Is The Premier League Tougher Than It Used To Be?

[Rex Stone]

Yeah but signing players on the way down for a final payday isn’t the same thing as signing international players in their primes, which is more widespread in today’s game.

They signed Juninho when he was 22 ffs

 

[A_G]

They signed Juninho when he was 22 ffs

My bad point still stands, that’s the exception to the rule whereas it’s more common in this era

 

[BergMan]

That you have to get over 90 points to win the premier league proves it is tougher. In 98 we won the league with 78 points. This team is much better than that 98 team.

 

[GDeep™]

They signed Juninho when he was 22 ffs

lmao

 

[GDeep™]

That you have to get over 90 points to win the premier league proves it is tougher. In 98 we won the league with 78 points. This team is much better than that 98 team.

Yeah this team better than Seaman, Adams, Vieira, Petit, Bergkamp etc.

 

[A_G]

lmao

I was thinking of him joining Boro at 29 for one last big move, not when he was younger

 

[BergMan]

Yeah this team better than Seaman, Adams, Vieira, Petit, Bergkamp etc.

Well, yes. This team has surpassed 78 points and the season’s not finished.

 

[GDeep™]

Well, yes. This team has surpassed 78 points and the season’s not finished.

I agree with you, this is the greatest ever Arsenal team.

 

[BergMan]

I agree with you, this is the greatest ever Arsenal team.

No it hasn’t quite surpassed the invincibles who got 90 points. But it’s improving.

 

[GDeep™]

No it hasn’t quite surpassed the invincibles who got 90 points. But it’s improving.

It will I think, so we’re looking at the greatest ever Arsenal team.

What a great time to be alive to witness this. Wow.

 

[Rex Stone]

My bad point still stands, that’s the exception to the rule whereas it’s more common in this era

What about guys like Kovacevic, Hasselbaink to Leeds, Asprilla, Jon Dahl Tomasson etc?

All young and highly rated youngsters who went to bang average PL clubs.

 

[A_G]

What about guys like Kovacevic, Hasselbaink to Leeds, Asprilla, Jon Dahl Tomasson etc?

All young and highly rated youngsters who went to bang average PL clubs.

How often did clubs make those kinds of signings? Because clubs nowadays can go relatively big every summer.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

It was a massive deal when Boro were signing the likes of Juninho, Ravanelli, Emerson etc in the mid 90's.

And It was a big deal because it rarely happened at the time. No-one would blink an eye at those level of players joining a mid table PL team now.

In fact it was relatively rare for PL sides to be signing fairly big name foreign players at all in that era really, especially Brazilians and Italians.

 

[Blankety Blank]

It's better now because even really 'poor' teams at the bottom have good players & are capable of playing some decent football.

It pains me to say it but Peps Man City are the best side this Country has seen.

 

[Dokaka]

Yeah but you’re talking mathematically about something that’s incredibly subject to change?

Poor form and injuries are part of the game.

Which is exactly why I said you could probably see the difference if you ran it back 1000 times in a simulation, but the variance from season to season is too big to make that call definitively right now. We're literally talking about a total sample of less than 30.

Form and injuries are indeed part of the game and that would even out over 1000 seasons, but they're too impactful factors to ignore when the sample size is less than 30.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Anyway it's a pointless debate.

Literally no-one would argue the competitiveness of the league was better in 1980 than it was in 2000. It would be an obviously ridiculous thing to say.

There's no reason not to apply the same logic to 2003 and 2023.

Arsenal fans have nostalgia and want to believe the standard was better when we were at our peak.

 

[GDeep™]

It was a massive deal when Boro were signing the likes of Juninho, Ravanelli, Emerson etc in the mid 90's.

And It was a big deal because it rarely happened at the time. No-one would blink an eye at those level of players joining a mid table PL team now.

In fact it was relatively rare for PL sides to be signing fairly big name foreign players at all in that era really.

Are we just talking about the mid 90’s? Things changed in the 90’s and later. Sheffield Wednesday were signing Di Canio in 1997. Coventry had Hadji in the late 90’s etc. These aren’t or weren’t even prominent PL clubs.

 

[GDeep™]

Anyway it's a pointless debate.

Literally no-one would argue the competitiveness of the league was better in 1980 than it was in 2000. It would be an obviously ridiculous thing to say.

There's no reason not to apply the same logic to 2003 and 2023.

Arsenal fans have nostalgia and want to believe the standard was better when we were at our peak.

You have people like Bergman saying this is a better team than ‘98 too.

 

[Rex Stone]

It was a massive deal when Boro were signing the likes of Juninho, Ravanelli, Emerson etc in the mid 90's.

And It was a big deal because it rarely happened at the time. No-one would blink an eye at those level of players joining a mid table PL team now.

In fact it was relatively rare for PL sides to be signing fairly big name foreign players at all in that era really, especially Brazilians and Italians.

Yeah because of the Bosman rule changing in 1995 as well as other leagues relaxing nationality rules.

It’s not an apples to apples comparison because the transfer market and freedom of movement of 2023 is a whole level up from 1995 when it was introduced.

 

[Dokaka]

Are we just talking about the mid 90’s? Things changed in the 90’s and later. Sheffield Wednesday were signing Di Canio in 1997. Coventry had Hadji in the late 90’s etc. These aren’t or weren’t even prominent PL clubs.

Di Canio wasn't known for much more than being a ****ing idiot before he joined us, when he upgraded to ****ing idiot but good footballer.