The Premier League Can No Longer Lay Claim to Being the Best League in the World

For a long time now there has been an arrogance in English football that the English Premier League is the best league in the world. The clubs, the players, the media and the fans all are entirely convinced that the football they are seeing is better than anything else out there. Yet, with only one English club left in any European competition, can that still be the case?

The logo depicts itself as a beacon to the rest of the footballing world, but just how true is that?

There was a time when that was certainly true. The days of Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney at United and Drogba, Terry and Lampard all in form at Chelsea proved that no-one could touch the Premier League. In addition, there were Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs sides who were improving all the while and a tightness around the mid-table. All this culminated in the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow between, you guessed it, Man United and Chelsea. The tight 1-1 draw followed by United edging the penalty shootout was supposed to reflect the fact that at the pinnacle of English football the defences are rock solid, the midfield is a fountain of creativity and the strikers are capable of the most spectacular goals. Of course what we know now is that Premier League football has a habit of being defensive and at times desperate.

This isn’t a problem confined to the Premier League though. Serie A, once that brilliant and unpredictable league that everyone tucked into their Sunday lunch with, now is a shadow of its former self. Where the best players in the world once roamed, only a few really top class players remain and the game is still trying to forget the unfortunate match-fixing scandal of a few year’s ago. I’m not saying that English clubs are going to get embroiled in anything like that but a look north of the border at what has happened to Rangers might just provide a wake up call to many of the teams. If just one big club goes under and there is an outflow of the foreign owners, what will happen then?

I’ve been banging on to anyone who’ll listen that the Spanish became the home of the best football on the planet as soon as Real Madrid and Barcelona opened their pockets and brought players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Alexis Sanchez, Fabregas and Xabi Alonso over to La Liga. Having the three best players in the world for the last few seasons playing in La Liga has raised the entire standard of Spanish football. Por ejemplo (full of surprises aren’t I?) just look at Atheltic Bilbao’s brutal dismantling of Manchester United a few weeks ago. United, leading the Premier League and supposedly England’s best club, were outplayed and out-thought both at home and away. Bilbao played some scintillating stuff while United very often resorted to long ball tactics – not exactly dynamic is it? Meanwhile, Bilbao have tonight secured their place in the semi-finals of the Europa League with another impressive win over Schalke. This from a team who three years ago played a friendly against my local team, Colchester United and were very much cannon fodder for the bigger clubs in Spain until recently. The real issue though is that we’ve lost quality from the Premier League. People can point to Van Persie,Aguero and Silva but none of them have the impact that Ronaldo did at United or that Henry did at Arsenal. In Ronaldo and Henry, the Premier League had its first two players who could potentially be labelled in the ‘greatest ever’ category but inevitably they had to move on at some point and the Premier League just hasn’t been able to lure a player of that calibre since.

Fernando Torres' lack of form symbolises the plight of the Premier League

That has led to the league becoming tighter and in some people’s eyes better. I think it’s great to see teams like Newcastle and Spurs becoming genuine fourth place contenders but that sort of system has been in place for years in Spain. Valencia, Villareal, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla regularly fought it out for the European places over the past few seasons. I think another issue with the Premier League is that we have a lot of big names over here, on big pay packets but they’re not in their peak like they are over in Spain. Torres, Terry, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Drogba and Gerrard would have been the most desirable collectibles in the Panini sticker album a few seasons ago but now they’re out of form and looking old. I know that most people say that the only reason La Liga is so popular now is down to Messi and Ronaldo. But if you look beyond them, beyond Real Madrid and Barcelona even and you can still see real talent. There’s Iker Muniain at Bilbao, Falcao at Atletico Madrid, Roberto Soldado at Valencia, Jeremy Toulalan, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Julio Baptista at Malaga and Jesus Navas at Sevilla. Almost every team has a talisman who could make the jump over to anywhere in European football and I can’t really see someone like Tim Cahill doing that – sorry Everton fans. The depth of the league isn’t quite up to the level of late 80s/early 90s Serie A but it’s getting there.

Lionel Messi, just one of the many reasons why La Liga is so entertaining

The style of football is also much prettier on the eye over there. I’m very much someone who’d appreciate a 0-0 draw full of attacking, quick passing football instead of a 2-0 win that was claimed through dull passages of play and physical football. People fawn over Barcelona’s style but watch Revista de La Liga and the majority of teams play football like that, it’s just that Barcelona do it better. The closest we have to that here are Arsenal, Swansea and Man City but only when they’re on form. I’ve just lost faith in the English game and am genuinely fearful that if we get far enough to play Spain at Euro 2012 that we’ll be completely slaughtered in front of millions of viewers. I’d dare say Germany would do the same – the Bundesliga is becoming a cracking little league too. Dortmund have a young, brilliant team while Bayern are a match for Barcelona and Madrid for the title of best all-round unit.

I’m not saying that the Premier League is the worst league in European football, far from it actually, but we just need to stop this attitude that just because our league is the richest in the world, it doesn’t make it the best. Chelsea, Man City and United can have all the millions in the world but without a player to match Messi then they might as well have nothing. Coming onto Barcelona I’d like to say that they were an absolute joy to watch the other night against Milan. Messi, Xavi and Iniesta will be remembered as three Gods of the game. It’s also important to remember that they beat a strong Milan side without 20 goal a season man David Villa and without a recognised left-back. Chelsea will give it their best, as they always do, but I fully expect them to be taught a footballing lesson by the Catalan giants. Those four years since Moscow must feel like an awful long time ago….

Villas-Boas let down by Chelsea

So the inevitable has happened: Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked as Chelsea manager. Things never really worked out for him did they? It’s a strange feeling for me because I’m not a Chelsea fan but I do have very passionate views about how that team should be playing and I also think Villas-Boas is the most talented manager to emerge in the Premier League for many many years.

Andre Villas-Boas in happier times. Have Chelsea made a fatal mistake?

Villas-Boas’ achievements at Porto are well documented: going an entire season unbeaten, winning four trophies in the same season and playing some lovely stuff while doing so. He had a squad that understood the nuances of the game; who understood that modern football is akin to a game of chess and that the manager has to be prepared to outmanoeuvre  his counterpart at all times. He had a way of explaining his notoriously complex scout reports to his players and that is what was missing at Chelsea. It seems that Villas-Boas lacked the ability to connect to his players (maybe he didn’t fancy going out and sleeping with a girl or three?) and you get the impression that he was as isolated as a teacher at the front of an unruly year 9 class. His differences of opinion with Frank Lampard have been well documented and when you alienate one member of the ‘old school’ Chelsea then you alienate them all.

I think that’s my main issue with Chelsea at the moment. They haven’t adapted since Mourinho left at all. There is the excuse that no manager has been able to settle into the job long enough to change things but seriously, it’s been five years since Mourinho left and that squad won’t win the league. Terry, Lampard, Cole, Drogba and Malouda are all past it and should have been sold last season; keeping them there prevents improvement and is the reason why Chelsea have stagnated in recent years while Man City and Spurs have leapfrogged them. Mata was a good buy but he cannot turn a team around. If he is still having to play balls to a slow and misfiring Drogba and an off-colour Torres then it just won’t work. Torres is another sore point for me. His lack of form all started when Spain rushed him back to play in the World Cup and while it’s completely understandable that he would want to play every game, he was not integral to the success of the team and should have sat out the group stages. Why pundits still debate the cause of Torres’ lack of form is a mystery to me as it was plainly obvious that he was bereft of confidence to anyone who watched the World Cup. I always felt that Torres was a player who relied on being re-assured that he was brilliant and that if he felt he wasn’t all that then his performance would drop off the cliff. When he returned to Liverpool, he wasn’t given enough time to find that confidence on the training pitch before the season began. The £50 million that Abramovich paid Liverpool for him was scandalous (mind you, the £35 million for Carroll wasn’t exactly well spent) but I’m sure part of the reason Villas-Boas took the job was that he felt he could turn Torres’ Chelsea career around. In that respect he failed.

Chelsea and Abramovich let Villas-Boas down too. A lack of support in the transfer market (probably due to Torres) meant that Chelsea could not strengthen all the positions that they needed to which meant an over-reliance on the ‘old school’ which limited Villas-Boas’ creativity. He couldn’t play a fast-paced and slick passing game because he couldn’t trust the fitness of his older players. The way Terry has capitulated this season sums it all up – never before has he looked as shaky at the back as he had in the last few months and the team lacks a defensive partnership. They should be employing a formation where one wing back and one centre back stay back at all times while the other two push forward while Meireles (potentially a superb signing) cuts out anything heading into Chelsea’s half. I think had he been able to do things his way, Villas-Boas would have employed a tactic similar to that. The major issue though is how to remove that ‘old school’. Do you wait for them to retire, rewarding their loyalty to the club by letting them see their careers out there? Or do you force them out and risk alienating the fans – imagine the reaction if Terry was sold! People may point to United bringing Scholes out of retirement successfully but the ginger maestro did have six months to have a rest… Even Giggs, the king of longevity, plays once every two or three games, not every game like the elderly Chelsea players have to. Honestly, sometimes they are eerily reminiscent of the Chelsea pensioners.

No doubt Abramovich already has someone lined up for the post. The bookies have Benitez as favourite, while the fans will clamour for Mourinho and the fact that Abramovich has hired Di Matteo until the end of the season suggests that he is prepared to wait until Mourinho has conquered Spain before making an offer. Whoever the new man in charge is has to do a spot of spring cleaning and has to be strong enough to introduce a new philosophy to the club and stick to it no matter how much the fans protest.

Will Mourinho make a triumphant return to the Premier League?

In other news, Terry Butcher has declared the search for the next England manager ‘a farce’ – a point I am inclined to agree with. I am in favour of teams taking their time over selecting a new manager but when it is the national team, there has to be a certain amount of information distributed through the media – of which there has been none. All the reports are obviously saying that Redknapp is the man for the job but there has still been no approach. I’m sure the FA are working out how they can afford to pay for him and his backroom staff but all this is doing is adding to the unease amongst the fans and the players. With the squad losing their concentration in injury time on Wednesday, strong leadership will be the priority for Euro 2012. But before we all announce the arrival of King ‘Arry are we forgetting that a successful manager who relishes working with talented, young and determined players has just become available? May I make the case for Andre Villas-Boas. He could get England playing some lovely stuff and could mould the mish-mash of young talent that we have inherited at the moment into a cohesive unit. What’s more, with no billionaire chairman telling him who to sign, who to play and who to drop he will be able to do his own thing and as we saw with Porto, that can be devastatingly successful. Something to think about…

John Terry,The England Captaincy and A Bigger Issue

My plan today was to write a single post previewing the RBS Six Nations but plainly today’s events mean that will not be possible… thanks John Terry! So today will turn into a bumper three post session. One about the Terry affair which you will be able to read if you scroll down, the Six Nations preview and one looking at the new F1 cars that have been unveiled so far.

Anyway, onto the Terry affair. For those of you who haven’t seen the news yet then I suggest you click this hyperlink as it forms the basis for this whole article. For those of you who read my blog on the Tom Adeyemi incident (thank you if you did) then you will know what I think of Mr Terry. Here’s the link if you didn’t: https://theeternalsunshineofthesportingmind.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/tackling-race-in-football-not-just-a-foreign-problem/

My first question regarding today’s news is why has it taken this long to take the necessary action? If this was any other industry or any job then Terry would have been suspended (from both club and country) with full pay while the investigation was carried out with the distinct possibility that when the case reached court that he would be sacked by Chelsea and ineligible for national selection. Yet this is not the case. He is still collecting his 150k a week wage packet and is still playing top level football every week. I’m not saying that Terry is guilty because he is innocent until proven otherwise but it seems as though this court case has been taken too lightly by Chelsea in particular. An accusation of racism is a highly serious matter and Terry should have been stripped of the captaincy at Stamford Bridge at least while the case continues.

John Terry will no longer but England captain but should he be in the squad at all?

I respect Terry’s past abilities but his latest performances have let him and his side down but to many Chelsea fans he is irreplaceable and I disagree with that. Chelsea have signed numerous centre-backs in the last couple of years and Gary Cahill could step up and do the job that Terry currently does. Now, England is a completely different matter. When you play for England you’re not just representing a corner of West London but the whole country, every single corner of it. England is a country that is proudly anti-racist despite the BNP’s attempts to penetrate that solid foundation. That is why it is inconceivable that Terry should be allowed to remain as captain; he is playing in a team that contains a number of black players and the cloud surrounding this accusation would be hugely damaging in the dressing room. Besides, there are a number of other players who could step in and take the reins as captain – Ferdinand, Gerrard, Scott Parker to name but three.

So, it’s right that the FA have stripped him of the captaincy but he is still allowed to be selected for Euro 2012, despite his court case beginning just a week after the tournament ends. We can’t let this happen again. Our World Cup campaign was damaged by the Terry/Bridge scandal and Capello struggled to cope with a divided squad. Look what happened in South Africa, we barely raised so much as a whimper in the group games while Germany would have walked all over us even if Lampard’s goal had counted. If Capello picks Terry (which he will despite  younger players who are in better form being available) then this issue will dominate the build-up to the Euros and it’s not like in the 50s and 60s that when you leave to go to a major tournament you can just switch all the damaging stories off. You can’t switch off the internet, you can’t stop people checking Twitter despite clubs trying to. The point is that this issue will follow the team everywhere, journalists will keep prodding it in people’s faces and the tabloids will cover it as much as they can. Granted, the FA has been dealt a tough hand by the seemingly stupid decision to delay the court case by a massive ten months but I don’t think removing the captaincy from Terry is a big enough step to improve England’s chances at Euro 2012. He shouldn’t be on that plane to eastern Europe, not just because of this incident but because he has been shown to be lacking the form and ability of old and considering our weakest area of the team is our defence, that could be highly dangerous.

Players flee as the rioting crowd head towards them

This week in football has been about a much bigger issue than that. The riot in the Al-Ahly game was shocking and shameful. There is a reputation for violence in Egyptian games and the lack of police presence allowed what took place to happen. Reports of knives being brought into the ground is completely unacceptable and the consequences of this event reach far beyond football. It has de-stabilised the entire Egyptian revolution and left the interim government in a real mess. The sad fact is that because of a shock 3-1 win for Al Masry, the reputation of the African game has been thrown into disrepute. The African Cup of Nations has been a fantastic tournament so far but this will overshadow the remainder of it. The Egyptian revolution should have brought people together and allowed football fans to rally behind a common cause instead of throwing hate towards each other. It may be the case that the revolution wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought in the spring of 2011.

Deadline Day – What You Won’t See

One of my favourite days of the year today – Deadline Day! Where Jim White struggles to maintain any sanity or dignity on Sky Sports News and where various sports reporters stand outside desolate training grounds to illustrate the point that said football clubs exist. All this while Gary from Salford texts in to say that his mate’s wife’s sister’s hairdresser has just spotted Lionel Messi walking down the street in Manchester, not far from the Etihad. Of course it’s all a circus that is stirred up by the media but it’s one that the managers play along with as many big deals go through at the last minute. It seems as though they, like us, read the live text and think because so and so has heard a rumour that they have to go and sign the player in question. Madness. Anyway, to poke fun at this charade I thought I’d have a look at some deals that won’t go through today and the said consequences of such deals. Who knows, a few of them might end up on Sky Sports News later!

Jim White - the face and sound of Deadline Day... Unfortunately

Emile Heskey to Manchester City

Man City's best signing?

Mancini is scouring the world looking for a replacement for Carlos Tevez only to be told by the tea lady that the signing he needs is right under his nose. Heskey can’t believe his luck and Mancini reckons that he’s done a good piece of business – at least this player doesn’t mind sitting on the bench! Heskey becomes a star signing after Balotelli headbutts Aguero in a league game against Blackburn for no apparent reason, getting himself sent off and leaving Sergio in A&E. Up steps Heskey and the wingers – grateful that they have some height to aim for – set him up for a hat-trick. City fans everywhere are seen sporting the “Why Never Me?” Heskey t-shirt range.

Carlos Tevez to anywhere

The new darts sensation?

Tevez spends deadline day at home with his wife and kids, watching Argentinian soap operas, chatting on the phone with El Diego and practicing throwing darts at Mancini’s head. He can’t be bothered to leave his house yet alone Argentina and despite Harry Redknapp offering a “tidy sum”, he chooses to retire from football to concentrate on his darts career – he wins the BDO world title a record breaking 19 times.

Neymar to Barcelona

Neymar - Ronaldo's new best friend?

Perennial cock-tease Neymar finally can’t escape the clutches of Barcelona after they promise that all the TV cameras will be focused on him and him alone while Barcelona are playing. He joins for £40 million and instantly demands to be paid more than Messi. Spends his first paycheck on hair products before showboating too much for the Catalan fan’s liking and being benched for the rest of the season. Sold to Real a year later where he becomes a club legend, forming a double act with Ronaldo that results in a number 1 song being released.

Roy Keane to Manchester United

Roy Keane - Don't mess with his women!

Fergie, struggling to cope with his new crop of kids and after a few glasses of scotch, reminisces about the mid 90s success he enjoyed with United. Having already recruited Scholes, he sets his sights on the other linchpin of the midfield: Roy Keane. Keane cannot stand management anymore and having seen the success that Scholes is enjoying he decides to make a comeback. His first game is marred by a filthy challenge on Frank Lampard that sees the Irishman getting a straight red. He blames the incident on Frank’s relationship with Christine Bleakley saying that “she’s mine! I’ve fancied her for years”. Fergie sees the error of his ways and promptly terminates Keane’s contract.

Anton Ferdinand to Chelsea

Anton Ferdinand - An unlikely defensive partner to John Terry?

In a peacekeeping attempt, Abramovich orders the transfer of Anton Ferdinand believing that if they spent time in the defence together, Ferdinand and Terry would soon forget their differences. The move is a disaster though as Ferdinand and Terry spend the entire 90 minutes of every game trash talking and trying to land punches on each other. No-one is brave enough to take either of them out of the team for fear of upsetting Abramovich and Chelsea ship 80 goals in the second half of the season and end up relegated to the disgrace of their fans.

So there we go then. A bit of light entertainment on what has become a bit of a second Christmas to every football fan – Deadline Day! Have a good one and I’ll see you when the metaphorical dust has settled.

The African Cup of Nations, a Lack of Transfer Activity and a Little Comedy Gem from Pele

It’s that time of year again: the time that every Premier League manager dreads as the most talented players in Africa gather for the African Cup of Nations. So, what have we seen so far?

Well we’ve had a rather drawn out opening ceremony with more speeches than an awards do and featured a thoroughly bored looking set of players. We’ve seen opening wins for co-hosts Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Zambia who shocked Senegal,  favourites Ivory Coast, Angola and Tunisia. We’ve also seen the first bow of the Libyan football team since the events of last winter; something that Western news outlets have been strangely reluctant to draw attention to.

What makes the African Cup of Nations so entertaining is that anyone can beat anyone. There’s almost no sense of inevitability amongst any of the group stage games – something that the Champions League can benefit from – and there is an infectious passion from the fans that radiates through the TV set. For a European audience, it’s always best to support one of the underdogs. My personal favourites have always been Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Mali and my support is divided between the two co-hosts this time round. Failing that, you might want to support the nation that contains the Premier League players you particularly like.

When it gets down to the big time though, it’s hard to look past Ivory Coast or Ghana. Ghana in particular look to have a slightly more rounded unit than the Ivorians and the absence of big hitters such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt will only give them more confidence. Players such as Andre Ayew (expect him to get brought over to the Premier League in the summer) and World Cup hero Asamoah Gyan will feature but they also have captain John Mensah and Leicester City defender John Paintsil will sure up the defence. Their major weakness is in goal but the rest of the major teams don’t exactly have world class cover in that position. Ivory Coast may have more recognisable stars such as Drogba, Kalou and the Toure brothers but they were far from impressive against Sudan and they are renowned bottlers in this competition. Whatever the outcome, I’m looking forward to the rest of the tournament and hopefully Equatorial Guinea and Gabon can storm through the group stages!

Equatorial Guinea celebrate Javier Balboa's late winner against Libya; the first of many hopefully!

Away from Africa, the January transfer window is turning into a bit of a farce. With Manchester City performing so well in the league, there’s no need for them to spend big this winter while their neighbours United have already said that they have no reason to spend either. Arsenal are also holding that view despite their lower than normal league position. So it probably falls to Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea to make the big money signings. Liverpool spent big last year so probably can’t afford to. Chelsea have a pragmatic manager in Villas-Boas but he’s under big pressure from the fans and the board to spend big although he should concentrate on shipping off the older players first. Spurs are flying at the moment and ‘Arry’s trial is proving a hindrance to any potential deals as no-one wants to come to a club where the manager might be behind bars during the season. This has all led to a stagnant window where the major attention has been focused on PSG and Tevez, a transfer that I would love to see happen (PSG are a personal favourite of mine) but probably won’t happen. At least we won’t have to put up with Bryan Swanson struggling to use Sky Sports News’ ridiculous touchscreen TV, all while stood with an iPad in his hand for no apparent reason other than to encourage aspirationalism.

Pele, the greatest footballer that will ever live in Pele's opinion, hugging a football.

Finally, Pele is never one to shy away from a chance to stick two fingers up at Argentinians and he’s been at it again this week, as you can see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16661825.stm. Apparently Lionel Messi is not fit to be mentioned in the same breath as Pele. I accept the claim that Messi has to start performing for Argentina but Pele has to accept that he played it safe by plying his trade in Brazil and never daring to compete at the elite level in Europe. Pele might have won 3 World Cups but he never won the Champions League of which Messi has won 3. This is where the crux of the problem lies when it comes to determining the greatest player of all time as football generations are relative. Zidane and Ronaldo were probably more skilled than Pele but the defenders were harder to beat and they were never truly able to dominate in the way Pele did despite new rules favouring attackers being introduced. Maradona is the best in my eyes despite the flaws in his personality but don’t tell Pele… Incidentally, Maradona said that Pele is a “remote-controlled puppet”. Messi probably will be the greatest if he carries on doing what he’s doing and was a deserving winner of the Balon d’Or – anyone see the hilarity/horror of that ceremony? Basically a kiss up to Sepp Blatter with James Blunt and Shakira who kept awkwardly looking at Pique – and on top of that he is a genuinely nice guy. I’ll finish on an insight into the private lives of Mr and Mrs Pele when Pele came out with: “People always ask me: ‘When is the new Pele going to be born?’ Never. My father and mother have closed the factory.” Maybe they should try some of what Pele used to advertise on late night television!