Has English Premier League football become too predictable and boring?

First topic message reminder :

In 1956-7, Ipswich Town Football Club was promoted from Division 3 (South) to Division 2 (what's now called the Championship). Its success continued, reaching Division 1 (when it really was Division 1 and not, in effect, Division 3), and becoming English champions in its first season in the top flight (1961-2). Admittedly, the team's success owed a lot to the brilliance of Alf Ramsey, who later became the only manager ever to lead England to World Cup victory, but we all know it couldn't happen now. Nobody in their right mind would expect Swansea to become Premier League champions this season, only a very small group of teams can possibly achieve that. Realistically, only about seven teams have any chance of finishing in the top four - isn't it all too predictable, and therefore boring?

It all comes down to money, like so many things in life. Manchester United supporters used to joke that the two best teams in Manchester were Manchester United and Manchester United reserves, but I doubt if they do that now after their recent 6-1 thrashing by Manchester City. So what's changed? Manchester City was taken over by a group of businessmen from Abu Dhabi and received an enormous injection of cash.

Wouldn't you prefer it if Ipswich Town, or maybe Swansea or Wigan, had a chance of being English champions?

Phil Hornby wrote:-
against the odds, Norwich will stay up…….Manchester City will drop points at Goodison next week……I still say Liverpool will sneak it…..can't you just smell an upset still to come in Liverpool's favour?!

Whilst I agree with you 100% about the corruption in the Premier League (I don’t know why Dowd bothered with yellow cards for those three other Newcastle players, when he could have just sent off five of them), I’m relieved that your predictions are so awful. Keep telling us that the Tories will win the 2015 election and I’ll be very relieved!

Ivan - you are alluding to the tried and tested 'Curse of Hornby'.

 I am a trifle surprised that you have not seen through the ploy before!With few exceptions any prediction I make 'out loud' will tend to be wrong! The Ashes debacle was an exception to the rule, 'tis true - but my mistake was that it came from genuine conviction!

Why do you think I make such statements in the first place?       

But I still say that Miliband has to make a better pitch...

Phil Hornby wrote:Rarely have we seen a more disgraceful attempt to manipulate a match as we saw from referee Dowd at Anfield today. He did all he possibly could to get a lacklustre - and trailing - Liverpool back in the game - even to the extent of awarding two very dubious free-kicks in prime 'Gerrard' positions and dismissing TWO Newcastle players.

He should feel embarrassed and ashamed, but we can be sure that the wretched skunk doesn't. But all in vain, as the curse of Hornby prevailed once more due to a Manchester City win .

But please -  next season can we have a competition which is not 'managed' by creative refereeing decisions. Just for once, eh...?   

You're spot on about Dowd. The likes of Rooney and Gerrard can run the length of the field telling the ref to eff off and they don't even get booked. Delighted Liverpool chucked it away if I'm being honest. Ungracious losers and unbearable winners in the main.

STOP PRESS

Manchester United's Ashley Young asks if he can play with 'two up front'...

   

Man U are in the news again today.  They're worth more as a global brand name than they are on the pitch:

Manchester United agree record $1.3 billion Adidas kit deal

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/14/uk-manchesterunited-adidas-idUKKBN0FJ1B620140714

Adidas is a German company, but will they follow the custom of some American firms which have interesting procedures for minimising tax exposure?

Praise be that we don't have to be infested with this specimen in the Premier League next season..

....


although the fact that Liverpool say they tried " everything to keep him " says much about their standards . 

Hopefully, Manchester City will also find it possible to part company with Yaya Toure - the man who felt the club did not show him sufficient respect on his birthday, despite paying him a reported £300,000 a week.





We can manage quite well without them both, thanks very much...

Diva behaviour is not restricted to footballers, who are simply trending more conventionally show-biz artistes (if you think there's any difference).
Anecdotes include Eddie Murphy's requirements to appear in Jay Leno's Tonight Show on American TV included three kinds of soft drink, four varieties of candy and fluffy towels in three grades of softness. Bless!

Welcome to the Premier League 2014/15.

If anyone is in any doubt as to whether referees cheat, do watch Mark Clattenburg's performance today to assist Leicester to beat a poor Manchester United side.

Truly shocking - and without a hint of embarrassment. He should be ashamed - not to mention never be allowed to officiate again...

Should have gone to Vision Direct, or somewhere.

Same as P O'DOWD is it? Chelsea v Man utd he played enough time
to send a Chelsea player off, then added enough time until UTD got the equaliser, game ended less than 30 seconds after the goal to make it 1-1.
If he did not have a backhander he must have been born and bought up a UTD supporter.

The remarkable thing about English football is just how far it has come since the 1950s, when a professional would be paid about £20 a week and fans would stand in the open or under dangerously rickety stands with zero concessions to comfort or safety.

That is how I use to watch my team when I first started watching them OW.

The game has become boring. Too much midfield pissing about with the so called "patience approach".All that happens is we end up with a packed defence against the stronger team and then the stonger team just keep boring patience until someone in the defence makes a mistake. If they don't, we end up with a boring nil nil draw. We have copied the Italian style of defend defend at all costs, BORING BORING!!!!!!

All the hype and predictions about Man U not being the team they were and that Liverpool could winn the league this year have been about as correct as Cameron's promise to reduced immigration.

Very true Mel.

Despite gargantuan efforts, it has seemingly become just too difficult for those loyal referees to assist Liverpool to win - even at Anfield where a home penalty is usually available at the flourish of a suitably-sized cheque...

The best result I heard yesterday and I congratulate Newcastle United well done lads for beating Mourinho's mob 2-1 i'm happy happy happy.

stuart torr wrote:The best result I heard yesterday and I congratulate Newcastle United well done lads for beating Mourinho's  mob 2-1 i'm happy happy happy.

Are you one of those people who supports dogs and under dogs ?
I suspect that your dog like and dodgy team has had its one strange moment but is now obliged to recognise that the Universe has moved back to its rightful orbit -- this very afternoon in fact .

I do not care which orbit the Universe is in, as long as chelsea get more results like that one.

When you say , " like that one" , I assume you refer to Chelsea strolling past the French Geordies last week .

Like the one they lost to newcastle,

stuart torr wrote:Like the one they lost to newcastle,

Bunch of Coconuts .
I worked there for 6 years for Procter and Gamble and stood at St James many times .
Nothing wrong with that but when you could occasionally translate more than a few words you realised how closely they were related to lamp posts .

This weekend has highlighted the fact that the lower division players are are as good as the "gooks" who are paid rediculous salaries.

YES Mel brilliant Bradford beating chelsea 4-2 after their manager said they were going to win all 4 trophies.
Well that is one less they are going to win.

Football is just one example of the inequalities that bedevil us

Extracts from an article by Will Hutton:-

"Britain is beginning to pay more attention to inequality. HSBC’s active sponsorship of tax avoidance (spilling over into evasion) and the PM gallivanting with the nabobs of private equity and pornography to raise money for the Tory Party aroused across-the-board outrage. It was fuelled by the growing conviction that the inequality so conspicuously on parade is not acceptable. Football’s Premier League felt the same cold wind over the unfair consequences of the latest auction of its television rights. A stunning £5.1bn is being paid over three years by Sky and BT for the right to screen 200 live games a year. With foreign television rights to come, England’s top football league cannot avoid the charge that it is now the most unedifyingly plutocratic and unequal sports spectacle on the planet.

The league itself will become even less of a locus for genuinely competitive football. Already, the gap between the wealthiest six clubs – three in London, two in Manchester, one in Liverpool – and the rest can appear close to unbridgeable. (Everton – not quite as rich as this bunch – came close to securing a Champions League berth last season but have underperformed this.) No newly promoted football club can hope to compete with the galaxy of talent fielded by the leading teams. They spend sometimes no more than a year in the top flight before being relegated – football cannon fodder, demoralising owners, players and supporters alike."

For the whole article:-
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/15/football-one-of-the-inequalities-that-bedevil-us-premier-league

I know Ivan my team has gradually dropped divisions since getting relegated from the premiership and will probably do so again into near oblivion.

My brother supports Arsenal football team.

When we go to Spain, i will accompany him to watch the match in the Welsh owned bar at the bottom of the mountain!

I can't stand football but i get very drunk and then it doesn't seem to matter. I do like watching England play more and get even more drunk whilst watching them!

"...to watch the match in the Welsh owned bar ..."

Sure seems an odd place to play a match ...

Phil Hornby wrote:"...to watch the match in the Welsh owned bar ..."

Sure seems an odd place to play a match ...      

Costa Del Sol!!!!!

....Where all the Brits come together!

Well your brother should be very happy this season Phil, as arsenal have done very well.

The vanishing underdog: what the Premier League tells us about England

From an article by Phil Hartup:-

“You can learn a lot about England from English football. From the treatment of the Football Association you can see our unending tolerance for establishment incompetence. From the English national team you can see our tenacity and sense of tradition, showing the world that it’ll take more than humiliating defeats in every major competition for us to abandon our timeworn tactics. Perhaps the most telling indicator of the English character however lies in our Premier League and how the English have cheerfully embraced it since its inception.

This is because what the Premier League has done is to teach us to accept a lack of mobility and an established status quo in what ought to be a meritocratic and dynamic system. In other words, we know that the title will be won by one of maybe two or three clubs when the season starts and we know that this will be true next season, and the season after that.

Suppose we could have a football league that was all on merit, suppose the revenues were more equally distributed, suppose that new players came through a draft system as used in the NFL, suppose all the privileges of status and money were hauled down, and the playing field was suddenly completely level. Would we really want that? Would we want the chance to win the title fair and square if it came with the risk of relegation? For many fans, it seems not. For most Premier League football fans, and it seems like most English people in general, as long as we’re doing okay we don’t mind if the game isn’t fair.”

For the whole article:-
http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2015/08/vanishing-underdog-what-premier-league-tells-us-about-england

Has he ever looked at Scotland where Rangers and Celtic dominated for decades with hardly an intervention to spoil their challenge for the Championship from anyone...

But it is worse than simply money, in my view - I have a deep suspicion that match officials have 'agendas' although whether they are driven by betting interests or simply a desire to see the success of certain teams is a matter of conjecture. Some of course, may simply be incompetent...

I think my default position in football generally would be the choice of :

The referee was distracted by huge sums of cash...


Something has to explain the 'eccentric' decisions so many give - or is it just the priority they apply to demanding 'respect' for themselves- above the mere irrelevance of leg-breaking tackles, for example - which so dominates their demeanour?

(Some may detect from the above that although my very humble football career ended many years ago, I have not forgotten  ( or forgiven ) the many run-ins I 'enjoyed' with the 'men in the middle'... )

Surely you can't be suggesting that there might be corruption somewhere in the beautiful game?

I tend to take the view that a piranha in a jacuzzi warrants more trust than football match officials...