The Premier League - 2020/21 - All Match Discussion In Here

I don’t think the proposed teams have really thought this through. They are supposedly the ‘best’ teams in Europe fighting it out on the grandest stage but someone has to come last. A handful of these galactico teams will have relegation form seasons. What if no matter how much they spend they are still the shittest teams in the ESL?
They will have no plastic supporters because they are crap and their stock will fall because they are not a ‘big’ team anymore...

 

My thoughts exactly. How will Spuds and Arsenal fans feel losing most games every season.

Heard earlier that Arsenal are 40-1 and Spuds 33-1 to win the inaugural ESL season!

 

Lump on. Like printing money.

 

I think it's based on the belief that they won't come bottom as they will have considerable riches to bolster their squads yearly - and should easily put away the 5 teams who qualify each season. Plus, they will back themselves to beat the Italian trio and maybe Atletico as well.

But it is a laughing stock that say Ajax or Leicester for example will qualify for their season in the sun, could conceivably finish above some of the founder members and still find themselves demoted whilst those founding clubs remain.

I don't like the idea of it at all - but I think it has to be an entirely closed shop or an open competition. Anything else has no sporting integrity whatsoever.

 

If there are sanctions from domestic leagues/UEFA then no rational club would take one year of the big time in exchange for those sanctions. 10+ years guranteeed of the ESL gravy train on the hand in exchange for those sanctions is a very different equation.

 

I've posted similar in this thread before, but I reckon a compromise solution which could satisfy all parties in some way might be to change the top 3 or 4 qualification spots for the CL to be based on the club coefficient ranking (based on performance over the previous 5 seasons), then add 2 more qualification spots in the top 5 leagues for the highest placed other teams.

League coefficient rankings are already used to determine how many teams from each league get in the CL, the shift would just be to partly determine which of those teams in those leagues in turn qualify.

This would enable to top clubs to have more predictability in their upcoming revenue and be less negatively effected by "one-off" shock poor individual seasons, while also enabling enough different teams to qualify each season. In some ways it could be argued that this is as fair and has as much "sporting integrity" as the current "near-sighted" qualification system.

The dispute clearly isn't only about the closed shop nature of the league though, the clubs in the Super League will also be annoyed at UEFA over their middling and ineffective financial controls, lack of modernisation, and excessive share of the tv rights - these issues will probably be more difficult to find a compromise on as they would hit UEFA's bottom line more, and UEFA will be just as greedy as the clubs.

 

That’s a terrible idea. If Watford can have a bad season and get relegated with all the pain that brings, why on earth should Liverpool not miss out on Europe if they have a bad year?

 

That's a fair point, but as I say I'm just putting it forward as a potential solution which all parties involved might ultimately agree upon as an alternative.

It wouldn't be too far off what may happen with the Super League anyway, depending on whether the PL kick out the big 6 or not. The Super League is leaving 5 spots each season for other teams to qualify for, and 1 of these would likely come from the highest placed other side in the PL should they be able to accept the spot.

The main differences would be that qualification for the top European league would still be based on sporting merit to a reasonable degree (i.e. likely letting in say Leicester and Liverpool but leaving out Arsenal); it would be a half-way house between a closed shop and changing teams, and it would stay under UEFA's jurisdiction as opposed to it being this break-away exercise.

 

Its a proper mess. The champions league is only ever interesting at the semi finals and I always want the English teams to lose anyway. So its probably not me they're trying to sell it to. UEFA now at best dont trust these clubs, they have revealed their dirty greedy hands and plenty of people will not let them forget. If they dont breakaway I can see them being outcast.

The problem is not how the likes of Watford or Bournemouth or Southampton or Luton survive, its how the entire league can exist in harmony with itself. Its a sham wrapped up in a farce of a sham sandwiched in between a bag of money and a corrupt set of self serving egotistical Bastards.

 

No wonder Arteta was saying he could guarantee European football. Kroenkes ownership of arsenal has wrecked their sporting status - but this route guarantees him the money, and arsenal fans a team composed of the players that wont his season match Leicester, West Ham and possibly Leeds and Aston Villa.

Good luck to them, and impoverished EPL with Crystal Palace, watford and West Brom competing to stay in it for me. Even if it has fewer overseas top players (who i have often never heard of before they turn up), less money and fewer topmangers. At least it would b ea competition you can buy into.

 

I appreciate that this ESL will obviously net the clubs a ton of cash so to an extent it’s irrelevant, but has it not occurred to the 6 English clubs that would make up this league why they’re so popular in the firs place? Why are 6 English clubs taking part, as opposed to just 3 from Spain? It’s because the Premier League has the most even distribution of money, so it has enabled the PL to become more popular than the other leagues and enabled more English teams to become big 6/Rich in the first place.

They want to grab more money for themselves yet completely fail to appreciate the reason they’re in the position to do so is by actually having a more competitive league than Spain or Italy.

 

https://twitter.com/thesquareball/status/1384146049460183043?s=21

 

Won’t happen, but would be very ironic and funny if they pissed off to their league and then people became far more interested in the PL, Serie A, la liga because they’ll become competitive again, cannibalising their market.

 

It just seems a bit idiotic to me, they’ll effectively be trashing the product that got them where they are in the first place. They’ll make the PL crap because most games will be meaningless. In theory they’ll be earning more cash from this ESL but it will be the opposite of the PL. I really hope it blows up in their faces.

 

Just watching mid table Leeds playing Liverpool. We are going to be torn to shreds if we go up aren’t we ? ....unless we replace everyone bar Serrialta, Hughes and Chalobah and a decent replacement for Sarr.

 

Yep. Take the money and run job is best course of action next year.

 

I’m sure it has occurred to the clubs - but it won’t have occurred to the owners. Or it will have but it pales in comparison to the key points - they make the most money from playing their European counterparts in big games a few times a year...so why wouldn’t you fix it so you play them over and over again if you can?

 

Because long term it will become completely and utterly, mind-numbingly repetitive and boring very, very quickly, especially when there will effectively be no stakes to it all. A glorified friendly league that will not keep fans engaged long term.

I 100% believe that if these clubs go through with this in a way that means that they are expelled from all other competitions, then every single one of them won't be around any more in 10 years. It's an unbelievably short sighted, arrogant cash grab that won't be sustainable and will eventually collapse.

 

I agree entirely Nath. I was just giving the counter-view as to why they feel like they can do this, not that I was agreeing with it.

 

That would be lovely if that happened.

 

I don’t see it keeping any market engaged long term. It’s a concept born out of delusion and arrogance. It’ll be a shiny new toy for a while, but when people realise it only does one thing then it’ll soon stop being played with.

 

Exist in their current form, certainly not. But the brands will still be worth billions. They'll be moved to places with money, Manchester United would be based in Beijing, Spurs based in Dubai - that sort of stupid crap.

A travelling circus of past memories, if you will.

 

And it will be expanded in time. Super League 2. Super Cup. I wonder if all those clubs speaking out about it now will be so bullish if/when the invite is extended to them down the line and the money forwarded to their accounts...

 

Oh yeah, the whining and crying of Everton this morning was nothing to do with the game but rather their lack of invite. And let's not pretend that Gino wouldn't give Troy's right leg to get some of the action.

 

Absolutely he would. There are very few owners who wouldn’t. But it’s easier to say you never wanted to go to that house party if you weren’t invited. Or that Glastonbury is crap because you didn’t get a ticket.

The Leicester owners would give up an awful lot to play a few games in Thailand for example. But if they aren’t given the choice, they can easily say they don’t want to.

 

From POPBITCH:

Answers on a postcard to @meister first correct answer out of the hat wins moog for a week.

 

Arsenal discovered a better keeper than Leno after the Covid restart. They then sold him to Aston Villa who avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth. Villa (with of course other players brought in) stand a good chance of finishing above Arsenal.

 

That West Ham lad should never had been Red Carded in a hundred years, it was the momentum of both players that brought them together in a collision and it was just unfortunate where the Chelsea lad was caught.

I have always thought that cards should not be given for that sort of accidental foul, maybe a freekick, but any colour card NO WAY!!!

 

Agreed, but intent has been taken out of the game because people are not prepared to accept the judgement of the referee on it. They want a black and white decision, which is impossible.