Thank you aressandro10.

Well... they're World Class alright but not in the same league as those players i mentioned.
C'mon man.... Zidane/Kaka vs. Sneijder?? Gimme a break.
Sneijder couldn't secure 1st team place at RM. And he probably knew he wouldn't secure 1st team at Barca as well.
In any case, he chose Inter and not an EPL club.

As for what Alonso & Sneijner said (if they really said them), they're just keeping their options open. Yeah, they would want to play/return to EPL eventually but only to "end their career" because by that time they're declining (past their peak) and probably couldn't secure 1st team place in "better" Spanish/Italian Clubs. This is common, players go/return to "lesser" clubs when they go past their prime.

It is obvious why a lot of world class players chose Madrid or Barca (especially Madrid) as they are dominant force with their rich history (9 time CL) and El Clasico is definitely the most exciting derby no?

of course, the weather is nice compared to England. but don't undermine club like United, Munich, Pool, Ajax, Juve and etc. They are just interesting and will attract good footballers. or at least Europe will know them eventually

this is of course , without considering the Money factor

you actually took reyes' weather excuse seriously?

united is probably 1 of the better clubs, pool? seriously? no offense but they are not the force to be reckon with for quite some time now with their mediocre investments. ajax? you are not smoking weed are you? the academy/ feeder club is huge for you? juve? long lost in the realm of time. not denying their rich history but they are not what they were a decade ago.

not again.......

well, of course not . but you can see weather is one of the reason . not the main reason.

nahh, sure some of the club I mentioned are in a sink hole but they're still top club in Europe. and their history is attracting footballers. Ajax is turned out to be feeder club, but without em, you might never see Cruyff at all. don't be arrogant towards top clubs.

remember everything is a cycle. It just matter how you maintain the cycle

hehe

haha nuts eh? Talking about favourite team and rivalry eh? If I recollect it accurately, Walcott is a fans of Liverpool, he joined Arsenal. I dont need to name more....So, it doesnt make sense if you are telling me that everyone would reject a move to their rival simply because of the rivalry of their favourite club. The world dont go that way.

As for Alonso part, yes, Rafa brought him to Liverpool but they had a row afterwards when Rafa wanted him out in opt for Gareth Barry who is nowhere near Alonso's class.

for me, BPL/EPL is like England...

Always overrated...

i can't say anything about other club.. But as the Juve fans...i'll admit. Juventus in the declined since the fabricated scandal some odd years ago.

and after some long & hard seasons since returning to serie A...we've comeback stronger.. We have our OWN new stadium..yes..OWN stadium...not city owned
but club owned stadium..The 1st in Italy. We are leading the table in the league & still unbeaten. And im positive Juve would be one of serie a representative in
UCL next season.

Not dat im bragging @ talking big or something... But i want to pointed out dat.. Juve is the clubs with the lot of hearts. Got relegated, title stripped, losing sponsor,
key player leaving, lose a lot of money, respect, dignity and such... But doesn't matter...we'll be back & from the looks of it..we're on the right track.

your knowledge of football rivalry seems to be real shallow. barca and madrid are in the arch-rivalry feud. compared to that of liverpool and arsenal?
and most importantly, barca is never interested to recruit him in the first place.

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Added on December 9, 2011, 9:21 pmnever deny the history and class of the old lady.

This post has been edited by Lionel10Messi: Dec 9 2011, 09:21 PM

To be honest, I'll say Spanish Primera Liga is the best currently.

If you mention Spanish teams who have won European competitions in 2000-2011 : Barca, Real Madrid, Athletico Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia

Whereas for
England : Man Utd, Liverpool.

Italy: Milan, Inter

Germany: Bayern Munich

EPL is especially good at marketting their competitiveness.They seem to claim as though the unbeaten Newcastle United fairytale run only happens in England, but fact is, there's Levante in Spain, and correct me if I'm wrong, Parma( or some other team) did something like that few seasons back.


EPL is still one of the world's best competition, Man City is a newcomer and faced a tough group. As for Man Utd's case, I believe they were just too complacent.

Shallow? Haha I dunno but one thing I do notice is that every time you post, you add in some personal attack in your post and I would expect that someone who claimed to be knowing more, should at least behave like one instead like posting like a prick.

Yes, I do know how intense the rivalry between Barca and RM is. I know. Just because you are one of the Barca fans do not mean you know more than I do. I read up probably as much as you do. What I m trying to point out is that DO NOT RULE OUT POSSIBILITY and up until now, all we talking about this and that were all based on our own assumptions. How would you know Sneijder wont even move to Barca?

Tevez moves to mancity from manutd.

Paul ince moved to liverpool despite playing for manutd once.

Oh wait, do you even know Paul Ince? Or your era revolves only in the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and kaka?

Remember Luis Figo and the transfer?


And I know which part you are coming for defense... these are not their favourite clubs. Equally doubtful on what you said that Sneijder is a RM fans, how can you trust what footballers said nowadays? I have seen enough from players that move to bigger clubs and claimed to be their supporters since young , only to move to other big clubs in future for better wages and future. Bullshits. They said that to earn the supports from the crowds. That's the way I see it.

I have seen fernando Torres doing that, kissing badge, saying Liverpool is his only English club, only to see him moving to Chelsea.

Recently I have seen Luis Suarez talking about him supporting Liverpool since young and I have no doubt one day he will leave as well.

So what makes you think Sneidjer said that he supported RM out of sincerity? That's doubtful to me....

wow!
didnt know being honest is a prick!

I never say 100% that Sneijder would ever move to Barca but Madrid is his boyhood club. i assume he is the loyal type personally, considering the intense rivalry between us and madrista. i've also mention Barca never interested to get him at the particular time. Also considering the possibility of selling to a rival in the league? logically for that transfer to happen is kinda far-fetched to me.

tevez never had any affection for mu, that is different with sneijder. paul ince also played for wolves and inter. but that thing missing here is affection and rivalry.

i also remember how figo defected to the madrista. not forgetting ronaldo(the fat 1).

loyalty is overrated but still there is some living with it today. del piero, messi, van persie, totti, puyol, xavi, john terry, ferdinand are just some examples.

fabregas is homesick

Where's the f*cking like button when i need it.

English's club reality check. -by STEVEN HOWARD - Chief sports writer

I personally do not care which is the best league in the world. The fact that I don't support the best team in the world says it all.

I'll keep my opinion relevant to the thread title which states that Premiership teams cannot compete which I totally disagree with. English teams have been in and about the semi-final stage in recent years no doubt due in part to the fact that it has become more attractive to quality footballers, especially from South America. Prior to Juninho joining Middlesborough, I can't recall which was the last capped South American player to come to England. Ossie Ardiles? Gone are the days where players like Zola, Vialli, Gullit or Klinsmann came to England to end their careers with top sides. Now even smaller English clubs have the same appeal. Bolton did pretty well after securing 'has beens' in Djorkaeff, JJ Okocha, Ivan Campo and even Fernando Hierro. Now top sides like Man Utd and Chelsea are able to sign class A footballers in their prime. Heck, even Fulham managed to sign Edwin Van Der Sar when the Dutchman was still in his prime. All this indicates that the Premiership has come a long way in terms of appeal, for players and investors. Premiership games are scheduled to cater for the Asian market unlike their counterparts which in my opinion, is good planning. Then again, the 3pm sun in England isn't exactly as intense as the 3pm sun in Spain is it? Anyway, my point is the notion suggesting English sides cannot compete in Europe just because the Manchester teams got knocked out this season is ridiculous, or are we only talking about this season?

In recent years even "lowly" Liverpool have won the Champions League once and reached the final on another occasion. I also think that suggesting a club like Barcelona can beat any Premiership side just because they've got the better of Man Utd on two occasions in recent times is inaccurate. First, let me say that I have full respect for Barcelona, I think you guys play really attractive football and Pep Guardiola has done a great job. However, you can be beaten with the right tactics. Liverpool did the unthinkable by beating you 2-1 at the Nou Camp. Yes, we did employ negative tactics but one would be foolish to suggest that a distinctively average looking Liverpool side could beat you at home playing your brand of football. It's easy to criticise us now but if you were us, would you have come to the Nou Camp to attack knowing we still had the 2nd leg to play at Anfield? We did however prove that by playing positive football, we could be a team to be reckoned with. In March 2009, we came out to play and beat Real Madrid 4-0. Now I'm just speaking from a Liverpool perspective of course and we've only come close to winning the Premiership once in the past decade. Even Fulham who are alien to Europe thrashed Juventus in March 2010. Spurs beat then defending champions Inter Milan and topped their group in the same year. Do note that I'm not saying one is better than the other which is what this thread is looking like right now, I'm saying English clubs can compete. The fact that Liverpool aren't in Europe isn't because we got knocked out of the competition, it's because we failed to qualify which doesn't mean we can't be competitive in Europe. In 2006 we only qualified by virtue of being defending Champions when we contrived to finishing behind Everton and although we would get knocked out by Benfica, we managed to top a group containing Chelsea, Real Betis and Anderlecht. So don't judge how well a club will do in Europe purely on their domestic league standing.

Best league in the world? Well I'd have to say that in my opinion, it would have to be the most competitive league in the world. For that, one only has to look at how many different sides have won their domestic leagues over the past say, 10 years? It isn't about the best players for me. Rangers could sign Ronaldo but that would only make the SPL even more one sided.

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Added on December 10, 2011, 9:01 amHere's the flaw in his piece though. It's based largely on this season. Also you can't really look at the England national team and although I agree they'd struggle to make it out of their group in Euro 2012, this has no bearing whatsoever over how English sides will do in Europe. I am no fan of England for I think they are overrated but Premiership sides are multinational. I mean the last Champions League final was contested between a Spanish and English club.

Can't really argue about the being defensively naive part. The mancs have looked vulnerable at the back even with the inclusion of Phil Jones. I will say this though. Having a bad defence just means you need a better offense. Look at the Brazil of old. In more recent times did anyone know that whilst Spurs conceded 11 goals in the Champions League last season during the group stages, they scored 18 goals? More than any other team.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Dec 10 2011, 09:08 AM

too be honest, the title "EPL BPL can't compete" is rather absurd in the sense that this could be just one "off" season for manu
the injury list to their squad is also a big factor, not that it should be use as an excuse

city squads is relatively still new...people keep talking about city player with champion league experience.. nasri, silva, clichy, ballotelli etc
but among city players, who have win UCL in the past? correct me if I'm wrong, but only yaya toure won it with barcelona in 2009

manu, chelsea, arsenal and liverpool all have featured in final since 2000s
manu and liverpool in fact won once in that time and runnner up in another occasion

barcelona, real madrid, valencia make it to final since 2000s
barcelona won 3 UCL and real madrid won 2 UCL during that period
villareal and deportivo lacaruna both semi finalist in UCL in 2006 and 2004 respectively

ac milan won in 2003 and 2007, runner up in 2005
inter milan won in 2010
juventus runner up in 2003

bayern munich won UCL in 2001 and became runner up in 2010
bayer laverkusen runner up in 2002

there are 3 final between club from same country

real madrid vs valencia in 2000
ac milan vs juventus in 2003
manu vs chelsea in 2008

so, the way i see it
it pretty much balance within english, spanish and italian clubs
to a lesser extend, german club


as for the "best league", lets leave it to your own interpretation

funny article.just because the manchester clubs went out,all hope are lost for the english side?OMFG you've gotta be kidding me!

well

you gotta ask him yourself
maybe he is a butthurt-ed english fanboy

i do still think Barcelona and Real Madrid are in a league of their own...

beatable on their worst day of course...

but it seems as if a lot of players would gladly stab their English primier league club in the back by the slightest hint that real madrid/barcelona interested in them....

and the title should be "EPL can't compete in the Champions League as it used to be"..