The gulf between Prem and championship

Alvez_48

Well-known member
Watching Boro Vs Reading was so utterly pedestrian and yet also two teams that could well be up there this season (we need to turn those draws into wins soon though).

Outside of the bottom 3 or 4 teams the prem teams all play with so much more pace, guile and flow at the moment.

I might be wrong but the past 2 or 3 seasons seems to really have widened the gap.
 
There is no bigger nor smaller gulf than 5,6,7 or even 70 years ago Alvez. There is a pool of players let's call that x. There is a percentage of x that player in the Premier league. Let's say that the equation for that is x/4 4 representing the number of professional leagues. That means that x never changes over time. Now let's assume that y players play in the championship. And let's assume that y=x-(x/4)/3 where 3 is the number of professional league minus the premier league. Y never changes over time. I accept that it is a global game, x increases but the percentages don't change a bit. Ergo no matter what the financial disparity between the Premier league and the championship is the gulf in class never changes. Finally I think you will find I have proved my point, end of thread. Oh I have been drinking for full clarity.
 
There is no bigger nor smaller gulf than 5,6,7 or even 70 years ago Alvez.
A difference is squad size, the quality in depth of that squad & the wages they are on.

When Villa won the league in 1981 they used 14 players.
Last year Liverpool used 24.

That is nearly a full side of players, good enough to play infrequently for the champions and certainly good enough to play regularly at a lower level.

That concentration of talent at the top stops it filtering down through the leagues, and will have a detrimental effect on the quality of the game.
 
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New username are squads bigger though? It's not the number of players you use, but the squash size. Isn't the first team squad limited?
 
New username are squads bigger though? It's not the number of players you use, but the squash size. Isn't the first team squad limited?
Premier League rules are 25 players in the first team squad, of which 8 have to be 'home grown'. In addition they can register u-21 players who would be eligible to play for the 1st team, last year in the prem each team had around 50 u-21's registered.

From listening to old pros (post premier league era but not from last 5-10 years), appearance money made a difference to them. If they weren't in the XI, weren't in the matchday squad, they felt that at the end of the month and so would consider moving clubs to get that playing time.

The top clubs had started paying massive basic salaries 20 years ago & so you got people prepared to wait their contract out (Bogarde), that has dropped down to the also rans now. Why leave the squad of a mid-lower Prem team and play for a top Championship club if it is going to cost you money?

I also think due to the top clubs searching worldwide for top players means when they can no longer do it at top 6 level, there is less chance of them dropping down & playing out their career in the lower divisions. More likely they'll return to their home country or play in China, Middle East or the US.
 
I've been more shocked by the ability of the mid level teams like Southampton to be honest @Laughing ..

Watching them attack yesterday I thought they would dismantle anyone in the champo.

Even Newcastle (vomit) have such a quicker pace to the way they play.

It feels like the championship is played at half speed. You're probably right though it's more in my head than reality.
 
New username may have a point about wasted talent in the prem benched or not even in the squad.

The step up is definately more difficult than it used to be perhaps that supports your claim Alvez. I am not totally convinced though
 
I've been more shocked by the ability of the mid level teams like Southampton to be honest @Laughing
I'm not really a football fan, I'm a boro fan, I don't watch MOTD unless we are on and I thought that in 2016/17 when we were last in the Premier League.

1st game at home to Stoke and I was surprised by the quality of their football especially when it went through Arnautovic and Shaqiri. Thought f*** it is going to be a hard season.
 
New username are squads bigger though? It's not the number of players you use, but the squash size. Isn't the first team squad limited?
You get to name 18 players on a match day now, which gives some of the better players the illusion of being “in the side” when in the past they’d have gone to a lesser club for first team action.

Nowadays, players like Juninho, Le Tissier and Okocha would be sat on Man City’s bench instead of starring for a smaller club.
 
Teams finishing near the bottom of the league will be making more money than the likes of AC Milan. It's why I couldn't stand the big picture nonsense, it's a tremendously competitive league, for this era, and needs to stay that way.
The beauty of football though is that teams can and do come up from the championship and compete. They're not just making up numbers. As bad as we were I think one or two quality players and we would have been comfortable.
 
Teams finishing near the bottom of the league will be making more money than the likes of AC Milan. It's why I couldn't stand the big picture nonsense, it's a tremendously competitive league, for this era, and needs to stay that way.
The beauty of football though is that teams can and do come up from the championship and compete. They're not just making up numbers. As bad as we were I think one or two quality players and we would have been comfortable.
I even think if we’d just had a manager who wasn’t quite so single-minded about their philosophy and a bit more willing to listen to others and learn from their mistakes we may have stayed up. All ifs and buts though. There’s always the argument that doing it his way is what got us up.
 
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