Independent Leyton Orient Forum

As the last English club is eliminated from European cup action, I think that the myth about the Premiership being the best league can finally be put to rest. In truth a bunch of over-paid, over-rated technically limited players have again failed to deliver. 2 German and more surprisingly 2 French teams along with Sevilla and a team from the Ukraine who have been in exile for a long period are clearly much better than our finest. Time to stop all the hype and get away from Political statements and make the football league as competitive and value for money as we can.

An English team won it last year, playing an English team in the final of the Champions League. English sides have won it 13 times, 2nd only to Spain and have had 5 different club winners, more than anyone.

In the Europa League last year it was an English team winning it with an English team as runners up. With English teams being the joint most successful with 16 finals appearances.

I'm not sure you've thought this through. Probably timing it just a year after all 4 finalists were English wasn't a good shout.

yumyumO wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:08 pm As the last English club is eliminated from European cup action, I think that the myth about the Premiership being the best league can finally be put to rest. In truth a bunch of over-paid, over-rated technically limited players have again failed to deliver. 2 German and more surprisingly 2 French teams along with Sevilla and a team from the Ukraine who have been in exile for a long period are clearly much better than our finest. Time to stop all the hype and get away from Political statements and make the football league as competitive and value for money as we can.

English clubs being knocked out of Europe is a bitter pill to swallow and a bunch of over-paid, over-rated and technically limited players could maybe be true. The Premiership being the best league would be a hard argument to prove.
The only thing being is that if you look at those English clubs most of the squads were largely put together with foreign players and actually the managers/coaches were foreign as well apart from Frank Lampard.
So yes the Premiership may not technically be the best but it probably is the most exciting.

I suppose you could argue that the PL generates the most tv income and has the widest global interest, so it’s best on that score.

Also, there’s 5-6 clubs that might have a decent chance to win things most years: whereas you are looking at 2 at best in most of the other major Euro leagues who are so dominant it becomes a procession.

Still a big overhyped yawn for me, though.

I think the strength of the league is better to measure by the bottom clubs, rather than just the top clubs. I.e if a Swedish billionaire bought a club there and ploughed billions into making it win the Champions League each year would that make the Swedish league the best?

Looking at the bottom 5-8 of the Premier League versus the same in Spain, Germany, Italy etc - I'd fancy the English clubs to be the strongest ones.

Noone really genuinely buys the "BeSt LeAgUe In ThE wOrLd" stuff except 14 year olds on twitter with their team's badge or favourite player as their avatar.

The PL is obviously among the best though, at least 1 PL team goes deep into the CL and EL more often than not but there are good teams in other leagues too. I don't think the situation is helped by certain pundits who clearly don't watch any other domestic league and lazily expect a comfortable win for an English team if they're not playing Real, Barca, Bayern or PSG etc. If they actually did a bit of research it might tone down the shock a bit when Man City get dumped out by Lyon or Monaco

Found its level? 4 teams were in both European cup finals last year. Stop talking poo poo.

There are 4-6 good teams and the rest are dire but that is similar to most of the big leagues. Underneath the surface the product is desperately average but don’t watch it anyway so who cares.

Beradogs wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 5:10 pm There are 4-6 good teams and the rest are dire but that is similar to most of the big leagues. Underneath the surface the product is desperately average but don’t watch it anyway so who cares.

There are more decent teams in the top league of England then any other top league in Europe. Spain 5 or 6 teams , the rest fodder. Italy 3 or 4, Germany 4 at a push (which is why Bayern win it every year) France 3 decent teams.

We've had 5 different winners of our top league in 10 years. Which other top league in europe gets anywhere near that?

The premier league gets worse each season. I doubt I watch 6 games a season now on tv as the standard is so poor especially with the lower placed teams.

I really enjoy the Premier League, well when I say Prem League
I mean Man City and the pure excitement when they create 813
side way passes per game and the media go overboard about how
Pep has taken football to a whole new level...
Shankley, Paisley, Cloughie and Fergie were creating exciting
football long before the invention of the “ 813 sideway passes”
modern game ...

The Premier League is overrated, in my view the FA should never have decided to run it themselves, for it gives them split loyalties, to their flagship league vs what’s good for the whole of English football. The EFL is far more interesting full stop.

Know a lot of Norwich fans up here who much prefer being in the Championship to the Premier, they can be competitive rather than just trying to grind out survival, they see ‘proper teams’ at Carrow Road, and kick offs tend to fit in with established family life better.