonable turn.

The key is 100% MONEY..... They can attract the best coaches and players.

If you look at the top 20 teams in the world who have the highest wage bill - those 5 Premiership teams will be there.

A good draw could see one of them win it....

Strong squads and the best managers

Roberto Baggio wrote:

The winners may not come from the EPL but with 5 of the last 16 from the league you would have to say its the league with the best strength in depth at the minute.

And it's not just "depth", but breadth as well.

England is the only country to have produced five different European champions, with a further two runners-up. And City must be a reasonable shout to add to the list, if not this season then soon enough, with Spurs not completely out of the running this time.

Meanwhile, two of those former Champions are currently in the English second tier, which itself is something like the fifth(?) best supported League in Europe.

Add to that the fact that England has something like 100 full-time professional clubs, which no other country can come near.

There is a lot to criticise about English club football (understatement!), esp all the Premier League hype and bullsh*t etc.

But if/when it gets its act together, there's nowhere else quite like it on the planet, as foreigners sometimes appreciate more than the locals (or near neighbours Wink

).

Shoco wrote:

So the one team league in Scotland is tighter at the top than the greatest league in the world

They may as well give Man city the EPL title now.

Double Maxim without doubt the greatest drink in the world

The EPL has 5 out of 5 teams into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Not really sure how City creating history and being managed by the best manager in world football means that the standard of the league has declined.

Edited by Roberto Baggio - 14 Dec 2017 at 8:42am

Roberto Baggio wrote:

The EPL has 5 out of 5 teams into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Means absolutely nothing unless one of them wins it.

They had THREE out of four in the Semi Finals in 2009 and the dopes couldn't win it.

"Smalling and Jones.... have the potential to be the PL’s best ever pairing in my opinion." - SlurAlex

Gary McKay wrote:

Roberto Baggio wrote:

The EPL has 5 out of 5 teams into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Means absolutely nothing unless one of them wins it.

They had THREE out of four in the Semi Finals in 2009 and the dopes couldn't win it.

So if PSG win the CL, Ligue 1 becomes the best league in the world?