It’s that Mitchell and Webb sketch reprised. Premier League fans looking around nervously. Are we … the farmers? (credit to Charlie on X who asked me this question). How can we carry on if the Premier League isn’t “The Greatest League In The World”™? The Champions League quarter-finals have been a salutary reminder that there are good footballers in good football teams managed by good coaches who happen to play in other countries. You may be reading this after the Europa and Conference League games – who knows what state the coefficient will be in after Thursday’s Europa and Conference League games.
Best League in the World is an easy throwaway line. It feels very Barclays, very early days of the Premier League. Pump this up. Hype it up. Every game is great. We can’t have dead air. Football fans deserve more credit. For every great advert, for every Chelsea 4-4 Manchester City, there’s a Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal. And that’s OK. We love football because games are different: some are wild, some are tense, some are brilliant, some are terrible, and just give you a good chance to catch up with whoever you sit next to. We put the hours in – we know this stuff. It’s actually part of football’s joy.
The ease with which we can watch continental leagues has perhaps qualified our Premier League attachment. But I am definitely guilty of falling into a hubristic trap of believing I’m getting the best thing. If there needs to be a best league in the world, then there are compelling arguments for it to be the Premier League. It has the most money and the highest wages, which isn’t necessarily a good thing – but it means the greatest concentration of talent.
Manchester City winning five of the past six titles is a problem – for the sake of variety if nothing else. That stick Premier League fans used to beat Spain, Germany and Scotland with is slightly flimsier when every year a man in a sky blue shirt lifts the trophy. After last weekend there feels an inevitability that they’ll go on and do it again – here’s hoping Arsenal and Liverpool get out of their respective tumble dryers and challenge them to the end.
The old adage that anyone can beat anyone in this league is kind of true – it’s a useful thing to say if Palace win at Anfield. But it is stating the obvious that top teams don’t lose that often in any league. City have suffered three league defeats this season – against Wolves, Arsenal and Aston Villa. The top teams on the continent have been more dominant than that. Madrid have lost once (away at Atlético), Internazionale(at home to Sassuolo) and Paris Saint-Germain (at home to Nice) the same, while Bayer Leverkusen have proved that no one can beat them. Whether that is conclusive proof that the Premier League is more competitive is up for debate. All the top leagues have one or two sides cut adrift at the bottom. The sides down there lose a lot of games. Who knew?
What metrics are we using here anyway? Right now each Premier League club seems to view increasing their season-ticket prices more than the last guys as some kind of tone-deaf challenge. Affordability might feel as important as quality.
There exists an oversimplification that anyone who has moved to another league is a “Premier League flop”. How dare Dusan Tadic almost get Ajax to a Champions League final when he didn’t tear up trees for Southampton. Ruben Loftus-Cheek must be on the way down if he’s had to sully himself with lowly Milan. It is perhaps telling that two of this week’s heroes, Antonio Rüdiger and Eric Dier, have moved away from England. Of course not even the most dyed-in-the-wool PL ultra could make a case that Real Madrid is a step down from anywhere.
But Dier is an interesting case. He was nowhere near the Spurs first team, to the point where Ange Postecoglou was sticking full-backs into central defence as opposed to giving Dier the chance. There were some Carlo Ancelotti-sized eyebrows being raised when he moved to Bayern. If he can’t get into the squad for the side fifth in the Premier League but he starts for the second-best side in Germany, does that mean the Bundesliga is infinitely inferior? Or is it simply that players might not fit one system but slot in well into another? It is a testament to Dier that he is keeping Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae out of Thomas Tuchel’s side.
In a world where someone is telling Matt Le Tissier that Johan Cruyff is still alive you can find anything you want on social media. There’s a video of three quite eloquent blokes sitting in front of a Subbuteo pitch. “I think Brighton would win Serie A,” one of them says, slightly tongue in cheek. “You think?” asks the slightly confused host. “I think they’d contend,” said with more seriousness. “They’d definitely be in the top four wouldn’t they,” adds the third confidently. Of course this clip did the rounds after Roma hammered Roberto De Zerbi’s men 4-0 in the Europa League – a long time after it was recorded.
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It’s hard to tell exactly how serious they were being, but the reaction did illustrate the fact that there are enough people on the continent who believe the English arrogance is real. One Champions League preview where I said Inter’s group wasn’t that interesting was picked up by an Italian expert who accused me of “shit posting” about Serie A for clicks.
Maybe he had a point, but it felt slightly over the top. It created some content for him and some insults from another country for me. The fight for content, clicks, eyeballs, followers, listening/viewing figures certainly doesn’t help rational argument.
And this is before we get to another major tournament. Make England favourites. Paint your face. Ignore all historical evidence. Forget they play football in France and Spain. It’s coming home.
The ultimate question is: does anyone care? And if so why? The league you watch is the league you watch. The team you support are the team you support. Clearly you watch other leagues through the lens of your own. The thing you like the best doesn’t have to actually be the best.