Well, yes they do have better youth systems but those clubs you mentioned are pretty much cherry picking the best talent, at all levels and at relatively cheap prices.
2 Likes
Replace Tottenham/Leicester/West Ham with Schalke/Dortmund/Leverkusen or Sevilla/Villarreal/Valencia and you have your answer.
For example, Bayern Munich’s squad consists of:
Neuer, Nubel, Sane and Goreztka from Schalke
Sule from Hoffenheim
Gnarby from Bremen
The only difference, as @redfanman pointed out, is that in other countries, the big teams can obtain their domestic talent from other teams cheaply. That used to happen in the EPL pre-2008, as you rightly pointed out, before the other clubs got rich enough to starve off the big clubs from picking their talents cheaply.
2 Likes
The overall of supply of domestic talents is also more plentiful on aggregate in other countries as well - and this was the thing before 2008 as well - England really really lacked young talents between 2006 and 2014. I mean, between Gerrard and Sterling, you only really had Henderson and Wilshere (unless you consider the likes of Young, Downing and Lennon as talents). But during 2001-2006, England actually had a surplus of quality players, especially FWs.
FA homegrown rules, which drove up prices of domestic players, became a thing specifically because clubs, especially big clubs, stopped using homegrown young players and instead bought foreign stars, thus neglecting youth systems. That trend began in 2004/2005, championed by Wenger, Mourinho and Benitez (Henderson would have never been with us had Benitez been still around in 2011). The result is that England squad in World Cup 2010 was among the oldest (together with France and Italy) in that tournament, with abysmal performance, exceptionally low energy and disastrous results.
IMO, FA rules certainly contributed to the situation where prices of domestic players often exceed their real talents, but supply is also a big factor as well.
PL broadcast rights has always been split more fairly as well, I think the big two kicked off a few years ago after Lá Liga TV started to implement them more fairly there. Wasn’t even comparative.
2 Likes
EL Final is after matchday 38.
On matchday 38 all games will have to be played on the same time and all teams have to be on 37 games already.
Will be difficult to find a free spot if not tomorrow, right?
1 Like
And we should be saying no to tomorrow, their fuck up. If the PL want to rearrange for after the season then so be it.
But in my view it would only be punishing us.
4 Likes
Our boys are staying in Manchester. Bet the scum fans won’t let them sleep tonight.
1 Like
Oh great, so they are trying to play it tomorrow, club needs to get a backbone.
5 Likes
We’re such fucking pushovers, honestly.
4 Likes
I don’t even think it can be guaranteed to be safe but no doubt Sky are pushing for that, nice afternoon bank holiday kick off.
Need to say it isn’t safe we are going home and if you can’t find a suitable date then give us the 3 points.
3 Likes
The first, whether Liverpool would remain at their hotel in Manchester for another night, has seemingly now been resolved, with Collymore himself claiming Klopp and his squad have left for Merseyside.
That effectively rules out a rescheduled kickoff for Monday night, as had been expected, because it would require the Reds to disrupt their usual routine in preparing for games.
3 Likes
3 Likes
Good to see
1 Like
The fairest solution appears to be to give Liverpool the 3 points and City a nice big fat asterisk.
5 Likes
Maybe we can ask to play on Wednesday.
They can split their squad. One half for our game on Wednesday and the other half for their EL game on Thursday.
Or… they can send their kids for one of the Games.
Not sure if similar happened before in English football. 
16 Likes
Briljant!
And … you and I know it will never happen, but I applaud the thought, well done. 
3 Likes
3 Likes
Sheffield United have become so horrible they’ll likely finish bottom half of the Championship next season.
1 Like
I’m not sure what you are basing this on - Benitez tried signing both Gareth Barry, even at the expense of losing Xabi, and James Milner. He succeeded in signing Johnson, Pennant and Crouch. The early Liverpool sides I remember from the late 70’s early 80’s onwards always had a fair number of players from the other home nations & Ireland and he continued this tradition with Keane and Bellamy.
Supply is a factor but only a very small one. The clubs you have referred to in your first post all an advantage of being the top dogs in their ecosystem and have been for a considerable time. Their advantage of their domestic rivals is considerable.
Not only do top British clubs have to compete against each other for signings they now rarely sell to each other. But also, its becoming progressively harder for these clubs to buy from teams throughout the rest of the division too (look at the resistance we got from relegated sides like Norwich on Aarons, and Watford on Sarr, the price Palace put on Zaha and Wan-Bissaka or even a club like Spurs getting knocked back on Grealish. Clubs with little money like Burnley and Brighton have knocked back sizeable bids for their players in the last year or two)
1 Like
Really are a shit team, glad we got 6 points from them under Wilder as they are just handing them out like confetti now.
2 Likes