[Catenaccio]

The glory days are now officially over. Serie A used to be the top league in the world. Things are different now. With the exception of Milan overcoming ManU and Liverpool last year - Italian teams in general consistently lose against English teams now. Spain is now the 2nd league.

Why? Simple - MONEY. If you look at the top 7 paid players in the world, not 1 of them plays in Serie A. Put simply, the English league has better players now. When was the last time you heard of a transfer record for a player eminating from a Serie A team? Its been a long time.

The best players purchased in Serie A are Kaka (bought for a bargain), Ibrahimovic, Trezeguet (bought a long time ago), ummmm....who else? The other good players have been around for a LONG time - DP, Totti, J Zanetti, etc

Compare this to the EPL: C. Ronaldo, Ballack, Drogba, Torres, Schevchenko (before his carreer went south), etc. There are even really good players playing for teams like Spurs and Bolton!?

Look at la Liga: Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto, etc

Lets face it, when was the last time a Serie A team bought any top quality stars in their prime? Our top teams keep buying players at the twilight of their carreers or recycle names within Serie A. The financial power is dying and fast.

What are the chances of any one of Messi, C. Ronaldo, Drogba, Eto, Lampard, Gerrard, Nistelroy, etc moving to Serie A next season? Pretty close to zero.

This year there are 3 English teams in the UCL semi finals and 1 spanish team. In the knock out stages the 3 remaining Italian teams got knocked out by English teams.

Unfortunately, all of the mega billionaires that bought these English clubs don't seem interested in buying any Italian teams. The only team in Serie A that seems willing to really splash the cash is Inter - yet they still cannot get anywhere close to doing well in Europe.

Unfortunately, it seems that Italian teams are going to have a rough time in Europe for years to come. The only Italian team that has had success is the mighty Milan. Unfortunately, you would have to assume that this era is almost gone given the average age of the squad and the club's unwillingness to buy players - Ronaldinho they keep talking about but never happens - so they want to bring back Schevchenko?! Could be a good purchase but not exactly a team revitalising move.

The other Italian team with a good history in Europe is Juventus - however, even if they qualify for UCL for next year I cannot see them doing well in Europe for a very long time.

I hope I am wrong.

 

[Nero]

I would wait until after this summer to make a verdict about Serie A's competitiveness vis-a-vie the other 2 big teams. I think it's quite clear we're third and have been for a while, but it's whether we're sliding further down which is the issue at hand IMO.

All three big teams have to strengthen their squads if they want to compete realistically with the rest of Europe, and whether Roma can bring in that couple of proven quality players they lack remains to be seen. There's also the matter of how potentially qualifying for the CL will boost Fioretina, and whether they are ready to spend to fund a decent run.

It's true the average purchase power has fallen, but now it's about spending smart and not irresponsibly like Italian teams did in the 90's.

But you also have to remember that Milan and Inter depend solely on whether their respective owners are willing to open the cheque book. It has little to do with other factors, so whether or not they bolster their teams considerably in the near future is up to them.

 

[Talus]

It's not because of player transfers.

The purchase of expensive players is overrated as a means to build a squad. Players like C. Ronaldo, Kaka, Lampard, Messi were not purchased. They were made into world class players at their club. A lot of expensive transfers like Henry, Sheva end in flops. The only successful expensive transfer recently is Torres. Serie A does not need to be able to purchase expensive players to maintain world class squads.

The lack of high salaries might deter the ability to pick up potential talent in the first place, however, but at that stage, finance is not that big of a deal.

 

[M.G.]

Too much of these doomsday threads these days. Relax everyone Juve is back and will have Milan and Inter on their toes, and we will no longer have to pin our hopes on Roma anymore.

Anyway, I think Serie A is better than La Liga at the moment.

 

[Demandred]

Even if it's the third strongest league that's not the end of the world. It's still enjoyabe to watch (IMO more than Premiership) and that's what really counts.

 

[roadrunner]

Yes, there have been so many memorable games in Serie A this season.

I also think the division is recovering, with a lot of younger talent emerging.

I expect Juventus to do very well in the CL next season.

 

[Advocato]

I don't think its a fair justification - the EPL has come along in leaps and bounds due to its entertaining nature. This attracts TV revenue which in turn, builds the clubs into genuine powerhouses which affords them the luxury of the better players. It is a double-edged sword though, and you can look to the performances of the English (and even Spanish for that matter) NT as an example on how it is far harder to garner growth through the youth system than it is to "buy" talent.

The Serie A has always been slightly more insular than the Spanish and the English leagues, so nothing new there.

Anyways, the once European powerhouses have fallen by the wayside: Real Madrid, Valencia, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund...its cyclic, so don't worry about it.

 

[Jern Lizardhous]

money doesn't neccesarily make the League better, the old first division I think I enjoyed better, we didn't have great players but we had teams like Norwich, Villa, Ipswich all chasing the title after doing great business, now we just have a top 4 and the rest squabbling for UEFA Cup and going to the top 4 with all men behind the ball hoping for a point.

 

[ToniSamp]

Ah ah ah, suckers!! Who cares? The Italian NT is a thing but I don't care so much if Milan, Juve and Inter go to hell. they did nothing to improve the situation, they just thought about winning the Champions League spots for themselves by sharing the money from the TVs in a very unfair way.

Forza Sampdoria!!

 

[Minotti]

I'm like Toni but only: Forza Parma p

No seriously, serie a is a far too good league to fall behind the other 2. It happens that one year one league is better (I have no idea how one meassure that but let's play along) and the next year another league is better.

Juve will become the power they once were :moan: .

 

[ToniSamp]

Juve will become the thieves they once were :moan: .

fixed

 

[Deano]

I think against La Liga we still match up well anyway, but against EPL we suck: Some stats from the CL and UEFA in the last 5 years when matched against such oppositions

v EPL in CL:

Games won: 6
Games Drawn: 4
Games Lost: 12

2 legged ties (won/loss): 2-6

v La Liga in CL:

Games won: 9
Games Drawn: 7
Games Lost: 14

2 legged ties (won/loss) - 2-5

This confirms that we are only the 3rd team in CL... our teams suck when playing La Liga and EPL... much more so v EPL of course.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will do Uefa Cup later.

And I am with Toni... generally I dont care.

 

[Dean]

I am a little bothered, even if I pretend not to care about Serie A and just Parma. The stronger the league, then the stronger the lower teams will become too.
I think there's a problem when Italy's best young player moves to Spain - Giuseppe Rossi.

 

[Deano]

I think there is a problem when most of Italy's best players move not only to Spain, but also Germany and France (Grosso/Toni/Cannavaro/Zambrotta) these guys are world class and should be in Serie A.

Unless Milan and Juve become serious... some smaller clubs get an increase in cash/budget/TV money and Roma get their takeover... I cant see Italian teams succeeding consisteky in Europe for a long, long, long time. We might get a Milan 2007, but that will not be a yearly thing for sure.

 

[G. Facchetti]

These kinds of things are very fickle. I think that if the players brought in are right, the clubs are stable, then next year we could easily jump to 1.

 

[Deano]

These kinds of things are very fickle. I think that if the players brought in are right, the clubs are stable, then next year we could easily jump to 1.

This has not happened sine 2002/03 season for Serie A. Since then we've had Milan get to 2 finals, but no other Italian club get past the QF. On every occasion they have gone out to either an EPL or La Liga team (apart from one case Inter went out to Milan).

 

[G. Facchetti]

Well fair point, but I don't put as much emphasis on CL as many do...although that is the only real comparson point

Now think about this

Even back in Serie A heyday

I think only the top 4-5 clubs could have beat their corresponding teams...not the rest

 

[bernmilan1]

The fact that Milan won last year's CL was just a mirage, since Serie A was still not the best league.
It was well won by Inter, no doubt. But the rest of the teams, excluding Roma, and of course including Milan, were simply not up to par.

 

[Amr!]

La Liga is a joke, everybody is losing there, it's like they don't want a specific team to win the trophy.

 

[camelface]

I think there's a problem when Italy's best young player moves to Spain - Giuseppe Rossi.

good xample... terrible...