José Mourinho

Yeah, it goes back to talking about him and saying he still has fuel in the tank. Depends on what the bar for that is. Definitely not something particularly massive.

If he takes a team that hasn’t finished 4th for 3 years (4 years by the end of this season), and is not a very well put together squad with plenty of holes in it - and takes them back into the top 4 then I’m comfortable in my assessment that it shows he has something left in the tank.

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Maybe I will look at it more nuanced. I’d like to compare spending vs. the other clubs if/when he gets them back up there. I imagine money probably will make a big difference, and will have to be deconvoluted from management skill. Think we are getting closer on defining this though.

I wouldn’t know i haven’t noticed, just pointing out the arrogance of a statement that the PL is better than any other leagues.

The PL being better than other leagues is hardly a controversial opinion, now, is it? It is pretty mainstream. This is what I mean when I don’t go along with flow of opinions regarding Auba or Jose Mourinho. I run into things like this where a common mainstream opinion suddenly becomes an arrogant opinion. Just weird from my perspective.

The PL is a richer league than any other that’s for sure only because of tv money, it doesn’t make it a better league.
An Italian a German or someone from Spain will say their leagues are so much better, in Italy they say they’ve the greatest league the greatest team’s and the best players. Here in Portugal Spanish and Italian football is more readily available than English games, ive never seen anyone wear an English club shirt here or in Italy.

Not every footballer wants to play for an English club either, English football maybe more attractive because of the money and not because it is supposed to be better.

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I think most people recognise it in terms of number of teams who make it through early rounds of European tournaments and into QF stages and later of EL/CL. Sure, the winners of those tournaments can be a Bayern or whatever, but the number of PL teams that make it deep is indicative of the stronger league, and widely recognised. Just factual.

If you want to attribute it to money you can, but the point was about the strongest league irrespective of that, and where the top managers in the world have gravitated to. Pep, Klopp, Tuchel, Conte.

You don’t see successful managers in the PL saying “gee, let me go prove myself in Serie A now”. No, obviously Mourinho was washed up to an extent, just getting to the point about this. To deny this only results in digging a deeper hole…

Yeah, and I am an Arsenal fan, and I have no problem calling a spade a spade when it comes to Mourinho. Obviously he is in a trough of his career, although I have never abandoned respect of his strong attributes, while revognising his flaws also.

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Its interesting you use manager’s as an example of how strong a league is, a manager will go to whoever pays him well and gives him a decent transfer budget, each of these manager’s have done a job in a different country, surely you can’t tell me Conte would rather be managing spurs than any other top team whose own position wasn’t available?
So using those parameters why aren’t Messi,Mbappe, Benzema, Lewandowski,Neymar or Vlahovic playing in the PL.
Even Insigne would rather go to Canada after leaving Italy.

If Serie A had the most money sloshing around and it was in the position the PL is in currently, I would say it was the strongest league. Just a fact, resources and all. Every league around the world wants the same worldwide TV deals the PL has.

Regarding RM, Barca, PSG, Bayern, we can talk about biggest clubs in the world, but clubs and depths in quality of leagues are a different matter.

To bring something else into this, this has been easy for me drawing a contrast Serie A vs. PL. Note that I did not disrespect La Liga specifically at any point above. The PL right now is the stronger league, but I do acknowledge depth of La Liga has been getting stronger, and not just Atletico.

Theyd be wrong though, wouldn’t they? Lol

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You as an englishman would stand by your statement, an Italian would stand by their’s as would a German and a Spaniard lol

And neutrals will say PL is the best.
Serie A is second best though. :grin:

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You see earlier in the thread i was basically saying from an englishmans point of view the pl being the “best” smacks of arrogance, as would a German an Italian and a Spaniard.
Being the richest league doesn’t make it the best.
Its an argument defining what is the best in anything isn’t going to resolved with fan’s of football coming from different international backgrounds, with obvious exceptions from smaller leagues.

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The German league is an absolute farmers league lol.

Bayern going for their 85th title in a row

I can remember when both Italy and Spain had the best leagues but the fact is that in recent seasons the best managers and the most successful teams in the CL are from the PL.

It is certainly the richest and most watched league in Europe.

Ofc opinions are fine :slightly_smiling_face: But I mean clubs from these nations play each other dozens of times every year, it’s not exactly outrageous to use that as a basis for saying one is stronger than the other.

The past decade Spain has claimed the CL 5 times, England 3 times and Germany 2 times. The EL it’s Spain 7 times, England 3.

5 Spanish teams (Real, Barca, Atlético, Sevilla, Villarreal), 3 Eng teams (Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd), 1 Ger team (B), have won them, seen across both comps. City would’ve probably had one or two by now with a better manager.

What are we doing here pretending like Spain and England are not in a separate division the past decade. Villareal just beat Juventus twice.

I mean I get what we are doing but you know what I mean :grin:

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What statement is that then?

My point is that people can all make claims that their league is the best, but not all those claims were created equal. If an Italian said their league had the best team and best players they’d still need to back that up, I’m saying they wouldnt be able to. They dont have the worlds best players and they dont have the world’s best teams, not by any measure i can think of.

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Isn’t this your statement?

Maybe you need to find a poll from each of the top leagues and ask them what defines the “best” league aside from the richest league and not just this season overall.

Maybe we could also discuss where the “best” players are currently playing, Messi, Mbappe,Neymar, Lewandowski, Haaland or Benzema to name a few.

Nobody has to back anything up because it’s football it’s emotional and where we all have different viewpoints.

Me being English has literally no bearing on my statement though, that’s what caused the confusion, because me being English is totally irrelevant to me saying that an Italian would be clearly wrong to say their league has the best players and teams.

It’s not even the best league in England :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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