EPL Talk » serie A

Are the Best Young Players in the World Shunning the EPL?

Sebastian Shepard — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:42:24 +0000

Who are the very best young players in the world? For the purposes of this article, “young players” are those no older than 22.

First there are the obvious: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Francesc Fabregas, Karim Benzema, etc. Their class has been established before this mysterious “young” label vanished, and subsequently they command enormous transfer fees, if their clubs are even willing to part with them. They often aren’t and for good reason. These are players who will win Ballon d’Ors, change Champions League finals in a single play, and will also sell shirts.

Then there is a second tier of young players who might becomes world class, but aren’t quite there yet: Chelsea’s Mikel, Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi, Werder Bremen’s Mesut Ozil, Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain, etc. Another way of saying this is, although they wouldn’t be guaranteed a starting position on a Champions League final team, they’d at least be on the bench.

Then there’s a third tier of players who are still unpolished and generally unproven, though many people believe they have the quality to go on a to great things. These are players like Inter’s Santon, Everton’s Rodwell, AZ’s Dembele, Palermo’s Pastore, Bayern Munich’s Kroos, or Athletic Bilbao’s Muniain (the new youngest La Liga goalscorer, or “the Spanish Wayne Rooney”).

What strikes me from these lists, which are meant to be totally cursory and by no means inclusive, is the lack of EPL representation. Considering the league has come under fire for “luring youngsters away from the academies that developed them”, why do football’s future luminaries seem to ply their trade on the continent?

Some might say they don’t, and that the best youth in the EPL could easily match Serie A and La Liga’s best young players. Aaron Lennon, Fellaini, Agbonglahor et al, the argument goes, have just as much class.

Teams like Arsenal, Everton, West Ham, and Manchester United have fine traditions of developing youth players into great players. These traditions, especially at Everton currently, look like they’ll continue.

Yet despite Arsenal’s policy of youth, I see few players who will go on to be world class. Fabregas already is, Nasri has a great chance of becoming, and for Jack Wilshire and Aaron Ramsey, it’s too early to tell. But can anyone see Bendtner as Ibrahimovic’s heir, or Denilson as a second Fabregas (or a defensive midfielder, or whatever they want to make him these days)?

In La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Eredivisie, and the Bundesliga, these young players have a greater chance of getting lots of playing time and actually being stars.

Would Fiorentina’s Stevan Jovetic (in my opinion the second best teenager in the world, behind only Pato), have started for Liverpool in the match in which he scored against them?

Probably not, likely because he isn’t good enough to do so. As exciting a prospect as Jovetic, he still could not have replaced Gerrard, Torres, Benayoun, Riera, or Kuyt because he isn’t a better player than any of them. He does, however, have the potential to be better than the last three especially. Yet in Liverpool he would ride the bench this season, just as he would at Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, or Manchester City. He would get chances at smaller clubs, but he wouldn’t taste Champions League football like he does now at Fiorentina.

At the best clubs in the EPL, the competition is too great for young stars to truly break through, it seems. I don’t mean seeing the least four minutes ten games per season, but rather the chance to play 90 minutes regularly.

With the exception of the “predestined” youngsters – the Fabregases and Messis and Rooneys and Ronaldos – the Serie A, La Liga, Eredivisie, and the Bundesliga provide better opportunities.

It seems the youngsters and their agents realize this too. Javier Pastore, Palermo’s 20 year old midfielder, was hesitant to join Manchester United when the rumors were flying because of the lack of minutes. Instead, he opted to join Serie A’s 8th place Palermo. He might have joined a team in the Champions League, but now he gets to play about 30+ games per season, ninety minutes each. His contract lasts until he’s 25, when by then, he could be one of the premier playmakers in the world.

When the “Big Four” come knocking, the theory goes, you don’t turn down the golden opportunity in your career. It’s supposed to be your big chance to break into the national team, to win trophies, and become an elite player. This doesn’t seem to be the case in the EPL, with the exception of the truly greatest.

For simply the good players, let Chelsea’s Saloman Kalou be a warning. When the Blues signed him in 2006, it seemed like the 21-year old could be Chelsea’s Cristiano Ronaldo – a winger who could score lots of goals and dribble past opponents. Instead, he’s gone from promising star to inconsistent substitute, age 24. One can’t help but wonder what might have happened if the Ivorian had opted to join a German, Italian, or Spanish club instead of one of the EPL’s elite and hyper competitive giants. Would the consistent minutes have made him a better player? It’s very possible.

English Premier League Ranked Number One by the IFFHS

James Harris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:00:03 +0000

First of all, a quick, somewhat belated, Happy New Year to the readers of EPL Talk, my fellow writers, and, of course, The Gaffer, to whom I’d like to express my gratitude for inviting me to be a member of his 2009 squad. I look forward to sharing news, opinions, and participating in debates regarding the greatest sport in the greatest league that we all follow.

Those festive pleasantries provide me with a nice transition into my first contribution for 2009, and a hot topic for some debate. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), the English Premier League is the top football league in the world for the second consecutive year.

The IFFHS generate a ranking using a statistical formula based primarily on the performance of teams from the various national leagues in continental tournaments. The recent strong performances of English teams in International club competition, particularly the European Champions League, has resulted in the EPL dominating the ranks for the past couple of years.

Before we even take a look at the breakdown, most ardent followers of the game would not be too challenged in throwing together a list of the usual suspects from the best leagues around the world. Off the bat, most people would guess that we could expect to see the EPL joined by the top flights from Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and Brazil, but the order as ranked in this study may throw a few surprises.

Here is the list of the top ten national leagues according to the IFFHS 2008 report:

1. England
2. Italy
3. Argentina
4. Spain
5. Brazil
6. Germany
7. France
8. Mexico
9. Portugal
10. Ukraine

The complete list of the top 100 domestic leagues

The rankings may raise some eyebrows to say the least and has the potential to spark many other debates and ideas for future articles.

It is not exactly shocking to see the EPL, Serie A, and La Liga in the top four, but I must admit to being a little surprised to see the Spanish top flight fall to fourth spot behind Argentina, and the Dutch Eredivisie (one of my personal picks outside of the EPL) not even able to crack the top ten. Many people will make the case for Serie A or La Liga to be the strongest in the world, though it is interesting to review the summary of the results to get an insight into the reasoning behind the standings.

There is no doubt that the streets of Buenos Aries and Rio De Janeiro are the breeding grounds for some of the most talented footballers on the planet, but I have always somewhat doubted the strength of the respective domestic leagues purely because it seems that the top talents jet to Europe to earn their stardom and riches. Thus far, the elite players of South American football have had limited, or at least mixed, success in the English top flight, but there can be no questioning their influence on the Spanish and Italian leagues, dating back at least 20 or 30 years.

Maybe the high rankings of the Argentinean and Brazilian leagues are simply a reflection of the constant stream of talent produced in these countries. After all, their respective success at the International tournament level speaks for itself. A call-out to the Mexican league is also in order where typically it seems that not so many players are ‘exported’.

However, on the domestic front, this study really confirms what I, and maybe (or maybe not) many of the followers of this site, already realize; that the EPL is the strongest and most sought after domestic club league in the world. The English top flight is a massive worldwide product that is ever increasingly difficult to quantify. The reception that Manchester United received recently in Japan as they embarked on the FIFA World Club Cup mission is just an example.

Champions of the World and the World’s Greatest League

The English League Championship Promotion Playoff Final is dubbed the richest football match in the world, as the winner attains a pass to the Promised Land, albeit in many cases a temporary one. Television rights to the EPL are unrivaled in terms of global domestic competetions.

Team for team, player for player, coach for coach, there really is nothing quite like the English Premier League.

Agree? Disagree? What are your top 5 leagues? Is the EPL deserving of the top spot? What about the MLS of the USA ranked just below the leagues of Angola, Ivory Coast, and Finland?

You know what button to hit below and we look forward to hearing from you….Cheers!

The Third Half Podcast: Episodes Two and Three

The Gaffer — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:32:35 +0000

Episodes two and three of The Third Half Podcast are now available. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to them, click on the player at the foot of this message to hear the episodes via your browser. Or, better yet, subscribe to the EPL Talk Podcast stream via iTunes where you’ll automatically get the EPL Talk Podcast and The Third Half as soon as a new episode is published.

Hosted and produced by Johnathan Starling, The Third Half is definitely recommended listening. As well as featuring raw opinions about the Premier League, which are refreshing to hear, Starling also covers the other major leagues such as the Championship, Major League Soccer, Serie A, La Liga and more.

Be sure to listen episode two followed by episode three below:

[display_podcast]

Podcast Review: The Third Half

The Gaffer — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:51:42 +0000

It may be just me, but lately I’ve been burned out listening to podcasts. So much so that my weekly diet of half a dozen different shows has now dwindled down to one or two. The same goes for non-soccer podcasts too. I find myself occupying my listening time with my newest addiction, Audible books, but that’s a story for another time.

When I do listen to football podcasts, I find them more enjoyable when I listen to them a couple of days after they’ve published so I can hear whether their mid-week and weekend predictions were on target or completely off-base. It helps me gain a better appreciation of how knowledgable the experts really are.

So earlier this weekend, I tried a new podcast. New for me, at least. It’s been around several months, but now is available only on the EPL Talk Podcast stream at iTunes and here. Hosted by Johnathan Starling, The Third Half is quite unique as it takes you around the leagues of Spain, Italy, England, United States and Europe all in one show.

To me, I judge the quality of a podcast by whether I learn things from it. In the case of The Third Half, I learned quite a bit about the lesser known teams in the Champions League thanks to Starling and interview guest Lonnie Smetana who was interviewed during one of the segments. I also enjoyed the analysis of Serie A and La Liga, which was a lot more well rounded instead of the brief remarks I usually find on The Guardian’s Football Weekly Podcast.

Well rounded is a good description of the entire Third Half podcast. If you’re the type of individual who enjoys learning about what’s happening in most of the major leagues around the world, give the show a chance. Try to ignore the audio quality, which I’m sure will improve on future episodes but listen instead to the knowledgable exchange of football discussion between the host and his guests during the interview portions.

You can hear the latest episode here:

[display_podcast]

Flamini Signs With AC Milan

tyduffy — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:13:07 +0000

According to The Independent, Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini is Milan bound as of July 1.

Flamini will reportedly sign a five-year 20 million Euro contract with A.C. Milan. The Rossoneri see him as the eventual replacement to Gennaro “The Snarling Dog” Gattuso.

The contract was worth a million more per year than Juventus’ offer and much more than Arsenal was ready to pony up.

Wenger urged the midfielder to stay loyal to the Gunners, but given his treatment at the club before this season, Flamini was perhaps wise to look out for numero uno.

Flamini is a fine player,but not irreplaceable. Arsenal have an experienced hand in Gilberto as well as frisky youngsters like Diaby and Denilson itching for a chance.