Premiership Has Got Weaker

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Looking at the English Premiership table tonight I am not surprised to see where some teams are. I see three quality teams and another punching above their weight class dealing with the cards they have been dealt. The other teams are second rate though and have lost the plot.

I am not talking about Europe as the English teams have done very well of late but in their own competition the standards are poor by most of the teams. There is not much skill and class if you remove three or four of the teams. If you had to put an Everton or a Manchester United into the Championship with the squads they have would they make it back up and I have my doubts. I just don't think they have the fighting type of player who could play in a lower division as they think they are better players than what they really are and that is the problem with most of the teams currently.
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Leicester are doing well and have a serious chance of challenging for the title.

Every season you expect the teams to try and improve on certain areas where they had a weakness or two from the season before and to justify the transfer spend. The fans of each club get sucked into the buying frenzy and it gets them thinking of possibly this will be their season.

The season is just on a third of the way done and looking at the teams most have gone backwards instead of forwards. Everyone expected Liverpool and Manchester City to be up there, but you would have thought Tottenham and possibly Arsenal as well. We all knew Manchester United wouldn't make top 4 as they are living in past glory days just expecting it to happen and now the reality is sinking in finally.

If we look at what each club spent you would think to yourself why? What did they buy that was so disastrous and how bad could they have been if they hadn't of spent that money. The teams that came up from the Championship can be excused as their task this season is to stay up and build on what they have. Except for Norwich as they spent very little and there is no excuse for what they have done.

Arsenal £118.5 Million
Bournemouth £45.7 Million
Brighton £62.5 Million
Burnley £14 Million
Chelsea £40 Million
Crystal Palace £6 Million
Everton £110 Million
Leicester £96 Million
Liverpool £1.3 Million
Manchester City £138.4 Million
Manchester Utd £146 Million
Newcastle Utd £56.5 Million
Norwich £3.6 Million
Sheffield Utd £40 Million
Southampton £49 Million
Tottenham £66.5 Million
Watford £30.5 Million
West Ham £72 Million

Looking at the teams and what they have spent you would think that they must have improved. Chelsea spent £40 Million as the player they had on loan was classed as a Chelsea player and they bought him. Smart move as every extra player counts when you are banned from adding to your squad.
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The Chelsea youngsters have stepped up and are now delivering. Other clubs need to give thir youngsters a chance as they have nothing to lose.

I am just trying to fathom the thinking going on and kudo's to Liverpool for realising what they have without tinkering too much. They said if and when the right player pops up only then wil they decide to buy and add to the squad.

Teams like Burnley,Brighton and Sheffield United are doing remarkably well for what they spent. Leicester are putting in a serious challenge this season and can't be written off. The team is playing great foot ball and they should be in the top 4 come April.

Everton, Tottenham and Arsenal have gone backwards and are starting to get a little desperate. United is just one big cluster .... and needs serous selling and buying to take place. The £146 Million they spent was like a band aid and a few prayers were said trying to wing it this year.
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One season and going straight back down.Can they turn it around though as there are a whole host of teams who could be in ine to go down.Nothing is guaranteed yet and all Noewich need is a run of 3 or 4 good games, highly unlikely but stranger things have happened.

The teams that came up showed their intentions from what they spent Aston Villa is serios about staying up spending £146 Million and Sheffield United spending £40 Million. Norwich spent just £3.6 Million which should almost guarantee them of going straight back down.

With the funds that have been spent you can see why certain teams have failed miserably and why those managers are nowunder huge pressure. Arsenals manager Unai Emery must be the next manager to be fired followed closely by Marco Silva. Arsenal are 8 points away from 4th spot and Everton in a lowly 13th spot tells you that they haven't fired yet this season.

The Christmas period is when teams make there moves as the games come quick and fast with no time to recover and think. January is just around the corner and believe me the table positions could get a whole lot worse for the more fancied teams like Arsenal, United and Everton. When you see a weak team like Newcastle on 15 points you have to start to worry about the standard of the teams below them.

Big names and reputations mean absolutely nothing as you are only as good as your last game. The team that has really caught my eye is Chelsea for the route they had to take this year and it shows you that you need to have a decent academy of young players coming through and hold onto them.

Everyone says the English Premiership is so strong and the best league in the world and I for once disagree. It used to be, but the teams are weaker overall besides the top 4. The standards are not the same as they were a few years ago and the results are reflected in the table positions.



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The premier league has only lost Reputation because of the outrageous outcome of the transfer market, teams like Manchester United has bought wrongly, obviously didn't find a right replacement for Alex Ferguson but the EPL still remains top they proved this by winning the UCL last season

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I agree a few teams have kept their standards and why they won the champions League . What I was trying to say in the past you had 8 or 9 very good teams and then the mid table strugglers. It seems there is less quality teams right now and the standards have definitely slipped. I think a majority of the teams are Championship League standard right now and need to wake up quickly.

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Not sure on the essence - we still see the English clubs as very strong, no matter how but strong. What I like in our German league even we are not as good international on a club scale the tension in the battles are good, close league these days.

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I think Norwich were arrogant idiots. They thought their style of passing play and 'nice' football would be enough to keep them up but it's looking awfully like it won't and they will regret not investing in the team.

It's not like they don't have or couldn't get the money although to be fair, attracting the right players would have been difficult.

Finally, the overpaid self-important idiots have taken over the league and there are too few fighters and battlers left. I truly think a 'big' team is going to get their comeuppance this year by falling back to the Championship and then they will be in trouble because that's the toughest, hardest league there is with just fractions separating half the league.

It will be an interesting Christmas period and run-in this season.

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Would love to see some big names drop down into the relegation battle and then it will get really interesting.

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The problem for Norwich is they will have seen what Fulham did last year in spending big money and it not working. As you say, even with the money it doesn’t mean you can recruit the right type of player. I’d say Norwich have been more naive than arrogant.

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I think there is an argument to be made that the standard of football across Europe has slipped. Real & Barca aren’t what they were, Bayern should boss the Bundesliga but seem to be a hit and miss at the moment and sides like PSG and Juve are in leagues that aren’t really strong enough to push their limits. There are probably lots of reasons for it but I do think that in general the more money that comes into football the less football people are involved in decision making and that influences the standards on the pitch

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This is a journal worth reading for the theme you pick.
I was waiting to read why EPL got weaker compare to other leagues in Europe.
You did mention the second league right at the beginning.

I am a newbie to EPL and I can see they are getting stronger due to the point the wealth of good teams can be seen away from the top teams that we envy to see always on top.
Big names club like City and United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea are fighting every week to stay on top.
I have seen surprises every week.
Every match is worth watching and as a whole EPL is blessed to improve.
The struggle of Tottenham ,United, Arsenal is a testament that other weaker
teams build enough confidence to win or pull a draw any given week.
I will say EPL is getting to a point of being balanced where any good players can go to any team and know they can win except for the obvious.
Glad you mention the money spent do not help some teams anyway.
Stay put!

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Arsenal and Manchester United are the biggest jokes this season. They spent much but failed to bring caliber coach. I feel so sorry for Unai Emery but I think he's done with Arsenal.

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Nice writeup! I don't really have a horse in this race, so I don't have a very good comment to leave. You did a really good job covering everything though.

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