- Jan 13, 2015
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Seen a gradual decline with the top EPL clubs over the last 2 seasons. Real/Barca/Athletico/Bayern/Juve/PSG consistently outperform EPL clubs in Europe and Other Italian clubs are expected to improve this season.
SAF leaving United has had a massive impact on them, City and CFC seem to struggle when it comes to performing against the top European clubs while Arsenal seem to have stagnated, LFC and Spurs are just plain hopeless.
Given the amount of money these clubs get why are they not performing, is it the lack of top managers or wasted resources?
Lets have a nice debate
OK, so this is based on European performance, hmm…
Let’s start off with the big major one. Which of these clubs are most at risk of missing out a CL spot? (I’ll even give you the position they need to finish to miss out):
Real/Barca (5th)
Bayern (5th)
Juve (4th)
PSG (4th)
Chelsea/City/United/Arsenal (5th)
Next question: Which of those clubs would earn the most revenue from TV and Prize money? Actually, no, even better question: Who would earn more TV or Prize Money in their league as of the 2016-2017 season?:
Real/Barca/Bayern/Juve/PSG.
The 17th place side of the Premier League.
The Champions League offers a lot of money by itself, but the key fact: Not including the ‘popularity’ bonus, the total prize money is only half the money that a PL side gets if they were to win the thing. Now with the popularity bonus, if any of England’s teams win, their popularity bonus is essentially double the CL Prize money they win, which is only on par to their overall domestic earnings.
Now we know that Europe has its own challenges, and as such, taking part in these competitions are going to weaken your efforts in the domestic league.
Now let’s pretend that Liverpool got 4th place and a CL place. You’re going up against, let’s say PSG in the Quarters, and you’re traveling to France. You are currently holding 4th, however Arsenal and Tottenham are hot on your tail, and you’ve got some tough match against Stoke away in what is potentially rainy conditions.
For Liverpool, what is going to be more important? The win against PSG? Or holding onto fourth and securing the CL place?
For English clubs, there is good money being there, but let's be real, if they had to choose between securing a CL spot and progressing further, they are going to tidy their backyard first. The opposite can also be said for the continental teams. Barring an extremely bad year, you expect these clubs to not only easily secure a CL spot, but to win the title on most occasions (Juve more to the fact the other big clubs in Italy are struggling). I mean, for Bayern, they'll take the title without trying, so why not give CL their biggest focus? Same goes for the others. Real and Barca would fight amongst themselves, but it seems ultimately it's a result of who wins those clashes (barring any injuries.)
That's just from a CL perspective purely. Continental teams want CL success since the domestic is a cakewalk. PL teams would rather keep their good records, and the CL is always going to be 2nd in the mind. Continental teams have more riding on PL success.
As a player, you want honours to back up your good name, you're virtually guaranteed that if you pick any of those above clubs (with the possible exception of Madrid, but let's be honest, that's more to poor management). Money is an interesting factor, I mean, heck, have you seen what the midtable clubs of the PL can do? We were fighting Marseille, Schalke, and Bayer, and we actually won. Yeah, there are good players that chose Leicester over the big teams on the continent. Let's not forget that if you are a star performer of your team in the league, where do you usually go? In Spain, Real and Barca; Germany, Munich; France, PSG. In England, you've got up to 6 big clubs that want a piece of that pie, and you know something? The sellers are aware of that. They're not forced to sell to Real and Barca, if there's an English club come a-knocking, you're going to hear them out. If the player is keener for money, and thinks he can use the Premier League to land into the elite team, be it in England or abroad, he would get onto it.
Location is a tricky one. We know about Spain (especially for South Americans), and I suppose London and Paris, but come on, Turin over Milan or Rome? Munich?
Competition in the PL is only going to get stronger. if Liverpool and Spurs get caught by Everton or another club, and they in turn threaten the top 4, actually performing in the CL is going to be a mere afterthought. There's enough money to want to enter the CL, but there's not enough there to really give a proper effort in it. I'd say the biggest winners of the PL TV deal are the midtable PL clubs. The biggest losers are the midtable clubs of the continent.
Just a quick note, has anyone noticed the number of deals lasting until 2019? I wonder why that is... hmm...