The dominance of Celtic and Rangers, briefly threatened down the years by the likes of Dundee United, Hibs and Sir Alex's own Aberdeen team, remains unshaken and unbreakable.
The result? One of the most mind-numbingly tedious sporting events since Chris Tavare opened the batting for England, or Steve Davis used to grind out snooker win after snooker win.
English fans have never quite seen the point of a league which, in August, has just two potential winners - the last time it went outside the big Glasgow two was 1985, when Fergie's Aberdeen won their second consecutive championship.
But the EPL is going the same way as the SPL, with a group of two or three clubs capable of winning it, and the rest scrambling for UEFA Cup places or to avoid the financial calamity of dropping into the Championship.
The romantic notion that any old club, given an enterprising coach, the right players at the right time, and a bit of fortune, could rise to the top and actually win the league, has gone, submerged beneath the avalanche of money which has descended on football.
Title
Next season it will be 13 years since anyone outside of United, Chelsea and Arsenal won the league title, and even on that occasion it was a case of money talking, as Jack Walker's fortune bought a solitary title for Blackburn Rovers.
In the 60s, eight different clubs won the league title in ten years, including Burnley, Ipswich and Manchester City, amid some thrilling title races and with unexpected results always likely to place a new slant on the table.
Even in the 80s, when Liverpool dominated like no English club before or since, Aston Villa, Everton and Arsenal still managed to squeeze in title wins.
These days, the big clubs juggernaut their way to success, as witnessed by Arsenal's unbeaten season in 2004, and Chelsea's two runaway successes which followed.
United's revival last season, aided by Chelsea's injury problems, created a semblance of a competition. But even then, it was more basketball match than boxing match, with the title race won by the team that avoided the occasional slip-up.
Maturing
But Jose Mourinho, for one, thinks it is all about to change, and he singled out Tottenham as a club which could join the party at the top with United, Chelsea and a maturing Arsenal side. Whether his failure to mention Liverpool was an oversight or a dismissal of the Anfield club is unsure.
Spurs, of course, have been here before. People have been tipping them to pitch into the title race for over a decade, and yet they can never quite cross the Rubicon.
This year perhaps offers them a better opportunity than ever, with unexpected money flowing into the game from the bumper £625m overseas TV rights deal.
All 20 clubs will be flush with cash, and very few will consider using it in the way it should be used - to make football more affordable to the poorer sectors of society or to the next generation of fans.
In the mad scramble to keep snouts in the Premiership honeypot, clubs will spend, spend, spend, and the result will be the same. The less affluent clubs at the bottom will become more affluent but three of them will still go down.
The middling clubs will be richer middling clubs with one or two better players and the rich, like Liverpool and Arsenal, will become super-rich.
The only question marks about this process lie with the two current "super-rich" clubs, Chelsea and United, although placing that tag on United, who have massive debts, is questionable to say the least.
Constraints
Both clubs now appear to have financial constraints of their own, despite United's transfer splurge on Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves.
Chelsea appear to have heralded a new era of financial sense by picking up a couple of free transfers in Steve Sidwell and Claudio Pizarro.
Whether the new signings will take United to another level remains to be seen, but a striker is still needed while both Nani and Anderson, exceptional young talents, are untried in the Premiership and unproven at the top level.
Liverpool, still coming to terms with their own takeover and its financial implications, require a big cash injection to push them into the same bracket as United and Chelsea, while Arsenal need some surgery to enhance their maturing side.
All of which offers some hope to the likes of Spurs, who are sending out strong "not for sale" messages when it comes to their new favourite Dimitar Berbatov.
If Martin Jol can stand firm, the Big Four could yet become a Big Five, and at least the scramble for Champions League places could be interesting.
With the stakes high, and the spectre of Leeds United still rattling chains in the Premiership, it is not joining the elite which is the real problem - it is losing your place in it which becomes unthinkable.
What do you think? Have your say. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
i dont think the premier league will ever be as bad as the SPL. In the SPL the only teams to beat Rangers and Celtic tend to be each other, whereas in the PL everyone can beat anyone on their day and that has been proved over the years. Also i can only see more an more clubs getting major investment in the next 5 years meaning more clubs will have money to spend. Clubs like Newcastle, Spurs, Villa all now have good managers and financial backing to make a push over the next few years.
I personally think if clubs gave managers a bit more time then they would progress quicker, chopping and changing every year doesnt help them at all.
interesting how near the end of the article it contradicts itself and mentions bout 5 or 6 who could win! surely not a 2 horse race then!
and whats with putting uniteds winning the league down to chelseas injuries? how many did they have and how many injured did we have?
Three years ago there was an ex-Red that claimed it would be a league of one. Next season Arsenal and Liverpool will be stronger and Spurs, Villa and Newcastle will all improve. That doesn't sound like the SPL to me.
Yawn! I take it there is no news?
garbage news,call this a storey.
How can the epl ever be considered to the spl,com on tell me that???world class players in nearly every team in the epl twice the number of teams,thats like saying the la liga is like the spl or the seria a league.
Get some thing juicey.
Poorly thought-out article.
Three specific complaints:
One - this is not a Premiership-specific issue. Spain - Barca, Madrid, maybe Valencia can win it. Italy - Milan, Inter, Juve. Germany - Bayern, Bayer, Dortmund. Let's not start comparing all the top leagues to Scotland, where there has ALWAYS been this problem and where football clubs outside of Glasgow are simply not supported enough to change things.
Two - "Even in the 80s, when Liverpool dominated like no English club before or since, Aston Villa, Everton and Arsenal still managed to squeeze in title wins." Hilarious contradiction in terms. If Liverpool dominated like no other club before or since, then how did another three clubs win the title in that period?!!! If your argument is that in the late 90s and 00s no other clubs other than United, Arsenal and Chelsea have had a look-in,
then BY DEFINITION, these clubs must have dominated more than Liverpool did. You simply can not, by the rules of logic, have it both ways, Stuart!
Three - "All 20 clubs will be flush with cash, and very few will consider using it in the way it should be used - to make football more affordable to the poorer sectors of society or to the next generation of fans." Nice sentiment, but a case of rose-tinted glasses, my friend. Yep, football is big business with millions of pounds/dollars profit involved. It has been thus for the last 20 years so a bit late to be trotting out idealistic worries now. You make a living out of writing about and feeding off that same business, Stuart, so a tad hypocritical methinks.
I`m Sooo Happy to hear that Evans will be back Home for nxt season and i guess so is Pique & Rossi!! Now its all clear: Heinze and Sly out! we really dont need them; we need to give this young lads chances!! Thank you SAF cos peole talked about Asnl being the future Team; but without dout this is the Dream Team now:Foster; Evans;Pique; Evra; Vida;Carrick/OH; Ronaldo; Nani; Anderson; Rooney & Rossi!! GLORY GLORY UNITED!
Was going to post but Stu and Demo got there before me. If Stuart was Citys football writer I could understand this piece. According to Mr Brennan Liverpools dominace of the league in the 80's is unparalled and United only won the league this year because Chelski had loads of injuries !! Oh yes and the two new lads arent good enough. Hope SAF doesnt read this Stu.
Oops Stu lol!
Uve opened the door to reality for a few peeps & strongly & perfectly layed out the truth,i dont think they like the truth much lol.
As for Sir Elex, you do have it completely right, EPL is moving in the same direction as the SPL but that will possibly change once takeovers have benn complete & teams start to create order from chao's but thankyou Stu for putting a dent in the forever always Big i am section of manchester, oops i ment, anywhere in europe accept manchester lol. :P :D
The new TV deals will make it easier for Spurs, Newcastle and Everton to challenge the top four because those clubs will now be able to out-bid most of the rest of Europe on both transfer fees and player wages. And there's only a certain number of the top players that United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal can realistically employ.
When I say challenge the top four, I mean that Arsenal and Liverpool will have to up their games to stay there - let's not forget that those two finished 21 point behind United this season. Realistically, I think the PL will be a two-horse race again next season.
I understand that the Championship in England is the fifth richest league in the world. I think that puts into context the amount of money in the English game at the moment.
AIDED BY CHELSEA'S INJURY PROBLEMS!!!!!, how come the previous season we lost scholes and keane alonng with others and that get's swept under the carpet, even this season we have had loads of injuries, in Jose's spell at chelsea with the exception of robben and joe cole they have hardly been touched and neither used to even get a game, and this season all they really lost was cech and they have cuidicini in reserve and terry, so annoying how the press constantly claim that's the only way we won the title, try exciting football and free scoring.
I PUT MONEY ON IT, THAT ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT THE ELP IS NOT LIKE THE SPL ARE ROSE TINTED UNITED FANS, TIME TO OPEN YOUR EYES BOYS AND GIRLS.
I AGREE WITH THE ARTICLE IN SAYING THAT THE LEAGUE IS OVER IN AUGUST, THERE WILL BE TEAMS HERE OR THERE ABOUTS FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS BUT THE BIG 2 WILL STILL BE FORGING AHEAD OF THE OTHERS.
IN LA LIGA 7 POINTS SEPERATE THE TOP 5. WHERE AS 29 POINTS SEPERATED THE TOP 5 IN THE PREMIERSHIP, NO OFFENCE BUT I KNOW WHICH LEAGUE I FIND MORE ENTERTAINING. NO OTHER TEAM WILL WIN THE PREMIERSHIP THIS SIDE OF AT LEAST 10 YEARS, UNLESS SOMETHING RADICAL HAPPENS.
Finally somebody tells it how it is. Well done Mr Brennan you are redeemed. The Premier League is a bore. Period...nobody has a chance of winning anything outside of the top 4....and that is only 4 cos of Abramovitch.
Absolutely Ridiculous article written by Stuart Brennan and then supported by Jay.
Perhaps Jay should look back over what people have written previously before posting his own comments on. The most valid point that you made was "that will possibly change once takeovers have benn complete & teams start to create order from chao's "
I totally agree with Stu from London, Macca from Cornwall and Edinburgh Red.
Managers should be given a chance otherwise they will never be able to form the foundations for future success!
When Liverpool were dominating in the 80's like no other team has done before or since then, I bet he never wrtten a similar article about them! Going back to his argument that no team has dominated like them since, Ahem, the very team that your talking about Manchester United in the 90's!
The EPL is the most exciting League in the World if you want Passion, Pride and Speed in your game, in a nutshell Silk and Steel. It's a complete mix, where bottom can beat top on their day or give them a run for their money as proven in the Watford v Chelsea game.
Chelsea have recently joined the party in the so called "2 Horse Race" when Ranieri's Chelsea finished runners up. Before then it was Aresnal and Manchester United. That was the time to write the article! Liverpool were always just one player short of being Title Contenders, since their last win in '89 through to the mid 90's, as per the talk of their previous Managers. Now they just lack the killer touch when needed, Tottenham have always being there or there abouts and just need a bit more consistency, as have Newcastle apart from this season.
If you are looking at this season then you have to agree Arsenal are in Transistion but won't be for long as United were just before and Bolton have come on leaps an bounds too, so lets add them up now. That's at least 7 Teams that can make it interesting, that's 5 more than the predicted 2 Horse Race!
As for the comment on Injuries, nothing was said about it when United didn't win the Title but had injury problems. The excuse then was that United are a big enough club and should have enough quality players within the team to be able to step in and do the job. Then the same rule applies to Chelsea!
Sorry for having a Rant but the story really wound me up. Thanks for bearing with me though and taking time to read it.
P.s. Did United have any Injuries at all this year? And didn't we still Win the Title with Passion, Pride and Speed? I rest my case!
y the way
Can't see things changing in the short term. It's still going to be the big four battling it out next season with perhaps Spurs giving the Gunners a real run for their money for 4th spot. The likes of Everton, Bolton & Reading see it as an honour to finish 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th!
Aided by Chelsea's injuries? Chelsea have more than 11 players to choose from, backed by Roman's billions.
Manchester United at times had the entire first back 4 out injured. Vidic, Neville, Ferdinand and Evra?
How about no Saha for the second half of the season?
Or have you conviniently forgotten that?
The only difference is that Manchester did not make a noise about the injuries. Chelsea's Mourinho did!
I say that has been Chelsea's excuse for losing the premiership.
......and the journos love Mourinho to the extent of using his excuses in a stupid report like this one.
Two major points in his argument, and each shows a lack of depth of understanding.
Firstly, in Scotland the reason Rangers and Celtic are so strong is because they have been allowed to become so. Aberdeen have the potential to be the FOURTH power in Scotland, but the club who should be as big as the Glasgow pair ¿ but have failed to do so because of 130 years of mismanagement (think Newcastle plus City plus Leeds, then multiply it by 10) ¿ is Hearts. Edinburgh is the sixth biggest city in Britain (a bigger population than the city of Manchester) but look how little silverware there is at Hearts (four leagues, seven cups, four league cups). Only the most incompetent of directors can take pride in that. Now look what they've got ¿ an ex-KGB man who goes through more managers than Leeds. So the domination of the Old Firm is as much down to the incompetence of others and the religious divisions within Scotland as their own achievements.
The second flaw in the argument is that the author seems to have bought into the Chelsea propaganda. If Mourinho and the highly talented Kenyon keep bleating on about injuries costing them the title, eventually someone starts to believe them. That has happened here. What starts as an excuse for failure becomes a given in some minds if it's uttered often enough. That's what has happened here. Sure they lost Terry for a few games, but was he absent for more games than say Vidic was for United? Do the math, as they say. United also lost Neville, Rio and Evra for long spells, as well as Silvestre. Oh yes, Chelsea did lose Cech ¿ but weren't United without VDS for a number of games?
Compare like with like and you'll see how flawed the Chelsea argument is. But Stu has swallowed it whole.
United won the league because they played the best football and scored the most goals.
Examine the facts, Stu ¿ don't just repeat the propaganda. Journalism should be about being objective, not simply re-writing press releases.
Stuart Brennan here's a good topic for you to research and write about;
Berbatov reveals United admiration
this is on eurosport posted a few moments ago........
To stir matters furthur,I predict that within ten years that there will be no English players in the EPL.The reason?They will not be good enough and the England team will be selected from teams from the Championship!Look at United's two recent signings;great players but what must Rossi and Eagles be thinking about someone taking their jobs? What's the point in having an academy? to supply the lower leagues with players?
The problem is that the Prem teams are scared of losing and getting relegated or failng to win Cups because it is all about MONEY. No top team dares to have a couple of seasons off to bring young home grown players through,so they buy in order to get instant success and English players are not good value for money!
Red Rob: "Edinburgh is the sixth biggest city in Britain (a bigger population than the city of Manchester)"
Edinburgh has around half a million residents (including Cramond, Leith, South Queensferry, and Portobello), Manchester city centre has more or less the same, but if you take into account the outlying areas like Edinburgh does then the overall figure is 2.5 million people.
2.5 million people in Greater Manchester, compared to 5 million in the whole of Scotland.
I find it amazing read people complaining that the English league is boring! I cant see how it is more interesting in Spain where Real Madrid can still win the league despite playing very poorly for large parts of the season.
I didnt hear any complaints when there were 3 english teams in the semi's of the campions league this year?
Comparing the premiership to the SPL is flawed merely in the fact that the overall quailty of football in England is very good whereas in Scotland it is very poor. I would be very suprised if Celtic or Rangers managed to finish in the top ten of the premiership after a few 'honeymoon' seasons, if they were to join the premier league.
The excellence of the top four should be celebrated and not condemed.
Celtic (or) Rangers the best two teams in Scotland would find it more than competitive playing in the Championship Leage...certainly would be average teams in Premiere League..in this day and age of global soccer seen around the world (Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer seen here in the States) world class teams MUST buy world class players..yes..the winning word is MONEY MONEY MONEY...winning big time and packing in 80,000 plus at every game..no more or no less
think this is so wide of the mark its untrue; next year could be one of the tightest races ever. There are chelsea and united who will start as favourites and rightly so; but was impressed with arsenal very young team which witha couple of players which surely make a sustained push next year and spurs have bought well and have an outstanding coach in jol. It looks as if the newcastle giant could be roused at last with big sam in charge and a potential jackpot to spend; and after 17 years who is too say that benitez wont makea stronger challenge this year. Compare that to celtic or rangers in scotland. Spain offers a brighter picture but its still hard to see beyond barcelona or real for year in year out consistency and financial clout!!
Thanks Mr Manchester for saving me the bother. The other flaw in that particular post is the fact that Rangers and Celtic get around 50,000 fans each week whereas Hearts, Aberdeen or Hibs would love an average of 20,000 so there is no way they could compete financially without a rich benefactor. Especially now top players are more inclined to chase the dollar and wealth influences success to a greater degree (thank Thatcher's Britain and the preeminence of agents for that).
I think Newcastle will be more better than Spurs next season ,they don´t have the UEFA cup distraction. I can see Benitez winning another CL but never the PL . And Arsenal must improve because they can miss the top 4. By the way chelsea´s PL record is fading each year, most teams are now more capable of getting a result against them.