The Premiership is the
best league in the world.
A statement, which all
too often trips off the tongue of the umpteen pundits and ex players who
discuss the league on a daily basis.
At times the arrogance
with which it is stated is alarming and many believe that statement is beyond
reproach.
Can this still be the
case when the eventual winners of “the best league in the world” have went out
of Europe’s premier competition at the first possible opportunity?
Beyond that Manchester
United went out of the Europa League to a team currently lying 11th
in La Liga and City to a poor Sporting Lisbon team sitting in 5th
position in a league which has only three teams of note.
Manchester United’s
humbling defeat against Athletic Bilbao was a sign of the times. After their
defeat to Barcelona in last year’s Champions League final Sir Alex Ferguson
spent around £50m to get United closer to the Catalans. They now appear further
away than ever.
It wasn’t long ago
that England had three Champions League semi-finalists and the competition had
an all English final.
At this point the
Premiership was certainly the envy of Europe. While no doubt still the richest
league in the world it is hard to argue that La Liga has not taken over as the
best.
La Liga contains the
two best teams in world football in Barcelona and Real Madrid.
However the ease at
which Bilbao got past Man Utd shows Spain has a strength in depth that it didn’t
have five years ago.
What is often levelled
at La Liga is that only two teams can realistically win the league every year.
While that is the case
only two teams have won the premiership since 2004 and only three have won it
since 1995.
It may appear like there
is more teams involved in the title race with Manchester City’s new found
spending power and Tottenham’s rise under Harry Redknapp.
However that has come
at the same time as Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have gone backwards and in
reality when March comes round every year there are only two possible winners of
the league.
The fact that
television money is fairly distributed in the Premiership means it will
probably always have a claim to be the most competitive league in the world.
As another favourite
pundit line goes “anyone can beat anyone”.
It would be foolish to
confuse competitiveness with quality however as the days of assuming the
Premiership is “the best league in the world” are long gone.
In all honesty i have never considered the premiership to be the best league in the world but with the shamfully relentess self promotion of English football by the parties mentioned in your blog it is hard for people to distinguise the real difference. I do believe that Spanish football is the most entertaining even non el classico games. Compare a lower league game in spain for example zaragoza v villareal to lower in the premership game qrp v wolves. La liga will win hands down for quality. I believe this is evident across any la liga fixture compared to any premiershil fixture.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right, although there is an excitement argument for Premiership like the relegation battle each year, which has generally come down to the final day. But excitement is subjective quality is not. I would say there was a 4/5 year period from 2005 where the Premiership cheerleaders would be just in saying it was the best. Purely based on how there teams performed in the Champions League at that time but La Liga is miles away from it now.
DeleteAll the English commentators talk about during World Cup and European Championship games that England aren't involved in is the Premiership. They could do with taking a step back.
ReplyDeleteYeah the commentators/pundits also have an obsession with Barcelona, maybe rightfully so but it seems that English clubs and Barca are the only acceptable clubs to discuss. The way they dismiss the rest of Europe's leagues is embarrassing.
DeleteI still think the quality of the majority of seria a teams outweighs premiership. It is a harder league to follow though as its so slow. Bundesliga has also been devalued i feel because of the growing promotion/sponsorship of eng football
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