Premier League Predictable?

[Rigadon]

I just did the BBC predictor and was struck at how this seasons premier league final table could look.  For all the talk of how unpredictable this season has been I have the final table looking like this:

Top 6

Man Utd
Chelsea
Arsenal
Man City
Spurs
Liverpool

Mid-table

Us and other teams

Relegated

Wolves
Wigan
Blackpool

I know it's not finished but aside from us being so utterly shit, thats exactly what I would've said last September.

[The Left Side]

And they say the PL is the most exciting in the world!

[eamonn]

More exciting than La Liga.
 Nice to see Napoli and Dortmund have good seasons in Italy and Germany after long periods of under-achievement.

[Karlos96]

I'd rather watch La Liga than the Premiership I think the standard over here is poor.

[Ad@m]

You're right, it is utterly predictable but hopefully the emergence of Man City and Spurs (up until this season, I'd have had us potentially in that list!) to break the Big 4 dominance will throw a bit more unpredictability in to it.

The loss of the Champions League money for any of the teams who are used to it is a massive blow - Liverpool's finances were screwed until the new owner came in - so I can see it livening up a bit.

It also might be interesting if and when QPR come up - they're owned by one of the richest blokes in the world some I can see them spending a decent amount of cash.  Whether it'll be enough to get them challening up at the top I'm not sure but it could get interesting.

[The Left Side]

The bundesliga looks interesting, cheap prices, beer in the stadium and who knows who will win it.

[UsualSuspect]

I'd rather watch La Liga than the Premiership I think the standard over here is poor.
[/quote

After a break of a few years I have watched probably 25 games over the past to seasons and can honestly say apart from maybe 3 teams in the PL the standard is terrible.

"best league in the world" my arse

[Deano's Mullet]

At the top its probably been utterly predicatable since about 1998 ish onwards with Chelsea joining Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal as the only teams capable of winning the title. Just behind them you had a mixture of Leeds, Villa, Everton, Spurs, Man City and Newcastle (Middlesbrough occasionally too) although these have swapped and changed. Relegation wise it is much more difficult to call. It used to be the three promoted teams getting relegated straight away but nowadays it seems there isnt much difference between the lower half of the PL and the top half of the championship - those teams coming up arent neccessarily going straight back down. Title wise its as boring as hell though.

[Irish villain]

Too much of the money has got concentrated among certain clubs. It used to be more competitive before that happened with clubs like Everton, Leeds and ourselves popping up to win every now and then. Realistically only four teams can challenge now and two of them because they were bought by billionaires.

[ktvillan]

No the PL is genuinely competitive and unpredictable.   And much of this is to do with the fair way the money is distributed. I know this because I heard Richard Scudamore saying so on some programme or other about a week ago.  I mean, there were several games to go and still anyone could win it as long as it's Man Yoo or Arsenal or possibly Chelsea.  Again.  There appeared to be no hint of irony in his tone, nor did he appear to have his tongue firmly planted in his cheek so I can only imagine he genuinenly believed what he was saying.   I could not believe what I was hearing and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.   An even bigger deluded prick than I imagined, and believe me I had him down as a  monumental prick before this.

[not3bad]

Did I hear something about the EPL being a more attractive "product" to sell abroad (especially fair east) if there is not an "unknown" name popping up and getting in among the "familiar faces"?  Spoils the apple cart so to speak.

[hawkeye]

I watched the Wolves SHA game, it was awful. There is so much crap football played in the PL and the worse it gets the more SKY hype it up. Its 11 athletes v 11 Athletes with the outcome pretty muc decided before a ball is kicked in terms of the top 4. Then a monumental scrap to work out who gets relegated.

[CJ]

Depressingly predictable and part of the reason I'm increasingly falling out of love with the game.  Unless you're one of the 'big' teams now there's precious little to aim for every season - especially with a manager who believes we are unworthy to compete for the FA Cup. Renewing my season ticket now is becoming force of habit rather than feverish excitement.

[Rigadon]

Depressingly predictable and part of the reason I'm increasingly falling out of love with the game.  Unless you're one of the 'big' teams now there's precious little to aim for every season - especially with a manager who believes we are unworthy to compete for the FA Cup. Renewing my season ticket now is becoming force of habit rather than feverish excitement.

I think I'd go along with that.  I'm less and less inclined to watch football that doesn't involve Villa.

[D.boy]

Too much of the money has got concentrated among certain clubs. It used to be more competitive before that happened with clubs like Everton, Leeds and ourselves popping up to win every now and then. Realistically only four teams can challenge now and two of them because they were bought by billionaires.

Spot on for me. The likes of ManU/Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool were always going to have the monopoly at the top end as they were creaming in the money season after season. This has made the league title race boring for the rest of us as we are realistic enough to know that the only way that group will be broken up is by another club being taken over by mega rich owners (Man Citeh) but this will happen very rarely.
If another team has a good season and is on the fringe of the top four then the top four teams raid that team for its better players thus weakening the outsiders and preventing further challenge to the top four (sound familiar).

The only chance the other clubs in the premier league have of any success is in the FA/Carling cups.
Money has killed football I'm afraid. It was much better before sky came along.