Premier League

Chappy112 said:
Boring is subjective.
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Then maybe football isn't for you.

The PL probably offers the most entertainment (broadly) than any other division out there.

Nowhere else would you see a team like Brighton (who have been fantastic to watch this season), in the space of 1 week, beat Man Utd at home 1-0, get thrashed by Everton at home 5-1 and then go destroy and toy with Arsenal at the Emirates and win comfortably 3-0.

PL might be a lot of things, but for anyone that enjoys football, it certainly isn't 'boring'.
 
Marvanelli said:
Then maybe football isn't for you.

The PL probably offers the most entertainment (broadly) than any other division out there.

Nowhere else would you see a team like Brighton (who have been fantastic to watch this season), in the space of 1 week, beat Man Utd at home 1-0, get thrashed by Everton at home 5-1 and then go destroy and toy with Arsenal at the Emirates and win comfortably 3-0.

PL might be a lot of things, but for anyone that enjoys football, it certainly isn't 'boring'.
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I value competition, competition is exciting to me, it's why I watch the NFL. It's the reason I don't watch boxing matches where the favourite steamrolls an underdog, that's not fun to watch to me. As I said earlier, a team that is about the win the league for the 5th time out of the last 6 seasons is owned by an entire country, they're cheating and cooking the books, that is not a competitive sport.
 
Chappy112 said:
As I said earlier, a team that is about the win the league for the 5th time out of the last 6 seasons is owned by an entire country, they're cheating and cooking the books, that is not a competitive sport
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Yes, but the PL is much much more than just 1 team winning the league every season (or pretty much).

Even during this season and the title race, it was only a few weeks ago the bookies actually had Arsenal favourites.

However, putting the title to one side, the league offers tremendous entertainment across the board. It has most of the best players in the world, some of the best upcoming youngsters, the very best managers. And the level of quality is very high.

I for one would love to see us get promoted to test ourselves (both on and off the pitch) against these big clubs.
 
Marvanelli said:
Yes, but the PL is much much more than just 1 team winning the league every season (or pretty much).

Even during this season and the title race, it was only a few weeks ago the bookies actually had Arsenal favourites.

However, putting the title to one side, the league offers tremendous entertainment across the board. It has most of the best players in the world, some of the best upcoming youngsters, the very best managers. And the level of quality is very high.

I for one would love to see us get promoted to test ourselves (both on and off the pitch) against these big clubs.
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Why are we putting the title to one side? It's the most important thing :ROFLMAO:

I'd love us to get promoted too, I said that in my first post, why wouldn't I? Still doesn't make it a great competition when 2 of the teams are now owned by countries/oil money. I guess at least when Newcastle are challenging for the league it'll be a thrilling 2 horse race between cheats/human rights abusers. Unless Qatar get involved at Man United, the joys.
 
I mean, Man City competing for the title provided two of the most competitive title races I can remember between two phenomenal teams.

18-19:
Man City: 98 points
Liverpool: 97 points

21-22
Man City: 93 points
Liverpool: 92 points

Having two title races like those two we've had where two teams who were not only almost perfect, but also had to be just to keep up the pace with the other, and had the pressure on every week to not slip I think is exciting.

They'll have won 7 titles in 12 years. But do people just not remember the 90s and 2000s when complaining about their dominance? Man Utd won it 8 times in 11 seasons when I was a kid, and then again 5 times in 7 seasons. This isn't a new thing. Can go back to the 70s and 80s and Liverpool winning the title 10 times in 15 seasons. The top league has always had one team having a spell of utter dominance.
 
Jonathan said:
I mean, Man City competing for the title provided two of the most competitive title races I can remember between two phenomenal teams.

18-19:
Man City: 98 points
Liverpool: 97 points

21-22
Man City: 93 points
Liverpool: 92 points

Having two title races like those two we've had where two teams who were not only almost perfect, but also had to be just to keep up the pace with the other, and had the pressure on every week to not slip I think is exciting.

They'll have won 7 titles in 12 years. But do people just not remember the 90s and 2000s when complaining about their dominance? Man Utd won it 8 times in 11 seasons when I was a kid, and then again 5 times in 7 seasons. This isn't a new thing. Can go back to the 70s and 80s and Liverpool winning the title 10 times in 15 seasons. The top league has always had one team having a spell of utter dominance.
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That was a testament to Klopp and Liverpool.

As much as I hated them, United were not cheating nor were they owned by a country.
 
Chappy112 said:
I value competition, competition is exciting to me, it's why I watch the NFL. It's the reason I don't watch boxing matches where the favourite steamrolls an underdog, that's not fun to watch to me. As I said earlier, a team that is about the win the league for the 5th time out of the last 6 seasons is owned by an entire country, they're cheating and cooking the books, that is not a competitive sport.
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But there's been one dominant team for the best part of the last 50 years. It's not new, at all.
 
The Card Cheat said:
But there's been one dominant team for the best part of the last 50 years. It's not new, at all.
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Didn't say it was new? The Patriots dominated the NFL for a spell but that didn't take away from the competitive aspect of the sport. City cheating and spending ridiculous amounts of money while being owned by a country is very different. If you get everything right and dominate a sport there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
Marvanelli said:
Then maybe football isn't for you.

The PL probably offers the most entertainment (broadly) than any other division out there.

Nowhere else would you see a team like Brighton (who have been fantastic to watch this season), in the space of 1 week, beat Man Utd at home 1-0, get thrashed by Everton at home 5-1 and then go destroy and toy with Arsenal at the Emirates and win comfortably 3-0.

PL might be a lot of things, but for anyone that enjoys football, it certainly isn't 'boring'.
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But Brighton kind of prove the flaws of the league, in a way?
We have all enjoyed them this season. They play great football and they are great to watch. And yet we are talking about them as if they are world beaters. In fact, they are in with a very good shout of finishing 6th. Is that it? Is that all teams outside the real big boys can aspire to? I’d take a promotion season over a 6th placed prem finish every single time, personally, cos I’ll always remember the promotion seasons clearly but I doubt I’ll be looking back misty eyed going ‘hey, remember that season we finished 6th in the prem?’ in my latter years.
No doubts the summer will come along and Brighton’s best players will be plucked by the infinite budget yielding bigger clubs and they’ll more than likely struggle to maintain the great strides they’ve made this season. Next year, some other plucky outfit will have a go and get lauded, only to drift back down and put back in their place cos they will lose their players and/or manager. Which will be a real shame, but is to be expected. Because the league is ultimately completely financially unbalanced.
 
Champo TV money with new deal approx £2.5M per season
SKY TV money just from international rights £43M.

Finish 17th in the prem guaranteed £105M current deal, 18-20th £100M plus 2 years parachute worth £70M. Not to mention the increased footfall and associated spend for the Town.

In addition if we don't go up this year look at the teams coming down! Will be neigh on impossible to compete. Can't complain about the difference money makes in the prem then be happy to stay in the financially parachute payment doped championship.

There are many more reasons I would like to see us in the prem but just the money alone would be enough for now...like it or not we need it!
 
I am desperate for us to go up because it's a great feeling. If we can do what brighton and brentford have done then fantastic, but I'll be honest I think I'd rather us come back down in a season or two's time because I could not bear to be a team regularly finishing 14th - 17th and getting hammered every other week.

Financially the club could do with the premier league money, but one thing I love about football below the championship is cheap away days. I imagine most tickets for away games will be upwards of £30 in the premier league, whereas in the championship it's about £20.

Also since I live in Leeds I love a good yorkshire / lancashire away day.

The best part about being a Boro fan in my life has been the rollercoaster of league positions. European football, relegated from the prem, one or two playoff seasons, promotion, almost being relegated to league one under woody.

Don't know how anyone in their right mind would want their team to be a consistent lower end prem team, it'd be shyte.
 
It's sad when the majority of the posts who are desperate to see us in the PL primarily mention financial stability, and the riches we would be awarded as the motivating factor.

Not knocking anyone btw, and this is the cold hard reality of getting to the PL - short term financial security. Not competing, or winning trophies etc - they are sewn up before the season kicks off. Sporting glory?? As a PL club think those days will be pretty much gone sadly.

Finishing 17th and being financially stable will be celebrated as a massive success.

And it's nice watching the PL as a neutral, but being in the thick of it getting spanked week in week out...... novelty will soon wear off.

But, it's where every club aspires to be and we certainly should be no different.
 
Aside from a brief period when we had the benefit of "financial doping" and were able to sign the likes of Barmby, Juninho, Emerson, Ravanelli, Mendieta, Zenden, Boksic, Viduka, JFH and many more, in my lifetime we have always struggled to compete when we've been promoted. Promotion under Rioch and Lawrence was brilliant, but we came straight back down, as do many teams promoted to the top flight. It was ever thus.

Back when we got promoted under Karanka, I remember saying that the "getting there" was likely to be far more enjoyable than the "being there", which certainly proved to be the case. We're not promoted yet and might not be, but if we do go up, I feel we would be far more competitive under Carrick than we were under AK. I'm excited for the future despite the fact that 7th in the Premier League is probably our glass ceiling and even that isn't sustainable over the long term.

Of course I wish we could do a Leicester one day, but we've never been a top 6 team and I doubt we ever would be even if you stripped away the global revenues of the mega clubs and their owners. But I'd still prefer to finish 12th in the Premier League watching a much better standard of football and having a chance to go deep in the cups, rather than languish in the Championship forever.
 
WilliamMunny said:
Aside from a brief period when we had the benefit of "financial doping" and were able to sign the likes of Barmby, Juninho, Emerson, Ravanelli, Mendieta, Zenden, Boksic, Viduka, JFH and many more, in my lifetime we have always struggled to compete when we've been promoted. Promotion under Rioch and Lawrence was brilliant, but we came straight back down, as do many teams promoted to the top flight. It was ever thus.

Back when we got promoted under Karanka, I remember saying that the "getting there" was likely to be far more enjoyable than the "being there", which certainly proved to be the case. We're not promoted yet and might not be, but if we do go up, I feel we would be far more competitive under Carrick than we were under AK. I'm excited for the future despite the fact that 7th in the Premier League is probably our glass ceiling and even that isn't sustainable over the long term.

Of course I wish we could do a Leicester one day, but we've never been a top 6 team and I doubt we ever would be even if you stripped away the global revenues of the mega clubs and their owners. But I'd still prefer to finish 12th in the Premier League watching a much better standard of football and having a chance to go deep in the cups, rather than languish in the Championship forever.
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Agree with all of this. If we do go up, just want to see a reasonably competitive Boro, where we have our moments in games, and dominate /play well against the teams around the bottom half of the table. Last time under Karanka, we were so defensive, our attacking play was almost non-existent. Don't expect it will be easy, and will need good recruitment, but hopefully Carrick's way of playing gives us a fighting chance.
Not sure how often it has occurred, but looks like the three promoted teams will be staying up this season.
 
Part of me almost thinks I'd like us to win at Wembley, but rather than go up. not play any games and start again in the Champo with £190 million in the bank next season.

But the little optimist voice in the corner of my mind says we go up and then do a Brentford/Brighton, building well with succession planning, for when Carrick goes to Real after we seal our Champions League qualification...........
 
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Chappy112 said:
Why are we putting the title to one side? It's the most important thing :ROFLMAO:
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Because it's not all about the title. The PL is and offers, much more than that.

And even with the title, like I said, this season Arsenal have put up a great challenge and were actually the favourites only a few weeks ago.

The last few seasons has had some of the greatest title challenges ever.
 
I went through an anti-PL phase, I think I'm more or less through it now. It is a good league and all the good teams are owned by mostly fairly hideous individuals but the sport itself is good, and I can't do anything about the ownership of the clubs. I don't subscribe to Sky Sports anymore, or BT/TNT, though that's not because I'm making some kind of stand. I also quite enjoy wanting to see the big clubs fail, and that for me absolutely includes Man City (I know some people on here seem to want them to succeed more than any other PL club). I'm still holding out for Everton to go down, not because I hate them but just because I welcome any major disruption to the status quo.

If we don't go up I will comfort myself with the fact that we don't have to endure VAR next season, and that if/when we do next go up it is highly unlikely to be a prolonged stint like 1998-2009 anyway, unless Gibson sells the club (which I don't actually want).
 
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