THE VOTE Is Alex Ferguson right to call the Premiership the ‘best league in Europe’?

Ollie Irish

11th, April 2007

6 Comments

ferguson9.jpg‘The fact that three English teams should be in the semi-finals probably makes our league the best in Europe.’ So says Alex Ferguson and who are we to argue with him? He continues: ‘Six or seven years ago Spanish football was the best. But on the evidence of this season Barcelona and Real Madrid are not as near to where they were in previous years… The competitive nature and the quality of the English game has improved over the seasons.’
I often disagree with what comes out of Fergie’s gob, but in this case I agree 100% with him. Spain’s Primera Liga is not strong right now and Serie A is weaker than ever. On current form the three strongest teams in Europe are Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, the trio that occupy the top three places in the Prem table; and also the trio that will contest the Champions League semis, along with Bayern Munich or Milan. Yep (smugness alert…), we’re just great.
Feel free to disagree – you’d be wrong though…

Posted in Man Utd

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6 Comments

  1. Dan says:
    April 11, 2007 at 10:59 am

    I disagree.
    Last week I watched match of the day, then the serie A highlights, and the big difference between the two was that almost all the premiership goals were poor, scrappy or lucky goals, whilst the serie A goals were all fantastic strikes or set ups or whatever – they were much better. I mean, here Drogba’s tap-in against Porto got into goal of the month, while Montolivo’s 35-yard strike for Fiorentina didn’t even get into goal of the day.
    Also, below the top teams in the premiership (chelsea, man u, liverpool etc.) the standard of football becomes a lot lower. Try watching something like west ham vs man city – its just crap. In italy, even the Serie B has fantastic football – I watched Napoli play Bologna and the level of play was every bit as high as something like milan playing roma.

  2. Ollie, Pies Ed. says:
    April 11, 2007 at 11:10 am

    Interesting thoughts Dan, cheers.

  3. OmegaSupremeho says:
    April 11, 2007 at 1:50 pm

    I don’t agree. All too often you see that the english teams are inferior in terms of passing, control, movement and inteligence. The fact that we have won only 2 Champ leagues in a decade is testament to that . However I think the real point now is that there’s are an elite of European teams rapidly seperating themselves from everyone else.

  4. Tommy says:
    April 11, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    i think the premiership is the toughest league top to bottom, but that only applies to this year. Every year I think the power switches up. i think the epl is probably the strongest more than its not but there are other good leagues out there. That being said, I don’t think the top teams in the epl are always the strongest in the world. This year I think the top 4 in the epl are some of the strongest in the world, but usually I think the top teams in other leagues are stronger. I think champions league play really supports that. A team can be having a smashing season in league but come champions league time all bets are off. This is why the milans and barcelonas, and madrids, and munichs of the world will always be a tough match up. even in off years, like milans this year, they are tough to play. This is why I think its dangerous to think that just because you play in the hardest league in the world you are the best team in the world. For example, many people wrote off sevilla in the tottenham match up. while tottenham will probably come back and win it, it is a much tougher match up that most would think.
    I know this was sort of rambling and disjointed but hopefully you are getting what I am saying. The epl is the best league in the world. The top teams in the top league are not necessarily the top teams in the world. The tops teams in the lesser leagues are usually the top teams in the world. And we aren’t even talking about teams like Sao Paulo and some of the s. American teams that never get a chance to prove there worth. They may be terrible, or they may be tops. Just looks what happened to Liverpool and barca when they went down that way. I know those games don’t really matter but they lost allt he same.

  5. Timothy B. says:
    April 11, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    Premier league is top now, no doubt about it. I’m still holding out for Iceland’s Úrvalsdeild. C’mon, Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar!
    Joking.

  6. joe says:
    April 11, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    Sir Alex qualified his statement saying that a few years back the Spanish league is better. Which was true. In the current season however, its hard to hold any league up to the Premiership. Certainly Italy have nothing to say in the matter due to the disgrace they have put on themselves. Spain, the only real challenger has been dissapointing this season with both their big guns going out of Europe early. I would say England’s big clubs are better than their opposite numbers across Europe. I couldn’t tell you whether Portsmouth are better than Receativo Huelva or Parma. But for the most part I think Sir Alex is correct.