We'll that's that for another year then.
Take Fulham's cup run and Spurs breaking into the top 4, due to Liverpools poorest year for decades, and it's pretty much gone to form once again. No surprises down at the bottom at all either. We'd have stayed up comfortably with our average points total in the Premiership, West Ham stayed up with a total that in many years would have seen them drop (they last went down with 42 I think) and at least 4(?) teams getting 7 or more put past them in one game.
No doubt Chelsea's 100+ goals will get trotted out by many as proof that it's the best league in the world but to me it's more proof that there's a right lot of old rubbish knocking about in it at the moment.
No doubt in my mind that this year is the poorest yet in terms of overall quality and I can't see it getting better any time soon.
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The top 2 will conitnue to keep getting stronger whilst the bottom half weaker.
Imho there is more about the teams below the traditional top 4, teams such as Everton up to Spurs all have players who would easily get into Chelsea or Man Utds team and are in some areas stronger. This has led to the gap closing as no longer are the 5-8th place teams selling their best players to the top teams but instead are building on players like Modric, Milner, Tevez, Arteta etc and having very good squads.
If I were a liverpool fan, I would be very worried about next season.
maybe if we have just lost our first 2 games against rochdale and bournemouth but maybe not if we have just lost to...well i was gonna say hull, burnley and portsmouth but if we go up we'd probaby expect to beat them, in fact if we go up this year then i think the championship will be very open next year, theres no newcastles or west broms in that league
The standard in the Premier League has really dropped since we left. ;-)
I know the money in the NFL is huge, but every year they seem to have a new winner, new competition & at the beggining of the season almost anyone could win it. When only 2, possibly 3, can win it at the beginning of the season it takes away from it.
Teams like Pompey and Hull look in a very bad state and perhaps the increased money to relegated clubs will help unless the money available is more evenly distributed the more the league will become more predictable.
still our league was so tight and is therefore the greatest strongest toughest league one there ever has been
I agree but the only reason for the NFL being such a level-playing field is because of the draft system. You couldn't implement that in football without a complete overhaul from grass-roots up. I couldn't really see it working. For one, there's too many clubs in english football. And secondly, it would have to be a europe-wide change. Because even if it did sort out the english leagues, having the best players spread out over all the teams would certainly mean there being an unfair advantage in UEFA and the Champions league for teams who could buy who they want.
Thats exactly why it is. Do you know how many fans of prem teams dont bother to watch division3 football? Its because the football is so poor and most teams including Charlton just lump the ball out of defence to the forwards. Division3 isn't exciting it just happens to be the league your favourite team plays in and next year if promoted everyone will be saying that the only good league is the Championship. The premiership is far more exciting than the dross we've had to watch this year
What I do think, speaking as a football fan who's team don't deserve to be in there or don't look likely to be in there again for a fair while (if ever), is that the quality is dire.
As above, 7 teams under 40 points, a team staying up who've only won 8 games all season, a team staying up (comfortably) with a GD of -42 and conceding 79 goals in the season, Blackburn finishing 10th! Birmingham finishing 9th 20 points ahead of 19th, yet 20 points behind 4th, Spurs getting champions league having lost over a quarter of their league games. It all adds up. Goals yes. Entertainment most definitely. High quality hit and miss. It's always been a "multi-league" division but this year there are probably as many as 5 or 6 mini-leagues in there. I think it was steve bruce the other week that said his aim for the rest of the season was Sunderland to finish top of "their" league, i.e. 9th.
Over here you can watch 5 games at a time,, (like Champs league ove in London) so Im using listening to Charlton streaming Soccer Satruday and have four games split across the screen on the TV.....
I dont really enjoy the Prem, its more a case of its there whilst Im listening to Charlton...
Either way Im very disappointed that its all coming to an end...
Just want Charlton to Go up so I can enjoy the winter here in massive expectation of next yr.....
There are 6 or 7 teams with money who are fine, then there are a dozen or so teams who could get dragged into a relegation battle and anyone coming up faces a massive task just to stay up
this is very very true. chelsea this year have looked like machines, the speed, accuracy going forward and the clinical-ness in front of goal has been alarming recently. they fully deserved to win the league, they even look in a different class to united. its not normal though really, bring back the open stadiums, mud, nearly waterlogged pitches, terraces, floodlights, proper tackling, non pansy referees, the big match......and see if chelsea still look as good without the likes of drogba who wouldnt hack it under those conditions in england
The Premiership has now moved to a top three (MU, Chelsea, Arsenal) with another three fighting over the fourth spot (Liverpool, Man City, Spurs) - Villa are a decent side but can't live with the big boys financially as we are likely to see in the summer.
Liverpool look like getting booted out of that top group unless some dickhead comes in pay off the Yanks which will leave City and Spurs fighting for 4th spot which means that Spurs will need a decent ECL run next year to compete with City's financial muscle.
If City get Torres/Gerrard in the summer then you can bank on them for 4th next year - if they get Mourinho in the summer then all bets are off.
i think city are worth a bet probably sooner rather than later, you can see them going for it big time in the summer. they have the money, they have seen what chelsea have had to do and how they have done it. with that knowledge i expect city to go on a frenzied buying onslaught capturing all the world cup big names that perform next month.
Yes, but they can't get the really big names (Kaka) unless they get into the Champions League.
Spurs' financial rectitude will be sorely tested this Summer as the Euro agents try and tempt them to spend 20 million + Champions League class players - can Harry keep his self control?
The one good thing about the lower divisions is it is just about the football which personally I prefer.
The football itself in the prem is of course better quality than we see down at the valley currently, but whether it is a better matchday experience is open to debate I guess you pays your money you makes your choice on that one.