19 Apr 2021 10:27:49
Having slept on it overnight, I definitely feel that the ESL idea makes zero sense from a footballing sense for us.

As we have cemented ourselves in recent years as one of the elite clubs in England again, the cards were firmly in our hands with this one IF we had lobbied with the likes of United, City and Chelsea.

Think about it. Real and Barcelona are both skint. They needed this to happen. Spanish football had dominated European football for a decade but those days have now gone. It looked like the English clubs were going to have the chance to dominate the Champions League due to our clubs having better players than before, playing better football and with stronger finances than clubs in other leagues.

What could have happened in the coming years has been thrown away and El Clasico teams will be breathing a sigh of relief as they knew they would have struggled to bridge the gap with the English teams with their financial woes and our respective leagues as they are currently.

As for the other major leagues, I don't think Serie A ever really recovered from Calciopoli. The Milan teams have both struggled financially over the last decade and it is only just this season that a team other than Juve has won the Scudetto since 2011. As a competition, it had become redundant, as had the Bundesliga with Bayern and Ligue 1 with PSG.

The only real way for Juve, Bayern and PSG to judge how well a season had gone was how far they had gone in the Champions League. Their domestic leagues had become trivial in terms of sporting competition. The league title had become something to be taken for granted.

In England, it was different. Genuine competition existed among the top clubs at least for the league title and financially things were looking healthy despite the C.V.. We, (including us, United, Chelsea and City) have thrown away a fantastic opportunity for European glory over the next few years.

If our clubs had refused to join the ESL, would it have really been that valid a competition? It might have worked but I don't think the finances would have been there like they are now and it may have struggled to take off the ground.

It is such a shame that finances have dominated this decision so thoroughly. It is clear to see all FSG and the Glazers care about is the value of their asset. Chelsea and City were small clubs twenty years ago and will jump at the chance to cement their places among the permanent elite. As for Arsenal and Spurs, they will have surely bitten the hand off at the offer to join. I mean Arsenal are shocking at the moment and Spurs haven't won anything significant in nearly 50 years so I don't know how the entry criteria work out there. Got to feel sorry for Everton who have won the title more recently than them!

1.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 18:27:12
It is a shame when sub culture becomes main stream, once that happens you know that's the end, turn the clock back to the birth of the EPL and boom what do you expect?