Next years PL. the strongest ever?

[the other bob wilson]

Newcomers Fulham and Wolves are attracting talent like Seri and Patricio respectively. There's 6 genuine super teams, clubs like Leicester and Everton also looking real good.

I think the top 6 teams whilst being comfortable over 7th place, will drop a lot more points this season vs lower half teams.

I think it's fair to say that the 17/18 Premier League was recognised as one of the weaker ones since it's inception a quarter of a century ago, I see no reason really why it'll go from that to the strongest one ever in the course of a few months.

[Broken Machine]

I think it's fair to say that the 17/18 Premier League was recognised as one of the weaker ones since it's inception a quarter of a century ago, I see no reason really why it'll go from that to the strongest one ever in the course of a few months.

Huh? England was the best performing nation in Europe last season according to the UEFA coefficient score, with all five Champions League teams making it through the group stage to the round of 16, losing a total of just three out of 30 games. Arsenal did likewise in the Europa League, making the semi-final. Spending across the board was the highest it's ever been, with even Championship-Wolves signing one of Porto's star players for over £15m.

[the other bob wilson]

Huh? England was the best performing nation in Europe last season according to the UEFA coefficient score, with all five Champions League teams making it through the group stage to the round of 16, losing a total of just three out of 30 games. Arsenal did likewise in the Europa League, making the semi-final. Spending across the board was the highest it's ever been, with even Championship-Wolves signing one of Porto's star players for over £15m.

All that proves is that there was a bit of quality among the top sides and a lot of money was wasted building mediocre teams from about eighth downwards.

[Broken Machine]

All that proves is that there was a bit of quality among the top sides and a lot of money was wasted building mediocre teams from about eighth downwards.

All that spending money proves is that they wasted money? Again, huh?

[the other bob wilson]

All that spending money proves is that they wasted money? Again, huh?

Yes, for the "quality" it brought them there was an awful lot of money wasted and teams like Stoke, Swansea, Southampton, Watford, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton really weren't very good when you consider how much they spent.

[Broken Machine]

Yes, for the "quality" it brought them there was an awful lot of money wasted and teams like Stoke, Swansea, Southampton, Watford, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton really weren't very good when you consider how much they spent.

Right, but then you can always pick a few teams near the bottom of the table and say they weren't really good, particularly if you pick two of the relegated sides also. But, for a bit of perspective, have a flick through the squads of the Premier League sides ten years ago. 2007/08 saw a Sunderland team fielded a 36-year Dwight Yorke, Fulham's number 9 was David Healey and Middlesbrough were relying on Jérémie Aliadière. If you were to de-age those players ten years and dump them back into English football, I'd imagine they'd end up at some mid-table Championship teams like Preston or Bristol City, not surviving in the Premier League in the days when Fulham can spunk £25m on a French player from Nice without breaking a sweat.

And sure, you could try to argue that those three players are actually good, and we could be here all night because that is subjective, or that they were cherry-picked, or list some players you think were iffy from last season's squads. Fine, whatever. But what I really wanna know is, if you genuinely believe that half the Premier League ten years ago could sign better players from across the world with half the money spent today... how did they do it? And how can we copy them?

But really I think football fans nearly always say a league is the weakest or strongest ever. They love 'em some superlatives.