Strongest year of the Premiership

A spinoff of Fey's thread...this season and last I feel the quality of the league has dropped because there were/are at least 5-6 teams who are just boring clubs, play Cr@p football, have no good players, and I wish were relegated. But 3-4 years ago the Premiership was more like La Liga, where on any given day a smaller team could win.

Of course the definition of "league strength" is debateable, since you could say that having 4 very good teams means the league is strong, even though there is a big divide to the rest. But assuming strength means strength in depth and relative equality of the teams across the entire league, which year was the strongest for the Premiership?

I'd say somewhere around the late 90s/early 2000s.

As I sort of said in the Serie A thread yesterday, I dont really think the strength of a league depends on there being a degree of equality throughout that league. You can argue that equality, by producing more equal matches and more varied results, makes the league more exciting. But in England there is a clear inequality, with the top four standing as such (even though I dont think the top four is something that should prove impossible to break) - yet I still think the league compares in terms of overall quality and depth to the Serie A and La Liga. Both these latter too have more teams who are capable of finishing in the Champions League places, but I think the Premier Leagues top four is stronger than any other, with then more of a gap between fourth and fifth. Essentially, things balance themselves out.

I do think theres a decent spread of quality players throughout the league at the moment, whilst at the same time the trend of playing negative football has been prevalant over a number of seasons now amongst a lot of mid-table and lower clubs. There are and there has been far too many clubs who dont attempt to play football, particularly against the top four, and that in itself is conducive to the top four remaining the same.

For the talent actually in the league, I wouldnt count the present out as being the strongest league we have seen. Plus it looks like we could have four very capable title contenders this year, along with some good challengers from City, Villa, Porsmouth, all of whom can play nice football.

Otherwise, as a Newcastle fan its hard not to look back at our prime in the league, in the 95/96 season where we came so close to winning the league. I guess the consensus would be that the league was weaker overall in those days, though I have no doubt that the Newcastle side of that period had easily as much quality as any of the top sides today. That season also brought a genuine, closely fought title-race, and I think thats key to at least the excitement of a season.

Arsenal and Man Utd were good competitors in the late 90s and early 2000s, and having just checked the league tables from those years, the league seemed reasonably fluid, with Chelsea and Liverpool about, Leeds at their peak, Ipswich and West Ham making top five finishes and Villa twice coming sixth. Then following this we had three seasons where the core group of Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea were vying closely for the final two Champions League places.

Nah... its stronger of anything.

Derby should never have been promoted but aside from that I think that at home at least, any team could win on a good day.

Compared to two/three seasons ago the only teams that have dropped in quality are Boro and Newcastle.

And Bolton.

the premiership is so dull. La liga is the place as at least the top teams lose sometimes. You only have to look at how the 2nd tier teams from each country do in the UEFA cup to see that 5-10 is much stronger in La liga than in prem.
there isnt much difference between the very top teams in either country but the higher quality of the middling teams in spain gives it the edge.

Hlebanukkah wrote:And Bolton.

Well, they haven't sold many. Losing Allardyce has been a huge blow though

LordAnger wrote:the premiership is so dull. La liga is the place as at least the top teams lose sometimes. You only have to look at how the 2nd tier teams from each country do in the UEFA cup to see that 5-10 is much stronger in La liga than in prem.
there isnt much difference between the very top teams in either country but the higher quality of the middling teams in spain gives it the edge.

true, you'd just never get a team like bolton beating a team like man utd. just doesn't happen. never ever.

anyway the la liga vs premiership has been done to death. both have their strengths and weaknesses.

debabyjesuser wrote:

LordAnger wrote:the premiership is so dull. La liga is the place as at least the top teams lose sometimes. You only have to look at how the 2nd tier teams from each country do in the UEFA cup to see that 5-10 is much stronger in La liga than in prem.
there isnt much difference between the very top teams in either country but the higher quality of the middling teams in spain gives it the edge.

true, you'd just never get a team like bolton beating a team like man utd. just doesn't happen. never ever.

anyway the la liga vs premiership has been done to death. both have their strengths and weaknesses.

INteresting UEFA cup analogy too, seeing as lowly Bolton held Bayern in Germany and iut looks like all 3 English clubs in the competition are going to win their groups....

They've all qualified anyhow.

I'm actually surprised. I thought at the start of it all Blackburn were going to have the best chance of the EPL clubs and I thought Everton and Bolton might well have gone out in the Group stage.