Are things in the Premier League about to change?

Interesting article. Click on the link as it wouldn't let me copy and paste.

http://triffictottenham.co.uk/are-things-about-to-change-in-the-premier-league/

lets not kid ourselfs here but seriously if we had beaten westham & wigan we would be sitting top of the table, we have a great chance this year of getting in the top 3 Man u are on the slippery ropes good job to, as for liverpool i dont give to shits about them let them go down, we need to win all our winable games , we can match any team in the prem, we just need to be consistant

Its been a long time coming baz ! i have always said its so boring man utd,chelsea,a*se and liverpool dominataing things in the prem for so long, creaming the cl riches and believing they have a god given right to do so.

Its good for the prem to see other clubs do well, knocking the perennials off their perches, liverpool is just a start now we need the other three overhauled by other clubs, other clubs with just as much old first divsion charisma and successful history as those previous mentioned.

Tottenham have broken the stranglehold, man city will too, the sooner other sides get it into their heads that these teams are beatable the better.

Nothing against what these clubs have achieved over the years, its just time others got a look in at last.

I did bring this up back in the AOL days, when the premier league added another £30M to every teams coffers. It has made a massive difference.
Where as before you had £100m teams up against teams turning over £15M we now have £200M teams up against £50M teams. It's still out of balance but the margins are much much smaller and the lower clubs are nicking points off the bigger clubs more regually now.

Teams Like Blackpool are having the time of their lives without a care in the world about the cost, they know they will be OK so long as they stay in budget

All teams can afford 1 pr 2 star players and at the top the best players are spread over 6 or 7 teams not just the top 4.
It's all good if you ask me, apart from the price of a ticket, but we need to be very carefull not to go the way of Pompey or leeds and over step the safety barrier. We could just as easily be in the bottom 5 as the top 5 if things go a bit wrong for a few matches as we proved two seasons ago.

We just need the cheating goons to stop getting away with it and the league would be a much fairer place to be

Copy & pasted below; an article in todays Telegraph about the ugly, avaricious beast that is the EPL. Goes very well in this thread I think, even tho' it only mentions our beloved Spurs just fleetingly . . . . . . .
(Written by Simon Briggs)


Premier League in danger of losing slice of its soul in global takeover
The creeping takeover of Premier League football by sharp-suited Americans is enough to beg the question: "So, Uncle Sam, what's wrong with your own football then?"
Actually, that's an easy one to answer. It's either played by seven-foot blancmanges in motorcycle helmets, or it's called "soccer" and hires washed-up thirtysomethings like David Beckham and Thierry Henry to pull in the crowds.


No, the Yanks know the score. However hard they try to push the footballing Frankenstein that is Major League Soccer, they accept that Europe's where the action is – and that it will remain so for as long as the ball is round.


They also know that, of all the European leagues, the English Premier League is the one which has transmitted itself most effectively around the world. It is the chlamydia of sport.


Unfortunately, its very success has created a secondary condition – that of the parasitic, absentee owner, who has no connection with the club other than its position on his assets sheet.


In a new essay, published in the pictorial history book Decade, the acclaimed author Simon Kuper examines this phenomenon of sporting globalisation. He starts by reminding us of what a relatively recent phenomenon the international Premier League is.


Only 10 years ago, he says, checking the result of a Manchester United match would have been a logistical nightmare for anyone beyond the English Channel.


Today, it is available in hotels, bars and living rooms, thanks to the ever-increasing reach of the internet and satellite TV. The result is that "never before have so many people around the planet watched so few athletes".


La Liga may have better teams. The Bundesliga may have bigger attendances. But, as Kuper writes, "the major English football clubs have fans everywhere, from the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, to Russians who follow Chelsea because it's owned by a compatriot, to owners of 'matutu' taxis in East Africa who plaster the logos of their favourite clubs on their windscreens".


The trouble is, you can't conquer the world – as everyone from the Romans to the Victorians discovered – without losing a slice of your soul in return.


It is the same with the Premier League: even as it colonises, so it is colonised by the polyglot footballers and rapacious financiers who follow the money trail around the globe.


Liverpool's purchase by John W Henry maintains the number of foreign-owned clubs in the Premier League at nine out of 20. So, not quite a majority shareholding just yet. But remember, those nine clubs include the cream of the crop: all of the so-called 'Big Four', plus Manchester City and Aston Villa.


The interesting question is why, at a time when margins are being squeezed and attendances are flatlining, do the foreign investors keep piling in with their wallets akimbo?


The answer is almost frightening: they believe that the Premier League can get even bigger, even more corporate, even more aggressively expansionist. God help us.


How can this happen? Well, if you happen to be based in one of the major financial centres of England – London, Manchester, or even potentially Leeds next season – you can build a mammoth stadium and fill it with corporate dollars.


Clients of City firms routinely fly in for a midweek meeting before heading out to a Champions League match in the evening. Hence Tottenham Hotspur's application to build a 60,000-capacity monster next door to White Hart Lane.


Liverpool will never have the same commercial clout as the London and Manchester clubs, simply by dint of their location. But the history, romance and reputation of Liverpool FC gives them potential for further expansion overseas. Sports fans, even those on the other side of the world, are suckers for authenticity – and that's a quality the Reds have in spades.


As Kuper points out, the tendrils of satellite sports channels have worked like the old spice routes of imperial expansion. Thanks to some canny dealings by chief executive Richard Scudamore and his cohorts, the Premier League has conquered much of the Third World – notably Africa and the Far East – through free TV deals for countries who could not otherwise afford to watch.


But even here, men such as Henry will see room for improvement. The Premier League clubs do not work well en masse, finding it impossible to agree on something as simple as a bank of central sponsors for their advertising hoardings, as happens in the Champions League.


They could learn a lot from the concerted efforts of the American franchises in the National Football League, who export an annual showpiece to London. And with the American influence on English football growing all the time, they surely will. Expect that 39th match to be back on the agenda before long.


As for Henry, his first priority must be keeping his team in the Premier League. But it is fascinating to imagine what might happen if they went down. With a big beast like Liverpool to feed off, the Championship could soon be emulating its big brother, and going viral around the world.


The next time you get into a 'matutu' taxi in east Africa, you might even find Scunthorpe United's logo plastered onto the windscreen.

One danger of foreign ownership, particularly America, is the removal of a premiership club to foreign shores in an attempt to make that club the catalyst for overseas football. It's happened in American football, base ball, basketball etc where teams up sticks and move to the other side of the country to increase wealth. Also how long will even a mega rich owner like that of Citeh put up with the sort of losses they published last month, where their wage bill exceeded their turnover.

seebee1944 wrote:

One danger of foreign ownership, particularly America, is the removal of a premiership club to foreign shores in an attempt to make that club the catalyst for overseas football. It's happened in American football, base ball, basketball etc where teams up sticks and move to the other side of the country to increase wealth. Also how long will even a mega rich owner like that of Citeh put up with the sort of losses they published last month, where their wage bill exceeded their turnover.

Thing is SeeBee America is huge and moving the "franchise" elsewhere can pay-off, where-as England is small. Utd could make no more money moving to Basingstoke and Liverpool would generate no extra revenue moving to Margate, though they would feel at home with all the tea-leaves lol. As for relocating to another country I just can't see how that could work ? We may end up with 6 or so English clubs competeing in a European league but even then they would remain with-in this green & pleasent land. It would horrify me tho' if Spurs sold out to a foreign owner. Citeh is a rich-man's plaything. If the success comes quickly intrest will remain but if not you do wonder how long he will keep investing ? The one thing that may rear it's ugly head again is the so-called "39th game". You can really see the foriegn owners wanting at least one match a season where they demand it be played. A money-spinner. You have to hope that Platini's plans for financial fair play have the desired effect otherwise BIG teams may well end up going under and the pymarid sysyem in football will become worthless as only a small amout of clubs will have the financial muscle to compete . . . . . . .