How do you rate English football?

[the playing mantis]

english football has got worse over the past few seasons.

sure we are still the most entertaining league in the world but the standard has unquestionably dropped.

not necessarily using europe, especially the europa league as a barometer, as no one gives a toss about winning it as theres little money in it, and to the big clubs, its a hindrance as uit gets in the way of the domestic title chasing, so you shouldnt read too much into spurs, united and city losing in it. thats also the reason little clubs like fulham progress to the final, as the big boys deem it an unwelcome distraction as they have bigger fish to fry the fulhams, safely ensconsed in mid table mediocrity can focus all there efforts on it.

simples

likewise its clear english football has got weaker, just look at the chelsea and united sides of the past couple of years, they were not a patch on the teams of yore! look at the fact that a lot of promoted teams stay up nowdays at least for the first season, its cos the whole league has got worse. if you want anymore evidence just look at us!

widely accepted as the worst arsenal squad in a AW's time at the club has easily (last season) and looks likley this season, got in the top 4. thats says it all. back in the mid/late 2000's our team of the past couple of years would be strugling for top 6.

its entirely down to the quality of foreign players coming in, which has been hit badly by the tax rates and weakening of the sterling against the euro. in the past the best foreigners came to england. now they go to spain, and increasingly once more, italy and germany.

i would rate la liga as the strongest league, followed by bundesliga, PL and serie A all fairly equal, but with the italians getting stronger again.

[the playing mantis]

i would suggest that henry's argument is self defeating when he cites liverpool and newcastle. newcastle are average, distintcly, they rely on a couple of players, much like us, and they are no better than any team really in the league from 6th to 14th.

likewise liverpool. granted suarez is decent, but gerrard is on the wane, bar those two, the rest is average and over priced, thats evidence enough the league has got weaker, liverpool are no longer the force they were, and newcastle are so high up despite looking nothing more than average.

in the past we had a number of worldclass players in the same team, as did united and chelsea, now we have 1. chelsea a similar number, and united probably 3 or 4.

city are the obvious exception, but then should be due to there riches.

[Supagoon]

The premier league is an Entertaining league.

Quality not so much. Honestly I dont mind a team like newcastle, but my word is their football simple and look where they are on the table.

Football is progressing and England is being left behind.

[Rocky Number Seven]

Short reply which in my honest opinion think sums it up perfectly for me. In general I believe the quality of our top sides has gotten worse over the past two years (our 2008 team would have romped to the title this season imo) which has seen spurs and man city (albeit with oil money) become a force and our sides make less of an impact on the European stage. However with these sides becoming less of a dominant force and also the "weaker" sides becoming stronger it has made the league a hell of a lot more interesting and probably as unpredictable as it has been for the past decade.

[Henry Norris 1913]

@Sammydroppedhisshorts

thank you very much

[Sutch]

IMO the decline began when Ronaldo went to Real Madrid. There are so many world class players in Spain, Germany, Italy and to a lesser extent France and Portugal now. As much how I hated it at the time, the title run ins of us, United and Chelsea in 07/08 and United + Liverpool in 08/09 were exciting for everyone. It just doesn't feel the same anymore and hasn't done since 09/10 since the quality of player has dropped.

Loads of foreign players want to go to those leagues now, Tevez sums up the modern footballer when he betrayed United for City in 2009 like the snidey little mercenary *word censored* he is, then fucks them and tried to get a move abroad to "pay his bills". Before long I expect the likes of de Jong, Nasri and Modric to fuck off abroad as well.

Edit - It also doesn't help when the media hound players over here, notably Balotelli most recently.