Strongest ever Premier League?

KingMinger22

City >>> United. Moaning twat
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Building on last season and with a ton of new talent coming in this summer, will this be the toughest ever league title race?

It looks like United, City and Chelsea alone will spend over half a billion pounds between them on new players.

Could 75 points be enough to win the league this year?

Personally, I think the competition level across the league as well as for the top 4 spots is the most fascinating we have ever seen in the PL.
 
I think it'll be one of the most open, 3 new managers at 3 of the biggest clubs, spurs will be fighting for top 4 if klopp lives up to potential then the dippers will be around there as well. personally I think the top club aren't as strong as previous seasons which is why it'll be a open race
 
Most competitive perhaps, but strongest no. A lot of clubs are not quite at the end of their curves in terms of player's peaks and settled squads.
 
The more I see of City the more I think they'll walk it. Easily the best squad in the league, and now they are motivated. They'll get in the region of 90 points.
 
When it come to managers I'd say it's by far the strongest. Mourinho, Pep, Conte, Pochettino, Bilic, Klopp...
Squad wise the top teams are still some way behind the likes of Real, Barca, and Bayern but if they keep signing players like Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Gundogan, Sane and so on they will soon be up there with the best.
 
I think the parity of the league is the highest it has ever been... and I think it's just going to get more and more that way with the tv deal money leveling the field more.
 
It'll be competitive but it won't be extremely strong.
 
Most competitive perhaps but the strongest ever, definitely not!

There are 7/8 good teams in the PL now where there is very little difference between them in terms quality but there isn't a single outstanding team in the PL who can compete neck and neck with its European counterparts. A decade or so ago, we used to have 3/4 outstanding teams who were on par with their European counterparts.

There is a serious lack of quality in the PL. But I expect it to get better in the next few years with the quality of managers we have now and more importantly, the money that is flowing into the PL.
 
Not even close yet, but there's certainly a steep, upward trend, perhaps in the next few years.
 
Most competitive - yes. Strongest ever - not a chance. The late '90s Arsenal/United squads would batter these sides, not to mention Mourinhos first title winning Chelsea side and Uniteds late '00s UCL winning squad as well.

It would be pretty funny though if Leicester retained their title, with all these predictions and galactico manager signings by the top clubs!
 
Most competitive and entertaining (as usual). The big teams won't start turning up seriously in Europe for 2-3 years. We aren't even in it!
 
Most competitive, strongest and entertaining.

Honestly this league is insane. Mouthwatering what we get to watch on tele every week.
 
Ruffian said:
The more I see of City the more I think they'll walk it. Easily the best squad in the league, and now they are motivated. They'll get in the region of 90 points.
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Same was said about the city squad last year. Lots of old and overrated players living on past reputations in that team.
 
Echo the majority of the above. It might be the hardest to win with a level playing field for a number of teams, but there's no team in this league even close to 99 United, Arsenal's Invincibles, 04-06 Chelsea or 06-09 United, so I don't think the league is at its strongest in terms of the strength of the elite clubs.

I do think the league is the strongest it's been in terms of managers though. Jose, Klopp, Guardiola and Conte all together in one place, whilst Poch starts his 3rd season at Spurs, Ranieri defends the title, Koeman moving to Everton and Wenger continuing to be Wenger. Then there's the likes of Howe who has been hugely impressive, as has Bilic, Hughes has had some good spells with Stoke, and I'm a big fan of Boro's Karanka, it will be good to see how he takes to the Premier League. Some very good battles this coming season.
 
We still have a long way to go before we're on the same level as Barcelona, Bayern and Real, and past teams like United of 99 & 2008, Chelsea of 2006, Arsenal of 2004. But I can't remember the league ever being so competitive. A lot of people will predict United, City, Arsenal, and Chelsea for top 4. But then you're leaving out the current champions, Spurs, Liverpool. Then there's West Ham who are on the up, Southampton are decent, Everton have new owners and will surely bring in some good players. Obviously there are some shit teams like Hull, Burnley, and Sunderland, but on the whole the league is very competitive and I think it'll be quite unpredictable. Should be exciting anyway.
 
From 5th-20th it's the strongest the Premier League has ever been, I don't think there's ever been a league with so much quality in the bottom half ever before.
 
The PL does not have any of the top world teams now so even if it is competitive it is missing that extra degree of quality. Ideally you have at least two top class teams battling it out. I remember when Arsenal and United both had real class teams and battled it out.
 
Nanook said:
From 5th-20th it's the strongest the Premier League has ever been, I don't think there's ever been a league with so much quality in the bottom half ever before.
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There is clearly some truth in this, but there are still some fairly poor teams I think. I mean Villa last year were terrible.
 
Ruffian said:
The more I see of City the more I think they'll walk it. Easily the best squad in the league, and now they are motivated. They'll get in the region of 90 points.
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I'm not convinced.

Looking at their squad, a lot of aging players. Very old full backs, Pep usually likes energetic attacking full backs. Plenty of cloggers in midfield, Pep usually likes elite ball players. Centre backs that aren't great on the ball. Goalkeepers that aren't great with their feet.

Their attacking players are hardly the standard he's used to at Barca or Bayern either.
 
Ruffian said:
The more I see of City the more I think they'll walk it. Easily the best squad in the league, and now they are motivated. They'll get in the region of 90 points.
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What? They've won 1 of their pre season games on penalties and lost the other one and yet you think they'll walk it?

City may well win it but your logic makes no sense
 
The standard in the prem is low atm. High quality managers isn't gonna change that. Problem is, signing players of the quality of Bayern, barca and real is borderline impossible cause this is an era of football where world class players dwindle by the day as big talents continue to fail to flourish.

It'll be very competitive but its devoid of quality.
 
Definitely not the strongest. I think teams of 2004-2010 would destroy todays teams.
 
agreed with the league being at its most competitive yet still quite far away from being the strongest.

in recent years i would say the strongest must have been the period when english clubs used to get into the later stages of the Champions League (circa 2003 or 2004 to 2010 or 2011)
 
the hea said:
When it come to managers I'd say it's by far the strongest. Mourinho, Pep, Conte, Pochettino, Bilic, Klopp...
Squad wise the top teams are still some way behind the likes of Real, Barca, and Bayern but if they keep signing players like Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Gundogan, Sane and so on they will soon be up there with the best.
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Agree with this. There's quite a few sides from the last 10 years or so that would've absolutely walked the league last year and in terms of elite players, the Premier League is still a far cry from matching the top teams in La Liga or Bundesliga.

I think a combination of money and appeal of playing under managers like Mourinho and Guardiola could see a shift in how many of those players want to come to or stay in the Premier League in the next few years though. Pogba case in point.
 
Ruffian said:
The more I see of City the more I think they'll walk it. Easily the best squad in the league, and now they are motivated. They'll get in the region of 90 points.
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I don't think any team is going to get anywhere even close to 90 pts. The league is going to be ultra-competitive (especially away from home) which will add to the difficulty of winning it for those teams playing in Europe. The PL and Sponsorship money each team receives is a real 'equaliser' (or to be more accurate has narrowed the gap considerably between lower to mid-table teams and those at the top end). I agree with the OP in that around 75 pts could be all that's needed unless one of the teams really out performs expectations at this stage of their cycle (maybe from an unexpected early exit from Europe and FAC).
 
Chelsea, Liverpool, United & Arsenal all had far stronger squads 8-10 years ago so no, not even close. Unlike that era, the best players in the World aren't playing in England.
 
Maybe the closest gap from best team (on paper) to the 8th or 9th best team (again, on paper)

This isn't close to the days when United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal were Top 5 teams in the world with Pep's Barca.
 
Chuck United and Chelsea's 08 teams in this league and they would finish 1st and 2nd. So we can't call it the strongest. Probably will end up being the tightestt though.
 
Sonny1972 said:
Most competitive league yes . CL is a whole different story .
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I see it as the beginning. Success begets success.

With all the TV money pouring it, the watchability/less predictable drama of the EPL will bring it even more money in the next few years. With that, even more high quality managers and players -- then you will see the difference in the CL.
 
The PL was much stronger between the mid 2000s until 2010 basically, the top teams were so good. Now it has leveled somewhat, which makes it much more entertaining for sure, and the level overall is good, but the top teams aren't quite there yet.
 
Definitely not. The PL was at it's strongest when it was dominating Europe about 5-7 years ago.
 
I'm very concerned with this position too. They're both average/shit at attack and not fantastic at defending either. Both of them are terrible crossers of the ball. Personally I'd want 1 of them shipped out and 1 remains as back up for the new right back
 
fellaini's barber said:
I'm very concerned with this position too. They're both average/shit at attack and not fantastic at defending either. Both of them are terrible crossers of the ball. Personally I'd want 1 of them shipped out and 1 remains as back up for the new right back
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Interesting stuff, but perhaps in another thread?
 
the hea said:
When it come to managers I'd say it's by far the strongest. Mourinho, Pep, Conte, Pochettino, Bilic, Klopp...
Squad wise the top teams are still some way behind the likes of Real, Barca, and Bayern but if they keep signing players like Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Gundogan, Sane and so on they will soon be up there with the best.
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Agreed, for managers brought in the PL is ridicously strong compared to when Ferguson/Mourinho/Wenger were around. Yes they may have won loads domestically and in Europe (including Rafa for that) but the rest of the PL was actually quite weak at the time.

Not only have we got excellent managers/tacticians come in but a lot of the same-old, same-old dross has actually been removed: Fat Sam, LvG, Martinez, Villa's Manager [insert name here], Moyes, Hodgson, Rodgers. Teams with interim managers years ago are even in a better state (Bournemouth, Southampton).
 
I think it's on it's way back to being very competitive again, I can't see any of our CL teams going very far this year. Maybe City.
 
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