The State of English Football Today

The English Premier League is widely regarding as one of the most competitive leagues in world football. And yet, since it’s inception in 1993 only four teams have managed to win the title: Manchester United (12 times), Arsenal and Chelsea (3 times) and Blackburn Rovers (once).

Other teams have attempted to break this domination, usually with the help of some hefty foreign financial backing, including Liverpool, Tottenham and, most recently, Manchester City. As the form begins to settle down for the 2011/2012 season the old familiar faces are appearing at the top of the table and the rest will be left fighting for scraps or desperately trying to avoid relegation.

So where do we get this complacency about our league? Is it the influx of foreign players? Perhaps. But the novelty of watching the biggest names on the international stage plying their trade at Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford has surely worn off. The effects on our national team have been well documented with no sign of a trophy to add to our 1966 World Cup. Hopes of anything appearing in the trophy cabinet any time soon will have taken a dent with our recent scrambled qualification for Euro 2012 … Read more at FryingPanSports

Rewards for Success in Football Europe

Even though football season is now over, teams around the world are examining their finances and planning for the next season. Despite the ever increasing amount of money coming into football, many of the clubs in the Premier League and throughout Europe are still making a loss and even some of the most famous are heavily in debt such as Barcelona with a £400 million debt to go with their champions league trophy. This is hard to believe when we examine the financial rewards currently available for success in modern football.

Manchester United have now earned more than £60m in earnings from Premier League prize money and TV cash from the overseas deals from TV has ensured that current premier league clubs can earn up to £7m more than the 2009 / 2010 season.

The English league governing body better know as the premier league shares out income in various ways firstly the money based on position in the league, then on equal shares of TV income, which is then added to depending on how many times your club is shown on TV on domestic television. The 2010/2011 season, each premier league club received a total of £13.8m of the … Read more at FryingPanSports

Limp Losers or Gourmet Greats

As you walk in to a fast food establishment you’re likely to be enticed by the alluring advertised images on the menu.  But in fact what you actually get in reality is a limp, flaccid imitation based on over ambitious promises and over-pricing.  In many ways the fast food industry reflects the story of many misjudged signings by Premier League clubs since its inception 1992. Only time will tell if mega-signings Fernando Torres and Roy Carroll will be limp losers or gourmet greats. Here are the five worst signings made in the history of the Premier League.

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Thomas Brolin

The former Swedish international was a complete and utter flop during his spell with Leeds. As a promising youngster, his superb goal sent England out of Euro 92. At the peak of his powers, Brolin was strong, graceful and technically gifted.  But Brolin’s powers ebbed away as quickly as he piled on the pounds as many wondered if he was in fact the long lost twin brother of golfer Jon Daly. However, despite the striker’s demise, Howard Wilkinson saw him as the perfect foil for the club’s top scorer Tony Yeboah, paying Parma £4.5 million for the Swedish striker’s services in … Read more at FryingPanSports

The English Premier League

English Premier League

While English top division professional soccer has been played for well over 100 years, the English Premier League as we know it only came into existence during the 1992-1993 season.  The recently completed 2009-2010 season, which saw Chelsea FC win the Premier League title by only one point over Manchester United, was the 18th complete season in Premier League history.

In just eighteen seasons, the Premier League has firmly established itself as the single most popular soccer league in the world, and together with Spain’s top division (La Liga), it can rightly consider itself the most competitive and challenging soccer league on earth.  The stars who have graced the Premier League read like a ‘who’s who’ of world soccer: Cantona, Beckham, Bergkamp, Henry, Rooney, Owen, Lampard, Shearer, Anelka…the list could go on forever.

The dominant team of the Premier League era has clearly been Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.  Over the last eighteen seasons they have won the competition 11 times, finished 2nd four times and finished 3rd three times.  That kind of domination over a nearly two decade period is remarkable for so many reasons.  Sir Alex has won consistently over what really amounts to two or … Read more at FryingPanSports