Xela Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Having looked at Leicester's remaining fixtures, they can really do this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 i see nothing that tells me they wont. spurs,city and arsenal keep dropping points as well which is a bonus for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 14 hours ago, villa4europe said: The overall quality of the league has dropped this year, so much I think you could make a good argument for worst team to win it no matter who it actually is, the problem being sky's agenda is everything is awesome and it's actually because everyone is so good In reality Chelsea have declined by a lot, city, Utd both dipped, arsenal IMO have dipped by enough to justify sacking wenger I'm not knocking Leicester here but I can't remember a year where the previous top 4 have all dropped like this before, they are capitalising on the situation and I'd actually liken them to what I'm told about us in 81, they're a proper team in a time where English football has lost what that means kind of get what your saying, but i do believe the prem is a lot more competitive now and the standard has risen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 2 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said: kind of get what your saying, but i do believe the prem is a lot more competitive now and the standard has risen. I agree, I think teams like West Ham and Southhampton and even lower teams are better at taking points off the top sides than in previous seasons. It used to be the case that teams qualifying for the champions league had a massive advantage in spending power but with the increase in TV money for the premier league the champions league money is becoming more and more irrelevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 As I keep on saying there's only so many good players to go around (just because all teams have another 200m to spend dosen't mean there's magically another 200m worth of players worth buying) and not all of them want to play in the premier league so eventually the top teams start making errors and sign players who aren't of very good standard e.g Memphis, Otamendi, Baba etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 21 hours ago, LondonLax said: The European Cup was a lot easier to win back in those days. When we won it we only had to play five teams and of those we played dodgy sides from Iceland, east Germany as well as Belgium and Ukrane. It wasn't until the final that we came up against a football powerhouse. The gap between the richest teams and the rest was not as large and seemingly insurmountable. It's only in the last season or two, with increased premier league TV money, that mid-table premier league clubs can outspend almost any other club in Europe and as such can put together truly competitive sides. Yes it took an english side until 1968 to win it. I think Real Madrid were very strong in the early days but although Ajax and Bayern had outstanding teams in the early/mid 70s. Liverpool and Forest started to dominate the competition late 70s early 80s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 The 50's real Madrid team is about the most dominant ever in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 32 minutes ago, VillaChris said: As I keep on saying there's only so many good players to go around (just because all teams have another 200m to spend dosen't mean there's magically another 200m worth of players worth buying) and not all of them want to play in the premier league so eventually the top teams start making errors and sign players who aren't of very good standard e.g Memphis, Otamendi, Baba etc. What the extra money does mean is that lower league premier league teams can poach players from bigger teams in Germany, Italy and Spain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted March 6, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 6, 2016 Let's see how far our teams left in the champions league get before saying what a great league it is this year. I am enjoying Leicester but in my opinion the league is piss poor this year and the standard has been poor for the last couple. When we were having teams dominating the champions league that's when the league was at its strongest. Sod's law it was when Lerner was spending his money too with Mon in charge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Really disagree about the European cup bring easier to win way back when You had to win your league, you had no seeding, dippy nothing European teams were complete unknowns on horrible pitches, I could give you half a scouting report on a CL team now, most grounds are good quality with decent facilities and pitches 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krisagg75 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 1 minute ago, villa4europe said: Really disagree about the European cup bring easier to win way back when You had to win your league, you had no seeding, dippy nothing European teams were complete unknowns on horrible pitches, I could give you half a scouting report on a CL team now, most grounds are good quality with decent facilities and pitches another point was when forest won one of their cups(1st i think but not sure),they played liverpool in the 1st or 2nd round.lets not forget the league was over 42 games and squads as we know now didn't exist. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 The smaller countries didn't lose players like they do now back then. Red Star Belgrade who won 91 was an excellent team. There is a story that Walter Smith went to scout them for Rangers and then manager Souness. Smiths report back were short and accurate: We're ****ed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Its harder to win now because teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have all the best players. That could change the tv money in the Premier League is greater than anywhere else, so obviously the product here is more interesting globally than any other league in the world. I agree the standard of the bigger clubs has dropped this year but the overall standard apart from us obviously is better than ever I think. Edited March 6, 2016 by PaulC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: As I keep on saying there's only so many good players to go around (just because all teams have another 200m to spend dosen't mean there's magically another 200m worth of players worth buying) and not all of them want to play in the premier league so eventually the top teams start making errors and sign players who aren't of very good standard e.g Memphis, Otamendi, Baba etc. THIS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 ^^ yes, fully agree. I predict with this huge increase in income more clubs will actually get into financial difficulties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: Really disagree about the European cup bring easier to win way back when You had to win your league, you had no seeding, dippy nothing European teams were complete unknowns on horrible pitches, I could give you half a scouting report on a CL team now, most grounds are good quality with decent facilities and pitches All those factors mean that luck played a much bigger role. Small or average teams could get a lucky draw, win 5 rounds on some dodgy bumpy pitches and be crowned champions of Europe. These days luck has largely been eliminated from the equation and the biggest richest clubs regularly take the semi final places. Hence it is much tougher to become European champions. Edited March 6, 2016 by LondonLax 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 In the last 10 years the CL has been won by the team that actually won their league 4 times That alone says to me it's easier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Two things about the Premier League being "piss poor" 1) If we're talking about the standard of the top clubs, who gives a flying ****? Do you remember when we had almost a decade where the top 4 was going to be some combination of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool with only a plucky Everton under Moyes even in the picture most years? Does anyone really ever want to go back to that? Man City broke that oligarchy, Fergie saw the writing on the wall and got out while his reputation was at it's highest and now making the top 4 isn't a fait accompli for anyone bar maybe Man City. Maybe. The quality of the top clubs isn't the quality of the league. The teams from 5th-12th are of a much higher standard than they were a decade ago. And football is finally interesting again. 2) If we mean in comparison to the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern, again, who cares? The billionaire playground of the Champions League isn't the bread and butter of football, and much like the Premier League, when it's really a competition between a handful of teams, it's boring and totally irrelevant to the average football fan bar a bit of a sideshow. I don't believe for a second that the standard is actually lower than it was a decade ago, but even if it is, give me a more even league with a slightly lower standard of football any day. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 (edited) 9 hours ago, villa4europe said: In the last 10 years the CL has been won by the team that actually won their league 4 times That alone says to me it's easier In the last 10 years the winners are the 2 Milan clubs, Barcalona, Real Madrid, Munich, Chelsea and Man U. Are you really going to try and tell me it's easier for an outsider to win it these days? Edited March 7, 2016 by LondonLax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 8 hours ago, LondonLax said: In the last 10 years the winners are the 2 Milan clubs, Barcalona, Real Madrid, Munich, Chelsea and Man U. Are you really going to try and tell me it's easier for an outsider to win it these days? well the year Chelsea won it they were really crap though and it was a bit of an upset same with Milan in 2007 they were poor domestically Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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