The best league in the world?

W

Waz afcb

Fans' Favourite
Man City set to win their fourth title in a row.

Arsenal set to finish second again.

The ‘battle’ for top four over with games to spare.

The same old clubs occupying the other European spaces.

The three promoted teams relegated at a canter, despite two sides in the bottom half receiving points deductions.

Week after week poor referees showing clear bias towards and against certain clubs.

A poorly implemented VAR meaning long delays but no meaningful impact due to the ridiculously high threshold for ‘clear and obvious.’

FFP making it near impossible for the elite to be toppled.

Clubs spending hundreds of millions just to finish 16th/17th.

Still, the battle for tenth is going right to the wire right? Lol

Naturally I want us to be in this league because I want us to be the best we can be, but in all honesty this ‘competition’ we are part of right now is an absolute farce. From a fan experience point of view it is vastly inferior to the championship, league one etc in every single way. Part of me is very much looking forward to being back in a proper league at some point in the future.
 
Waz afcb said:
Man City set to win their fourth title in a row.

Arsenal set to finish second again.

The ‘battle’ for top four over with games to spare.

The same old clubs occupying the other European spaces.

The three promoted teams relegated at a canter, despite two sides in the bottom half receiving points deductions.

Week after week poor referees showing clear bias towards and against certain clubs.

A poorly implemented VAR meaning long delays but no meaningful impact due to the ridiculously high threshold for ‘clear and obvious.’

FFP making it near impossible for the elite to be toppled.

Clubs spending hundreds of millions just to finish 16th/17th.

Still, the battle for tenth is going right to the wire right? Lol

Naturally I want us to be in this league because I want us to be the best we can be, but in all honesty this ‘competition’ we are part of right now is an absolute farce. From a fan experience point of view it is vastly inferior to the championship, league one etc in every single way. Part of me is very much looking forward to being back in a proper league at some point in the future.
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Can't disagree with any of that and to be honest I never bought into the notion of the EPL being the best league in the world in the first place !

The PL needs to be very careful because decisions like those we experienced on Saturday are starting to make the league seem "quite suspect" to foreign markets. The commentators on Spanish DAZN were struggling to see how the penalty could be given AND how our goal was disallowed. Things like that will devalue the PL to foreign markets if they don't get a grip of it. Nobody is going to pay top dollar for TV rights to a league which they sense is being manipulated.

Glad to be in this league of course, but there is a lot to dislike about how the league is run !
 
Waz afcb said:
Man City set to win their fourth title in a row.

Arsenal set to finish second again.

The ‘battle’ for top four over with games to spare.

The same old clubs occupying the other European spaces.

The three promoted teams relegated at a canter, despite two sides in the bottom half receiving points deductions.

Week after week poor referees showing clear bias towards and against certain clubs.

A poorly implemented VAR meaning long delays but no meaningful impact due to the ridiculously high threshold for ‘clear and obvious.’

FFP making it near impossible for the elite to be toppled.

Clubs spending hundreds of millions just to finish 16th/17th.

Still, the battle for tenth is going right to the wire right? Lol

Naturally I want us to be in this league because I want us to be the best we can be, but in all honesty this ‘competition’ we are part of right now is an absolute farce. From a fan experience point of view it is vastly inferior to the championship, league one etc in every single way. Part of me is very much looking forward to being back in a proper league at some point in the future.
Click to expand...

can't disagree with any of that
used to look forward to playing the mega-clubs, now it's a chore
the sooner they fcuk off and form their own grubby league, the better
 
depends on your definition of best doesn't it? a lot of people think its the most entertaining - fast paced, exhilarating & skilful football, good battles & contrasts of style bottom v top teams, and the PL are certainly the best at getting money into to game as a (dreaded) "product".
 
I really don't care if its the best league in the world. What counts is that it is the best league in England and we are in it. I have always wanted us to play at the highest possible level and after waiting a long long time and never dreaming it would happen we have achieved that. Yes the Championship is great 46 games in a manic season but it ain't much fun if you start losing and dropping down the leagues. It wouldn't take too much to be back to 4,000 crowds and away days at Gillingham or Stockport.
Those with rose tinted specs of the good old days when we took 150 to Oldham etc can have it, but I prefer to see us going toe to toe with the best.
What needs to happen is not dreaming of the wonders of playing in a lower league but sorting out the issues that have been raised - VAR being the primary one.
 
As I said on Saturday, it's a paradox.

If we go on to have an incredible season one year and qualify for Europe, I'll lap up every single minute of that European tour. What an adventure for the club and fans!

If the fact we have a PL level squad means we somehow win one of the cups it'll be one of the greatest days of my life. It'd still be massively against the odds since they're mostly hoovered up by CL level squads but it does happen occasionally so isn't totally out of the question. What a thought!

When we bloody a PL nose that we aren't meant to touch, I'll savour and enjoy it.

Escaping relegation for another season? Wonderful. Even if we have the new stadium that would still be an achievement for a club this size. We have to punch above our weight every single season just to do that. I always want us to succeed and will celebrate that in whatever form it takes.

Enjoying the media coverage we get, even if it's a fraction of that given to teams considered more important? Lovely. There was a time I would whoop for delight if we got three lines on the third page of the Teletext 'Football In Brief' round up. In the PL they can't *completely* ignore us, even if The Athletic still don't have a reporter in place for us. They must be desperate for us to get relegated!

Football being played at Dean Court by *both sides* to a standard I never thought I would see on a regular basis? What a treat. The pace, power, skill, and tactical acumen on display are incredible. I know people say you can't compare eras, but I don't care, this AFCB side would obliterate any of our pre-2014/15 teams.

All that can be true and yet it's still the dullest league I've ever watched us in. That can also be true.

Every match is its own story with its highs, lows, quiet moments, and times of excitement. Individual matches can be incredible or rubbish, just like in any league. However, the overarching narrative of the league at the top is just... boring.

That isn't saying I want us back in the Championship, but the Championship is a lot more fun as a competition.

This isn't an AFCB malaise where we alone harken back to our days of eating football gruel because we think that's all we deserve. I've seen similar conversations and observations from fans of many teams who made it up here. Clubs with much larger fanbases than ours.

I love football. I love AFCB. If the six (seven?) bogged off to a European league never to play us again? I'd be sad for the loss of the history but probably breathe a sigh of relief that we have a proper league again.
 
All the leagues across Europe have 2 or 3 teams who dominate season after season ( normally just the one in France) and we’re not any different although we do some seasons have 3 or 4 teams competing.
The question is how do you change that and I don’t think you ever will until said teams bugger off to their own League.
Until then enjoy the ride. It’s certainly the best we’ve ever had and maybe we just have to put up with the inequity.
 
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