Do You Count Ligue 1 as a 'Farmer's League'?

[Bandito Burrito]

Coming from a PSG fan Im starting to watch other leagues like La Liga, the Prem, the Bundesliga and even the Scottish Prem because seeing Paris win over and over is nice, but getting old

[Carnivore Chris]

It's the 5th ranked league in Europe and many players go from there to the Premier League and La Liga are a success. It's not the Prem ir La Liga, even though the latter isn't what it was, but it's hardly the Latvian division either. The Portuguese, Brazilian and Argentine leagues aren't as good as the French, but I wouldn't label those "Farmers leagues" either. All these are very watchable leagues with alot of talent.

Teams like Monaco, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, etc are also good teams.

It's definitely not where a player should be playing at the pinnacle of their career though. Mbappe, for example, would certainly be benefitted if he was to make a move to a big Spanish or English club.

 

[Bandito Burrito]

Yep, hope he moves somewhere in the coming years

[6666]

Balogun is doing very well there while playing for Reims. Scored a few goals. Wasn't so good last season in The Championship... I'd like to think it's because he's really gone up a level this season but Ligue 1 outside of the top few teams, seems like a poor standard.

[Bandito Burrito]

14 hours ago, 6666 said:

Balogun is doing very well there while playing for Reims. Scored a few goals. Wasn't so good last season in The Championship... I'd like to think it's because he's really gone up a level this season but Ligue 1 outside of the top few teams, seems like a poor standard.

montpellier and reims are actually playing very well right now

[Pyfish+]

I do think some of the other teams in Ligue 1 are overshadowed by PSG because of the talent they have but it's by no means a Farmers League.

[Dan+]

PSG have made the image of that league worse if anything. They've got too much talent to not win the league but never look particularly cohesive.

[Coma+]

I don't really consider any league to be a farmer's league.  Your league is only as good as the talent it can hang on to.  When you have teams in the EPL spending stupid money on prospects there's not much that can be done.

[Michael]

On 03/02/2023 at 16:04, Coma said:

I don't really consider any league to be a farmer's league.  Your league is only as good as the talent it can hang on to.  When you have teams in the EPL spending stupid money on prospects there's not much that can be done.

This is similar to what I was thinking. The French league is actually a strong league, one of the best in Europe, even if it's not as strong as the EPL, the Bundesliga or La Liga. At the end of the day, the English Premier League clubs are able to pay crazy money to buy the best talent from all of the European leagues, including the best leagues(Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese etc.). It's only the very top teams in these other respective countries that can hold out and keep the players that the English clubs are after. But I wouldn't call any of the top leagues in Europe farmers leagues(I hate the term anyway). I enjoy watching many French league matches and there is a lot of talent in that league.

[Asura]

Its a farmers league only if you read the league winner names on wikipedia. Same thing could be applied for italian and german leagues too as they have pretty much a single (or two) winner for the last 10-15 years. But the matches are good and entertaining, its not like a bunch of hungovers kicking the ball on a sunday.

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Asura said:

Its a farmers league only if you read the league winner names on wikipedia. Same thing could be applied for italian and german leagues too as they have pretty much a single (or two) winner for the last 10-15 years. But the matches are good and entertaining, its not like a bunch of hungovers kicking the ball on a sunday.

Or Spain or England. That's why I take this approach:

4 hours ago, Coma said:

I don't really consider any league to be a farmer's league.  Your league is only as good as the talent it can hang on to.  When you have teams in the EPL spending stupid money on prospects there's not much that can be done.

But flip it. Most top flight leagues most fans care about are farmers leagues tbh.

[Spike]

Well they farm a lot of money out of English teams, so sure why not

[Azeem]

Farmers and engineers are the backbone of everything. Rest are just to guide what they build. 

[Spike]

17 hours ago, Beelzebub said:

Farmers and engineers are the backbone of everything. Rest are just to guide what they build. 

More like manual labourers are the backbone. ‘Farmers’ and engineers are the guys in the air conditioning telling others what to so.

[True Blue]

Farmer league is probably the stupidest expression made up by internet trolls and clueless Soggy Baguettes.

[Asura]

On 03/02/2023 at 14:38, Dr. Gonzo said:

Or Spain or England. That's why I take this approach:

But flip it. Most top flight leagues most fans care about are farmers leagues tbh.

Spain has 3 winners in the last decade, England has five winners. So a little different when compared to Italy or Germany. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

8 hours ago, Asura said:

Spain has 3 winners in the last decade, England has five winners. So a little different when compared to Italy or Germany. 

3 isn’t much more than 2, 5 isn’t much more than 3 when 2 years have been sides that have only won it once & probably won’t for a very long time again

[Coma+]

9 hours ago, Asura said:

Spain has 3 winners in the last decade, England has five winners. So a little different when compared to Italy or Germany. 

England is going the same way as the other leagues.  It's just a matter of time.

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

5 isn’t much more than 3 when 2 years have been sides that have only won it once & probably won’t for a very long time again

This.  Having a one-off champion isn't parity.  It's a fluke... a statistical anomaly.