Give the title to Man Utd now, the Premiership really is so boringly predictable!

[Fitzcarraldo]

That's a pretty average team to be honest. They're not going to beat Spain or Germany now are they? Not now, not in the future. Not ever

Why so confident they would never beat Germany? Fair enough Germany absolutley SPANGLED an ageing England at the last world cup, but the vast majority of this team weren't tainted by that.

Whose to say these players won't keep on improving and consistently keep United playing in the latter stages of the Champions League, maybe Citeh's bunch can even drag the Blue Moon there as well? Not even taking into account the young English players at Arsenal, Liverpool et al we stand a very good chance of beating Germany in the near future.

Spain are obviously a different matter entirely.

 

[The Auctioneer]

The Bookies know how this Prem League works: 700/1 anyone outside the top 6.
3/1 or less the top 3.
Championship: No club less that 4/1 and no club greater than 125/1 to win the respective division.
Thats how predictable the Prem is.

 

[Colossal Squid]

Why so confident they would never beat Germany? Fair enough Germany absolutley SPANGLED an ageing England at the last world cup, but the vast majority of this team weren't tainted by that.

Whose to say these players won't keep on improving and consistently keep United playing in the latter stages of the Champions League, maybe Citeh's bunch can even drag the Blue Moon there as well? Not even taking into account the young English players at Arsenal, Liverpool et al we stand a very good chance of beating Germany in the near future.

Spain are obviously a different matter entirely.

The creativity in that team would come from Young, Johnson and Milner, all of whom have played for England, without a great deal of success.

I do like Adam Johnson but Young and Milner just aren't that good. I doubt either would get into the German team.

Danny Welbeck is unproven.

I think we're looking good defensively for the future but we still haven't mastered confident on the ball, creative tricksters

 

[Knotty]

The Bookies know how this Prem League works: 700/1 anyone outside the top 6.
3/1 or less the top 3.
Championship: No club less that 4/1 and no club greater than 125/1 to win the respective division.
Thats how predictable the Prem is.

Agreed but if, like the Premier League, the top three teams in the Championship didn't move up to a higher division each season it, too, would be much more predictable, because the better, wealthier teams would, generally, fill the top spots.

Conversely, if the top three in the Prem were promoted to some Euro League, the Prem would be far less predictable.

 

[Fitzcarraldo]

The creativity in that team would come from Young, Johnson and Milner, all of whom have played for England, without a great deal of success.

I do like Adam Johnson but Young and Milner just aren't that good. I doubt either would get into the German team.

Danny Welbeck is unproven.

I think we're looking good defensively for the future but we still haven't mastered confident on the ball, creative tricksters

They performed so poorly because they were shoehorned, generally out of position, into a team that was in itself shoehorned into a formation that just didn't suit.

Having said that my prediction that we WILL beat Germany is based on some tactical mastermind coming in and sweeping us all away with a revolutionary new formation. Something that won't happen when Stuart Pierce inevitably takes charge.

Saying that a player is unproven - and therefore is not good enough - is one of the root problems that led to the ignominious reverse at the last World Cup. Germany didn't mind playing the likes of Muller and Neuer.

 

[The Auctioneer]

Agreed but if, like the Premier League, the top three teams in the Championship didn't move up to a higher division each season it, too, would be much more predictable, because the better, wealthier teams would, generally, fill the top spots.

Conversely, if the top three in the Prem were promoted to some Euro League, the Prem would be far less predictable.

Yep True Knotty. Wouldn,t it be fun if the Prem was based like a draft system for the NFL. If you are top 3 you can only spend £5m on players the next year. Then 4-6 £10m, 11-14 £15m etc. That would level it out over a few years. Apply this to all divsions without promotions throughout Europe and have a shake up. Love it! Waiting for the fallout..........

 

[Superphil]

Yep True Knotty. Wouldn,t it be fun if the Prem was based like a draft system for the NFL. If you are top 3 you can only spend £5m on players the next year. Then 4-6 £10m, 11-14 £15m etc. That would level it out over a few years. Apply this to all divsions without promotions throughout Europe and have a shake up. Love it! Waiting for the fallout..........

Until the FA actually start running their association, rather than being 'run' by the top teams, nothing whatsoever will fundamentally change in English football.

 

[Jookbeard Eagle]

In the PL these days, money talks:

Squad costs in no particular order:
Man City £396m
Man Utd £268m
Chelsea £336m

And they have the top 3 annual payroll costs too.

Who wants to stick their neck out and say they're going to end up as top 3?

I think you will find Chelsea's payroll costs are the highest of any club in the world, over £200 million/year and they operate losses every year of between £70-£100 million, they spent almost £100 million in Jan's window and have bought a Belgium keeper for £8 million (probably on a salary of £3-4 million a year) the young lad from Anderlecht for £20 odd million and Mata for £25 million goodness alone knows what salary he is on probably £5 million/year, I cant see Man U/City even spending so much, Zirkov was sold for a huge loss and a Serbian player has just been sold for another loss, so much for the financial fair play rules eh?, Chelsea's first team of players in excess of £100/k week and over £150k/week must rival any team in the world;
Cech - £100k/week
Cashley-£100k/week
JT £150k/week plus
Fat Frank £150k/week plus
Drogba £150k/week plus
Malouda £100k/week plus
Kalou £100k/week
Alex £100k/week
Anleka £100k/week
Essien £150k/week
Bosingwa £100k/week
Torres £200k/week
Ferreira £90k/week
Luiz £120k/week
quite a payroll isn't it and thats not including AVB (reportedly on £7.5 million/year and all the backroom staff) Buck , Gurley and all the other back slapping brown nosers on the pay roll,TBH I wouldn't mind betting that their payroll is closer to £300 million a year, ridiculous state of affairs and you lot go on how badly financed our place is, prize for the first poster to reply with the old chestnut "they service their debts so it's all ok!"

 

[Eastleigh Seagull]

Maybe I am older than most on this but the most boring spell ever in the top division in my book came with the Liverpool domination of the league in the late seventies, early eighties. Occasionlly teams would interject, Forest, Everton, Derby but in general it was always Liverpool. Then United came to the fore so in reality its been a league dominated by one team for the last 30+ years. The Championship (and the other lower leagues) will always be more open, as they always has been, due to the larger turnover of teams coming through it - one team cant dominate it as they can only do that for one season before moving up. The extra money in the league now though means that the rich will get richer - at least until the new owners get bored and leave - hence the importance of building slowly from a firm base - hopefully like us.