The Premier League is vibrant and healthy. Or is it? Is the world’s supposedly top’ league in good shape and is it all a bit, well, boring?
The league this season has seen many things. The fall of Chelsea, the boring Manchester United, the predictable Arsenal, the hot and cold of Manchester City, but the emergence of the so-called ‘lesser’ teams.
Fans of Crystal Palace, Leicester and West Ham have never had it so good. It is said that anyone can beat anyone and that’s been proved by the three aforementioned sides, but if those teams have broken the golden rule of ‘you don’t beat elite teams’, then what’s happened to these elite teams?
The gap financially is closing, but the Premier League’s elite clubs will always be the big four. Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are still the main draw to the league. The financial backing is such that they will go on and buy the big names on big salaries that emerging, competing teams can only dream of.
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Let’s face it, the likes of Leicester, Palace and West Ham have some good players, but they are only reaching unheard of goals because of the decline in the other teams’ standards.
Globally, the Premier League is where it’s at. Big name companies still sponsor the teams within it, the international following is immense and teams eye up Asia like a crocodile watching wildebeest drinking by the edge of a river. It’s all about revenue.
The Premier League is a bit dull now because the eyes of the bigfFour are on the Champions League instead. Excluding Manchester United right now, of course. Is it revenue over competition? Possibly…
Chelsea’s decline this season has surprised everyone. They are stabilising, but they are not the Chelsea of old. Arsenal just seem to plod on regardless and are just unexciting and predictable. Manchester City are the most inconsistent in recent memory and Manchester United’s play has slowed up so much, the fans now take a sharp stick to each match to prod themselves with to stay awake.
The likes of Depay and Martial hit us like lightening at the beginning of the season, but under van Gaal, he has slowed them down, played them out of position or not at all.
Liverpool are in transition and will always be on the fringes until a manager brings in players who are talented enough, who care about the badge and deserve to play for an iconic club. That leaves Spurs. They are seemingly there or thereabouts these days, but they don’t have what it takes to win the league. Something is missing. Maybe a strike partner alongside Kane, but there is a piece of the jigsaw missing there.
Would some of the players of today been good enough to play in the better teams of the past?
The introduction of a 25-man squad for Premier League and Champions League football — including a homegrown quota — has reduced the ability of leading clubs to stockpile players, thereby increasing the range of talent available to clubs outside the top four now able to offer greater wages than ever before.
But the clubs and star players are there to entertain, aren’t they? Equally, the best league needs the best coaches to bring in the best and to improve them.
Leagues across Europe are not too dissimilar. In Germany and it’s always a one-horse race, almost a monopoly with Bayern Munich. Since the year 2000, the Muinch club have won the Bundesliga 10 times and will win it again this season.
In France, PSG are already 21 points clear of second place Monaco with a stunning goal difference of +46. The last three seasons, the title has stayed in Paris. In Spain, you have Barcelona, Real Madrid and sometimes Atletico Madrid, as it is this season.
In Holland it’s always Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord. Twente and AZ spoilt the party on a couple of occasions, but you need to go back to 1963 before you find a different team with their name on the trophy.
However, isn’t that just a little boring? The other clubs are always hoping to catch up, but never getting there except for the occasional victory that halts the biggest teams for one minute.
What you end up with is a league within a league.
Match day attendances are up, sponsorship increasing, revenue going through the roof, but the bigger names don’t necessarily fall over themselves to play on these shores. Maybe the lack of Champions league success has something to do with it.
So, is the Premier League in decline? Not in every corner, but it is in danger of becoming elitist.
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