Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
That used to be the case but at least a few of them are catching up now. Aston Villa, Tottenham and nowadays Man City with their money-bags have closed the gap somewhat in my opinion.
well maybe "catching up" is a bit of a stretch, they're surely closing the gap. Gerd u're right when u say they're still far from the top 4... but to notice if they're moving in the right direction, u gotta compare theese teams to what they were a few years ago. is man city a stronger team than 10 years ago? and tottenham? and aston villa?..... sure they're "improving" in the stupidest way... without a real footballing project, without a tactical guide, without competent team directors.... they just throw their money away overpaying players they don't even know if they actually need (and it's not coz of the domestic market prices... as they overpay even foreing players who come from abroad)........ anyway, just look at the final result. 5 years ago tottenham was a poor team, with average players, which used to play poor football.... today (at least investments\results wise) they're still quite a poor team (coz honestly the quality of their football had a ridiculous improvement, especially compared to the financial efforts they went through), but they have some great players... and even though u can often feel the same "randomness" in their football, we just can't deny they're closer to the top 4 than they were 5 years ago.
anyhow i gotta say i'm referring to last season tottenham, as so far this season i watched just 2 spurs match (wich is not enough to say i know how they play of course), so as far as i know, today they might even be playing like sampdoria, genoa or fiorentina (although i find it hard to believe that
).
the problems with theese "almost top clubs" is that u will inevitably tend to compare them with their italian counterparts.... and that's where their failure is more evident.
global market value, incomes, transfer market outcomes, wages balance...... according to each of theese entries tottenham, aston villa, man city and even everton (!) are much bigger clubs than fiorentina (wich is the richest "almost top club" in italy). everton spent twice the money fiorentina spent in the last 2 years...wich means about 4 times the money udinese spent.... and i'm not even mentioning a comparison with sampdoria, as that would be just too embarassing.....and that's talking about everton (which is seen as a "club without much financial resources" in england!).
tottenham, money wise (market value, transfer outcomes, wages) is on par with juventus (!) and pretty much on another planet compared to the likes of genoa, samp fiorentina, udinese and napoli.
so as soon as u throws all theese points into the equation... and as soon as u compare tottenam's football or aston villa's football to, say fiorentina or genoa, well....
and mind u, i'm not trying to establish any sort of "ranking between leagues"... i'm not really into theese nationalistic bullishit. besides, just a few pages ago, i was remarking how epl top 4 teams became better than their italian counterparts in just every possible aspect (even the ones where the italians used to rule, like tactical imprinting).
but, exactly as i'm aware of serie a's issues, i can easily notice epl's issues too.
PLF said:
2) There ARE good EPL mid-table/lower-table matches as well. You can't really give it a fair evaluation based on two games and get pissed off and come back next season and maybe by accident watch a couple bad ones again and confirm that opinion. But yah maybe not AS many good matches from those teams as you'd see in Serie A. I get your point but I honestly think you're being too harsh/unfair.
and i can definitely understand why u get this feeling. indeed i would be a complete fool if i pretended to express any sort of judgement on a team after just a couple of matches.....
the thing is i got to know pretty well man city last season..... and what i saw this week end is exactly the same team i watched (several times) last season.... wich brings me to believe that this team playes exactly the same nonsense, appalling football they used to play last season. run-long ball, run-long ball, run-long ball.... jeez after 90 minutes of that shit u must be going nuts.... and all my respect goes to their stoic fans, who pay money to support their team and subject themselves to such a painful treatment every week... i know i could never bare this.... after a couple of minutes i would start screaming "
start playing some football, for crying out loud! stop running with your eyes on the ball like donkeys! and have the ball running! keep the ball on the ground and stop wasting your plays with those long balls that always end in a possession loss!"
if that were the first time i've seen man city playing this way, of course it would be extremely shortsighted to label them already..... but what i saw yesterday, is pretty much the same pathetic show i've been watching last season on a pretty consistant basis.
how can a team with so many quality players play this way is something that goes beyond my understanding..... i mean, i' not expecting them to play like cagliari or parma or chievo (even though, roster-wise they're supposed to.... actually they should be even better than those teams).
i don't expect them to have the technical flair of spanish midclass teams or the passing game of italian midclass teams.... but why can't they play some good english football.
there's this wrong stereotype that english football is all about physical impact and pressing.... no quality, no technique or tactical sophistication, just long balls and runs.... that is just not true. there is quality english football, as hodgson proved last season. his fulham wasn't really on par with its italian and spanish counterparts, but it still was very enjoyable to watch..... and it still was the very best team in premiership, behind the top 4, football wise.... even compared to aston villa and everton (wich were the only "almost decent" teams in terms of playing style, out of the top 4) that little mighty fulham was on another league.
and since that was also a very succesful team (last season fulham did great things), why nobody is studiyng it? why they all keep spending and buying fancy players they don't even need and don't even bother noticing that this strategy is not helping them playing better football.... why nobody thinks "what's the point in buying fine passers, if we keep bypassing the entire midfield with those long balls?" how can they watch fulham playing and not realise what a massive failure they are. how can they keep spending money on the transfer market, without noticing that the roster they already have should already guarantee so much more quality than they actually display? shouldn't this evident, undenyable fact persuade them that the roster is not the issue to address to, in order to improve their football? that their problems lie in other departments?
and u know what? i'm also sure that if u would ask to all the epl teams sport directors who are the epl best coaches, beside the top 4, they would all come up with hughes, redknapp, o'neill.... no one would even think about "good old Roy Hodgson".
PLF said:
In terms of 'environment' factor that you mentioned, Bundesliga IS the best I believe. Not 2nd best. And I think they have the highest average attendances in their league in all of Europe if not world and by a good amount of difference to 2nd place league as well.
oups, completely forgot about that, when i wrote "they're not the best ones in any particular department".... my bad... i absolutely agree with u. their facilities must be even more top class than the english ones (and i'm saying "must" just coz i haven't been in germany since the palermo-shalcke draw in uefa cup a few years ago, so i haven't been in a german stadium since the world cup), the average attendance is indeed the highest in europe and the fans are great.
i stand corrected
PLF said:
Damiano Tommassi! Remember him guys? One of my fav players ever. Now this guy played with PASSION. Always gave a 100% and was a very effective player but also very classy. He still plays I hear... hasn't retired yet... maybe he'll return to Roma one day as a non-player!
oh boy i haven't heard of damiano in a while! where did he end up? he's such a nice fella... he's such a gentle, kind and polite person, del piero would seem marilyn manson compared to him!
i didn't even know he was still playing. it would be great to know what he's up to, so guys, if u have any news, report!
).
and it's probably near to his home so he takes it easy and plays some football.
he played tonite with the azzurra jersey (can't say how he played though, as i didn't watch the match). 
