Is the Premiership still King?

After Barcelona’s Euro success, and the summer of snubs for Premiership teams would it be fair to say that Spain is the new soccer Shah?  If you support one of the Premier league’s top teams, you must admit that it has been frustrating to see us being brushed off by so many of the world’s top players.

Chelsea, as per usual have targeted pretty much everyone who’s anyone in the footballing world and have failed way side. Manchester United has even had a torrid time in the transfer market thus far.   If it wasn’t bad enough having Ronaldo prised from their grip, Man U have seemingly been rejected by pretty much every one of its main targets – Benzema, Ribery, Eto’o, Villa, etc.  With reportedly £100 million to spend they have had to settle for a player from Wigan, a starlet from the French Ligue 1, and a risky ex-Liverpool player with the name of Michael Owen.  Of course these players could go on to become great for the team but the point is that none of the Red Devil’s main targets wanted to relocate to Old Trafford.

So what’s going on?  Why would anyone in their right mind want to turn these great English teams down?  The question should be, unless they support one of these teams, why would anyone outside of the UK want to come to the UK play for one of them Premiership big boys when they could go to Spain and play for Real or Barca?  Real Madrid is assembling what seems to be one of the greatest squads ever – and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?  Barcelona proved last year that they can play some of the best club football the world has ever seen.  OK, the English Premiership is very strong across the board, but not one of its sides can play like Barca does on a week on week basis.

Another major challenge English teams face with purchasing the top talent is the wage structures they have in place and the impact the Euro exchange rate has on this.  Due to economic conditions, Premiership teams need to spend many more of their hard earned pounds to compete with the wages continental teams can offer.  If Premiership sides break their wage structure in order to pay a player in pounds the same as what he can get in Europe, chances are there are going to be a number of unhappy stars in its team.

Britain has had by no means a bad summer so far but we all know how dreary and grim it can get.  Football is a winter sport and the great British winters are up there with the most depressing imaginable.  Picture growing up in Brazil, Spain, or another hot climate and then coming to the freezing temperatures we have here.  This in itself has stopped many great players  (like David Villa) coming to the Premiership.

With the European Champions, and the all time most successful European team to boot, should we all bow down to the Spanish as our new footballing Sultan?  Well no.  English football has more global interest than any other league in the world and an average football attendance that is the envy of most nations.  Ok Spain can have it’s glory as the current crown wearer but it shouldn’t expect to be donning it for too long.