I think Serie A has gone downhill in quality over the last 10 years. It used to be my favourite league in the world, moreso than the Premiership - these days it doesn't do it for me, even the Inter v Milan derby last December was a poor match. I feel that money plays a part in it - if the Italian clubs could match what the English & Spanish teams offer for wages then the quality and big-named stars may return?
u know mate, many people in europe keep talking about serie a's decline...... but i honestly consider this such a platitude.
the amount of star players argument is pretty wrong imo. first of all, i'm not sure the premiership has more star players than serie a. but that's not the real point. in fact the quality of a league can't be "measured" by the amount of star players. i mean, how many cristiano ronaldos or fabregas dooes the premiership has? do they represent the premiership standard? of course not, exactly as ibra or nesta don't represent the serie a's standard and sergio ramos or ronaldinho don't represent the liga standard.
the real quality level of a league can be measured by considering mid-class players, coz they are the real standard, they represent the majority of the players. if u wanna really consider what our leagues have to offer, then u have to look at the liveranis, the vannucchis, the simplicios or at the reo cockers, the dioufs, the malbranques, etc...
theese players will give u a reliable "image" of the average quality level of a league.....
and if u consider theese players, well la liga and serie a have much more to offer.
serie a went trough an economical crisis, due to may different factors, but this didn't have any effect on the quality of the football......
actually nowadays serie a is much more beautiful than 10 years ago.
10 years ago our fist 10 teams were much strongers than today..... but our last 10 teams were much more poors than today.
and, exactly as it happens for the players, u can't judge a league just by looking at the man utds or the inters.... our leagues have 18\20 teams and u have to consider all of them to express a fair judgement.
the english standard can't be found in man utd's football, exactly as the italian standard is not represented by roma's football...
u have to look at our mid-class teams... do u think aston villa is a better team than palermo? is manchester city better than fiorentina? or or west ham better than catania? or bolton better than lazio?
that's the real way to "rate" a league.
and even if u would consider theese points, your final judgement might still be inaccurate. because football is not just about big individual plays. our players (no matter if they are stars or not) have to play
together. and the football a team can produce depends mostly by the tactical guide.
try to imagine how man utd would play today if sir alex would have left cristiano ronaldo on the midfield line (instead of lining him up 15 meters ahead of it). our coaches have a vital role...
just to make an example, this season udinese's roster is so poor, compared to last season's udinese. they sold so many good players this summer (iaquinta, muntari, natali, de sanctis...). nontheless this season udinese plays much better than last year, thanks to a new coach... even if the team is poorer, talking about the roster.
and this also explains why ligue un, which has less "star players" than serie a and premiership, still offers some great football. there are many mid class french teams wich display a more entertaining football than many english teams.... and as much tactically interesting as serie a's teams.
It's games like that what makes the Premiership the best league in the world as I feel in Italy and Spain once a team is 2 or 3 goals ahead they just play keep-ball and don't go for more.
some things to point out here.
- every team in the world always plays to score. but u can do it "wisely" or not. if u're winning by 2 or 3 goals and u still keep pushing with both sidebacks (like it often happens in premiership), well, this is not a prove of quality football... at all. this is a wrong move an amateur's mistake. u might find it more entertaining.... but talking about quality football, this is just a mistake.
- holding the ball or slowing down the game it's a hardest football exercise and it shows ability and coordination. it's pretty easy to keep pushing for 90 minutes (if your legs can afford it). but forcing your opponent to a slower pace is a great challenge and it implies some serious playmaking abilities.
it's pretty natural to run, when everybody around u is running. the real challenge is to stay cool and dictate your tempo, even when your opponent is trying to push
- the reason why u see so many goals in premiership is mostly do to some unappropriate defensive line ups.
i use to watch a show on monday night with some friends. this show is called "mondo gol" and it shows the highlights of all the matches played in liga, epl, ligue un and bundes.
well, my friends's most frequent comment, during the epl highlights is "
come on mate, this goal was ridiculous! how can u get excited by league like this. no team in italy would ever do such a stupid mistake!"
the point is that in serie a even the poorest team still has a tactical imprint and education, that allows it to control stronger opponents.... and that's the reason why u don't see many goals in serie a (but that's not tottaly true, btw)..... and that's also the reason why many people outside italy consider serie a "boring". they just can't appreciate the difference between serie a and epl, they are just looking for some nice actions, no matter if those actions born from terrific mistakes.
by saying this i don't mean to say the premiership is poorer than serie a, of course. they're just different, with different good and bad aspects. everyone has his own preference, someone might prefere the epl, someone serie a, someone ligue un... it all depends by your personal likes.
so what i'm trying to say it's just that serie a today is not reall poorer that 10 years ago.
as i said we went trough an economic crisis, but this didn't have any effect on the quality of serie a's football. because this crisis just forced us to focus more on our youth schools. 10 years ago a roma could have bought a benayoun or an anderson for x millions....nowadays instead roma can't afford theese outcomes, so they gave a chance to guys like de rossi and aquilani, letting them grow. and look at what players they are now. nobody would never exchange de rossi for anderson or aquilani for benayoun or montolivo for reo cocker...
that's another factor too, imo. u guys have agbonlahor, bent, lennon, bentley.... and then? how many pazzini, montolivo, aquilani, cerci, barzagli, canini, zaccardo, rosina, cigarini, dessena, giovinco, quagliarella, mesto, molinaro..... etc.
are now playing as starters in epl teams?
so, as u can see having less money doesn't mean having less quality. there is a team in spain (sevilla) who was facing bankrupt just a couple of years ago.... but still, spending their few euros wisely, they were able to raise a fantastic team. do u know how much did sevilla paid dani alves or adriano or escude?
and the same goes for serie a. my hometown team's annual incomes are less than derby county's annual incomes! but still we were able to raise a team with players like amauri, simplicio, barzagli, guana, zaccardo and miccoli (just to make a couple of names).
serie a didn't have any decline. actually, if u look at the whole league, the quality of the football improved a lot.
the real reason why many people still feels like serie a had a decline is that the other leagues made huge steps foward.
so while 10 years ago, serie a was by far the best league in the world, nowadays many others leagues in europe can offer a (different but) as much intersting football.
that's all
@ Clockender: u're not trying to compare that drag queen to ilaria d'amico, arent'u...
:lol:
and way cheaper. I pay $20 for sentata plus fox soccer channel, and i usually get most of the games from the weekend and always the 3 pm games, sometimes 3 at once, then the rest shown later in the day..