Dearth of world class midfielders in the Premier League?

[rascal]

Remember the 00's when the Premier League was boss, wasn't an embarrassment in Europe and had genuine world class players and that? Well now look at it. A pitiful sight, lack of genuine world class talent and in my opinion no position is more obviously lacking in world class talent than in the centre of midfield. Indeed, you take any of the current top 4 and put it against the Sky Four of the 00s and it's getting its arse kicked.

Time was Arsenal had Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva and Cesc Fabregas, now they have Jack Wilshere, a jarg Thomas Rosicky and a jarg Mikel Arteta.

Time was Chelsea had a boss Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack, Claude Makelelelele, now they have a jarg Frank Lampard, Nemanja Matic, Oscar and Jon Obi Mikel.

Time was Manchester United had Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Juan Sebastian Veron (I don't care what any idiot thinks, Veron was a quality player in European football) a young Michael Carrick supporting Paul Scholes extremely well. Now they have a busted flush in Michael Carrick, a lampshade who doesn't know the dimensions of a football pitch and Tom Cleverley.

Heck even the RS had Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, a younger Steven Gerrard, even Dietmar Hamann was a very good DM. Now they have a jarg Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson (that this queg in particular is among many peoples team of the year is a sad indictment of the league) Coutinho and sicknote Lucas.

It's got to the point now where you'd have to say that out of the current crop of midfielders in the Premier League, only Yaya Toure is in the same class as those midfielders from the 00s.

Thankfully it's not got to the desperate levels of Serie A yet, but it needs to be addressed because it's only a matter of time. The RS winning the league must surely serve as a warning to the league, and I don't mean that to sound bitter. They had better sides in the 00s (2009 especially) but they got nowhere near the league title.

 

[GreenTeddy]

We have McCarthy though

 

[Walken]

the premier league is getting weaker mate

 

[IRO1977]

I agree with what you say but would probably add Silva and Hazard. Matic also looks great so far for the role he does. Maybe Ramsay if he carries on his form too? Definitely gone downhill to how it was though

 

[BrianSwan]

CMs were better then but the style of play was much worse, the Premier League has improved for the better since we entered it.

It becomes more and more like La Liga which is great and technical.

 

[Walken]

CMs were better then but the style of play was much worse, the Premier League has improved for the better since we entered it.

It becomes more and more like La Liga which is great and technical.

picked out the most boring league in europe there Bri, joe allen has definately lowered the bar

 

[bluestevon]

As more and more money is earned at the top levels of the game it kills desire and motivation and with that overall standards overall suffer. Same happens in any sport tbh

a bog average prem player these days on £20k a week from the age of 21-30 will earn £10.4m, say signing on fees are factored in and say if they move twice in ten years that figure will probably be more like £12m or more, just think about that for a second, gone are the days a player needs to really push himself to be earning a very good wage, nowadays just being a premiership player is effectively making someone set for life if they don't blow it all, with that comes less need to be professional and improve

 

[Walken]

As more and more money is earned at the top levels of the game it kills desire and motivation and with that overall standards overall suffer. Same happens in any sport tbh

a bog average prem player these days on £20k a week from the age of 21-30 will earn £10.4m, say signing on fees are factored in and say if they move twice in ten years that figure will probably be more like £12m or more, just think about that for a second, gone are the days a player needs to really push himself to be earning a very good wage, nowadays just being a premiership player is effectively making someone set for life if they don't blow it all, with that comes less need to be professional and improve

its one of the sports were you dont have to be a top performer to become a multi millionaire, tony hibbert is to football what someone like martin conception is to boxing, both honest pros, but the earning differences are massive

 

[tommye]

the Premier League has improved for the better since we entered it.

 

[bluestevon]

its one of the sports were you dont have to be a top performer to become a multi millionaire, tony hibbert is to football what someone like martin conception is to boxing, both honest pros, but the earning differences are massive

Was actually gonna make a Boxing analogy myself when i was originally posting mate, good shout on that like, nearest other sport i can think of is the NFL in terms of how much money it generates, the minimum wage for a NFL player is $420k so around £250k or roughly 5k per week, a NFL player has a much shorter career on average and theirs a total of 32 teams in the world paying those wages, the money in footy is ridiculous and frankly should be capped in some way as right now its turning a lot of genuine fans away from the game im sure

 

[ilikecheese]

Was actually gonna make a Boxing analogy myself when i was originally posting mate, good shout on that like, nearest other sport i can think of is the NFL in terms of how much money it generates, the minimum wage for a NFL player is $420k so around £250k or roughly 5k per week, a NFL player has a much shorter career on average and theirs a total of 32 teams in the world paying those wages, the money in footy is ridiculous and frankly should be capped in some way as right now its turning a lot of genuine fans away from the game im sure

That's a great point. As an American, I really never thought of it like that. Everything you say is spot on.

The American sports leagues...especially the NFL...have fought very hard for a salary cap. Parity is also something that they strive for. For me (again, being American), it only makes so much sense to strive for parity, so you don't end up with a La Liga, Serie A, or even the Premier League where it's predetermined who will actually have a shot at winning year in and year out. The Prem is probably the most balanced league in Europe...but let's say a team like Stoke...they will NEVER win the league. The league simply isn't designed for them to ever win.

Fundamentally, I think the larger problem with footy is the number of professional contracts that the Chelsea's, Citeh's of the world have. There is no limit, so they can just gobble up every young player and then use the loan system however they like. I think a cap of say 50 professional contracts is more than enough. I mean...c'mon...Barcelona B. Gimme a break. Having a 'B' team that competes in the second tier doesn't help anyone but Barca. It just makes La Liga even more predetermined.

 

[bluestevon]

That's a great point. As an American, I really never thought of it like that. Everything you say is spot on.

The American sports leagues...especially the NFL...have fought very hard for a salary cap. Parity is also something that they strive for. For me (again, being American), it only makes so much sense to strive for parity, so you don't end up with a La Liga, Serie A, or even the Premier League where it's predetermined who will actually have a shot at winning year in and year out. The Prem is probably the most balanced league in Europe...but let's say a team like Stoke...they will NEVER win the league. The league simply isn't designed for them to ever win.

Fundamentally, I think the larger problem with footy is the number of professional contracts that the Chelsea's, Citeh's of the world have. There is no limit, so they can just gobble up every young player and then use the loan system however they like. I think if a cap of say 50 professional contracts is more than enough. I mean...c'mon...Barcelona B. Gimme a break. Having a 'B' team that competes in the second tier doesn't help anyone but Barca. It just makes La Liga even more predetermined.

All good points mate, a major advantage the NFL has is the way all money recieved is distributed evenly across all the teams, including i believe a proportion/all of the official merchandising as it bears the nfl logo, teams all have a set amount which they cannot exceed on wages and each team is allowed a set amount of players on its active roster, anyone not on that roster being effectively a free agent, think its 45 players to cover off/def spec teams, footy should have a similar thing, each squad a max of say 25-30 players, if your not in that your free to be signed by anyone

Would have a massive leveling effect as players like barry, lukaku eould have to be utilised or released, no.more hoarding of kids never getting games, no more veteran players bench warming all season
Footy is the only sport in the world were internstional calibre players or exceptionsl young talents can sit wasting 3-4 years of their career never playing the sport they excel at

 

[ilikecheese]

All good points mate, a major advantage the NFL has is the way all money recieved is distributed evenly across all the teams, including i believe a proportion/all of the official merchandising as it bears the nfl logo, teams all have a set amount which they cannot exceed on wages and each team is allowed a set amount of players on its active roster, anyone not on that roster being effectively a free agent, think its 45 players to cover off/def spec teams, footy should have a similar thing, each squad a max of say 25-30 players, if your not in that your free to be signed by anyone

Would have a massive leveling effect as players like barry, lukaku eould have to be utilised or released, no.more hoarding of kids never getting games, no more veteran players bench warming all season
Footy is the only sport in the world were internstional calibre players or exceptionsl young talents can sit wasting 3-4 years of their career never playing the sport they excel at

The NFL has a 53 man 'active' roster limitation. The overall roster limit, however, is 90 men. That's why I kinda threw out the sorta random number of limiting professional contracts to 50 for teams. For the NFL, the non active include a 'practice squad'...the 'reserves' if you will. Plus anyone who is injured...suspended...etc, etc, etc. However, there are very tough decisions to be made regarding injuries and calling in a reserve to replace them...there are many massive decisions the 'board' has to consider with roster moves throughout a season. Even so, as you mentioned, the average lifespan of an NFL player is really short...I think it's in the 3 year range. Despite the armour they where...it really is a gladiator sport.

So, back to footy...for me, 50 as a max in footy is excessive, but a reasonable number. That being said the 'big' clubs have over 70 professionally signed players. If we round that number to 70 and make a limit of 50 per team, then in the Prem alone, you are talking about 100+ players who would need to be released and spread to improve the entire league.

For me, it only makes sense...Jack Rodwell for me is a perfect example that Evertonian's can relate with. He was and we were tempted by money. His career arc has taken a massive nosedive because of this. I don't care what anyone says, but he is good enough, when healthy, to play first team football for the vast majority of the Prem. As you stated, Gareth Barry rotting at Citeh is criminal. He's far too good to be 'that guy'.

Anyway, limiting the number of contracts would be step #1 in 'fixing' football. A salary cap would then be the big fight, IMO. The only neg in this sort of 'fix' would be that shyte player would be relegated to their 'level'...which at the end of the day, would mean some of those playing at the lowest levels professionally would be out of a job. However, those stealing a living at the higher levels would find their correct pay grade, so I guess it would balance out.

 

[RFUS]

The other major leagues have far better CMs. Pirlo and Vidal make Gerrard and Henderson look like Laurel and Hardy.

Schweinsteiger, Gundogan, De Rossi, Javi Martinez. These are truly world class CMs. Yaya Toure is the only one in the prem in my opinion.

 

[Ashtonian]

Money plays a part in it. When clubs at the top of the league have money to spend you want them to spend it on fantastic attacking players. There is no real building from the back upwards anymore, simply signing attacking players and show horn them into a team. That is why I really didn't rate mancini. He simply set his defence up and Barry and then the rest of the spots in the team was just told to go and attack and win the game. Worked once and that was it.

Plus any sign of a decent player emerging from a smaller team like ourselves and they are bought up by the bigger clubs in and out of England at the first opportunity. Barkley will be out of here if we aren't successful in the next couple of years, a club will have to have him.

Which is a shame because Mccarthy and Barkley in my mind have potential to be top midfielders who can read each other really well. Stick a viera/Keane in behind them and we would have a frightening midfield going forward. But whether we still own them by that point we shall see.