Has the Premier League gone full circle?

First topic message reminder :

I wrote a thread prior to this season explaining why I believed we were heading into the weakest Premier League season in ten years. I would say 8/10 of the responses I got were against my argument and one particular reply suggested that I wait until the European season sorted itself out before we can make a proper and valid valuation of our stock, so to speak, so here we are.

Chelsea may well overcome Napoli in the Champions League and even if they do so does anybody within these boards really believe they have a cat-in-hells chance of winning the damn thing?

Manchester City, who have spent hundreds of millions of pounds just to be able to compete, are a goal down in a European tie against a mediocre Portuguese team who are languishing in fifth place in their own domestic league. A poor league at that.

Manchester Utd were out-passed and out-played against Bilbao in their home tie and were in all honesty lucky to escape with a one goal deficit.

To me the golden years of the Premier League were between 1998 and 2008 where we were able to boast three Champions League Winners albeit via two penalty shoot outs and a last minute winner. Our league was also peppered with world class footballers during that period.

I remember the Premier League during and immediately after its inception and I'm sorry but I see no difference.

Spain is where it's at!!

We have gone backwards.

Cheers guys.

Including his refusal to take a penalty against a Championship side..........wow, confidence is gone, not just low.

Djimi Traore has also won a Champions League medal!

Crimey wrote:Djimi Traore has also won a Champions League medal!

David May is the ultimate biscuit taker in that regard. Remember this picture?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x8fFlty5xhY/TXj3W9KCtAI/AAAAAAAAKqY/-HkzyJCQuLY/s1600/DM.jpg

What most people fail to grasp is that while we have a few clubs loaded with debt in England, in Spain and Italy, the vast majority of clubs are within sight of going bust and with the economy the way it is EVERYWHERE and the fact that those 2 countries set their tv revenues on a club by club basis, expect a LOT of their clubs to go to the wall over the next couple of years.
No matter what happens with a possible loss of tv revenue from SKY, the PL makes at least 3 times more worldwide than Serie A or La Liga and the money is spread evenly throughout the league.
Within a few years, the PL, the German and Russian leagues will be the only ones who have any strength in depth.

The worst recent league season was 2 years ago when although Utd were crippled by unprecedented injuries they only lost the prem by a point to not a very good Chelsea side.

The top clubs have continued to drop their standards and this has given a chance for teams like Spurs and Newcastle to challenge and as a result the league appears to be more competitive although lacking in quality.

Many people use the champs league as a barometer in determining how good a league is. This is however flawed as evidenced by what happened when Liverpool won the champs league in 05. That year they finished nearly 40 points behind eventual champs Chelsea in the league, yet won the champs league. Did this prove that the English league was strong?

How well teams do from a certain country ie spain in essentially a European knock out competition as the champs league, does not necessarily give evidence that said country's league is strong.