I think Serie A is a more evenly competitive league. The level of the competition is a little lower though, but the structure is sound. A team like Sassuolo can still go from Serie B to establishing itself as a midtable club in just two seasons - and playing positive football and developing domestic talent while doing so - without throwing billions around.

Big, clearly the rest have gotten better due to England's wealth. A clear example is a marginal club being able to sign up 4 Barca 2nd strong players. Normally, that quality of player should be heading to other teams in the top half of La Liga but they can't compete with Stoke financially for these players. This is not a club with a long and storied Premier League history. We are talking about a team from a tertiary English settlement that most European footballers were unaware of five years ago.

What this means practically for Wenger is that there are no free meals. Unlike Barca and Real, we don't have 30 games a season that should be romps. We have at most around 6 or so. This means that we need all of a high quality squad, well-considered tactics, and consistent focus to reduce variability in outputs. We are failing on all three and struggling against West Ham and Palace on consecutive weekends.

I enjoy the high levels of competition. Just hate that our manager can't keep up with the change.

Klaus wrote:

I think Serie A is a more evenly competitive league. The level of the competition is a little lower though, but the structure is sound. A team like Sassuolo can still go from Serie B to establishing itself as a midtable club in just two seasons - and playing positive football and developing domestic talent while doing so - without throwing billions around.

Juventus keep winning the league and despite going down to the second tier they bounce back and win the league again. That's just juve dominance.

Really what stands out is not that the EPL is particularly competitive, but that some other leagues are very uncompetitive. It's blatantly linked to the fair distribution of TV rights money, it's almost as simple as that.

anecdotally speaking, the league has felt more competitive than i remember it being pre-2010. the top teams seem to be in real contest every other week, and i think it's a combination of the smaller teams catching up, and the top clubs not having their best generation of teams in the last 3-4 years

Klaus wrote:

I think Serie A is a more evenly competitive league. The level of the competition is a little lower though, but the structure is sound. A team like Sassuolo can still go from Serie B to establishing itself as a midtable club in just two seasons - and playing positive football and developing domestic talent while doing so - without throwing billions around.

Teams come from the Championship to settle in the Premierships midtable all the time. Over the last decade Swansea have gone from League 2 to the becoming a very solid Premiership club. That is 4 divisions.

Gazza M wrote:

anecdotally speaking, the league has felt more competitive than i remember it being pre-2010. the top teams seem to be in real contest every other week, and i think it's a combination of the smaller teams catching up, and the top clubs not having their best generation of teams in the last 3-4 years

Yeah, but the gap's being closed because the rights payments to the smaller clubs are larger and more generous now, no?

Qwiss! wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I think Serie A is a more evenly competitive league. The level of the competition is a little lower though, but the structure is sound. A team like Sassuolo can still go from Serie B to establishing itself as a midtable club in just two seasons - and playing positive football and developing domestic talent while doing so - without throwing billions around.

Teams come from the Championship to settle in the Premierships midtable all the time. Over the last decade Swansea have gone from League 2 to the becoming a very solid Premiership club. That is 4 divisions.

True, but the top four has changed drastically as well - Milan/Inter have been thoroughly replaced.

Mirth wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Teams come from the Championship to settle in the Premierships midtable all the time. Over the last decade Swansea have gone from League 2 to the becoming a very solid Premiership club. That is 4 divisions.

True, but the top four has changed drastically as well - Milan/Inter have been thoroughly replaced.

Arsenal, United and Liverpool have been superseded too.

Anyway Serie A is getting more competitive because the top teams are moving down a level, not vice versa.

Qwiss! wrote:

Mirth wrote:

True, but the top four has changed drastically as well - Milan/Inter have been thoroughly replaced.

Arsenal, United and Liverpool have been superseded too.

Anyway Serie A is getting more competitive because the top teams are moving down a level, not vice versa.

Arsenal, United, Liverpool have all remained in the top four/five teams in the country and have done for decades now. City and Chelsea have only had a say after spending a ludicrous budget to beat the system which doesn't make it more competitive imo - it just highlights how hard it is to break into the top five.

I'd also say the German league till about 2012 was more competitive that any other league but then Bayern fucked it.

Qwiss! wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I think Serie A is a more evenly competitive league. The level of the competition is a little lower though, but the structure is sound. A team like Sassuolo can still go from Serie B to establishing itself as a midtable club in just two seasons - and playing positive football and developing domestic talent while doing so - without throwing billions around.

Teams come from the Championship to settle in the Premierships midtable all the time. Over the last decade Swansea have gone from League 2 to the becoming a very solid Premiership club. That is 4 divisions.

But not without spending huge amounts of cash. Swansea have two players left who helped earn them promotion to Premier League. Sassuolo still have most of their squad intact.

The implication is that you have to crank up your spendings tenfold to have a hope in hell of staying in Premier League. And I think we'll reach an equilibrium in a few years where pretty much the same teams will be pending between relegation battle and top of the Championship. They will have too little money to stay up permanently but too much money to stay down. These inflated tv deals aren't necessarily great for the English league system at large.

Class tagline Klaus Although you've just turned from a smart Kyle MacLachlan lookalike into fucking Gonzo in my mind.

Qwiss! wrote:

Anyway Serie A is getting more competitive because the top teams are moving down a level, not vice versa.

Agree with this. The tide is changing though since Inter and Milan have spent loads this season. Roma have strengthened well too.

I disagree. All the top apart from Juventus have indeed been getting worse, but it's not why Serie A is competitive all across the board. Even the relegation-threatened teams play some real quality football. The technical and tactical standard is high.

Klaus wrote:

I disagree. All the top apart from Juventus have indeed been getting worse, but it's not why Serie A is competitive all across the board. Even the relegation-threatened teams play some real quality football. The technical and tactical standard is high.

For every Sassuolo, you have a Leicester here too who play real quality football and finish in mid-table. PL matches are so much harder to win against the lesser teams. In Serie A last season you had some ridiculous scorelines and as usual, suspicion of match fixing.

Leicester finished 14th, 6 points above the teams that got relegated...

I don't know too much about the Solomon Islands leagues, but my impression of the Premier League, here, is the growing mid-table with a clear top/bottom 2 or 3.
The bookies must be loving it as the days of the home banker are gone as we found out last week.

Bump.