Portugal 0-0 Spain - Wednesday 7th October, 2020

[Stan 10,291]

Kick-off 19.45 (BST)

Venue - Estadio Jose Alvalade

[Cicero 3,755]

Spain has dropped tremendously in quality over the years...

[Mel81x 2,180]

I can't see either side scoring here at this rate. But of course I know this wont age well.

[Carnivore Chris 1,961]

On 07/10/2020 at 19:39, Cicero said:

Spain has dropped tremendously in quality over the years...

This seems to be the case for the majority of big football nations to be honest. They all look weak in terms of stars, etc.

In fact, it's same at club level as well. Nearly every top side looks significantly worse than they have. Only Liverpool and Bayern don't and a part of that probably comes down to the downfall of others itself.

I've never known the sport to look so weak in terms of genuine big stars and top sides, although there is alot of top young talent around right now so the near future will be bright in this regard. Loads of potential there for players to go on and make a mark on the sport.

It's like the whole sport is going through a period of transition.

The Premier league doesn't help though because every other league now are just feeder clubs for the Premier league, minus a small handful of clubs between all those leagues and every other club will now just have all their players bought every season and 1 league isn't good for the sport. It was bad enough having 3-4 top leagues. The sport needs a bunch of top leagues, not 1 and it's just as terrible for the sport as it would be to have a European Super League. Unless something changes there, then the future of this sport as a whole looks very bleak. 

[The Artful Dodger 1,709]

2 minutes ago, Carnivore Chris said:

This seems to be the case for the majority of big football nations to be honest. They all look weak in terms of stars, etc.

In fact, it's same at club level as well. Nearly every top side looks significantly worse than they have. Only Liverpool and Bayern don't and a part of that probably comes down to the downfall of others itself.

I've never known the sport to look so weak in terms of genuine big stars and top sides, although there is alot of top young talent around right now so the near future will be bright in this regard. Loads of potential there for players to go on and make a mark on the sport.

It's like the whole sport is going through a period of transition.

The Premier league doesn't help though because every other league now are just feeder clubs for the Premier league, minus a small handful of clubs between all those leagues and every other club will now just have all their players bought every season and 1 league isn't good for the sport. It was bad enough having 3-4 top leagues. The sport needs a bunch of top leagues, not 1 and it's just as terrible for the sport as it would be to have a European Super League. Unless something changes there, then the future of this sport as a whole looks very bleak. 

Not sure you can just pin it on the Premier League. Barcelona are every much a part of the problem you talk about, what a disgrace they are to their own history now.

[Carnivore Chris 1,961]

4 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Not sure you can just pin it on the Premier League. Barcelona are every much a part of the problem you talk about, what a disgrace they are to their own history now.

Ye but clubs like this are becoming what they are as a way to keep up with the modern game, i.e what the Premier league has made it. If clubs keep to traditions they no longer compete and lose all their players every year. They become like Italian clubs, or they become like Ajax.

 

[The Artful Dodger 1,709]

6 minutes ago, Carnivore Chris said:

Ye but clubs like this are becoming what they are as a way to keep up with the modern game, i.e what the Premier league has made it. If clubs keep to traditions they no longer compete and lose all their players every year. They become like Italian clubs, or they become like Ajax.

 

La Liga has been the epitome of the greed based structure for a long time now, the Premier League clubs dream of a system as unequal as Spain. Barcelona and Real Madrid stand at the pinnacle of how to rip off their own sport and other clubs. It's capitalism that's the issue, greed. And ultimately the fact people don't follow their local clubs properly, they'd rather watch it on the telly. 

[Mel81x 2,180]

The era of competing without money and retaining players died a long long time ago. What we're seeing now is an ultra-high cash-rich environment fueled by both clubs and the actual authorities that govern the sport across the globe. UEFA are just as much to blame for the way the sport is right now because they want to create these super-leagues/competitions under the guise that it spreads the competition more fairly while not helping the leagues themselves get their act together about being competitive from the first to the last teams in the top brackets.