The latest round of pigs at a trough-thoughts

I think you see lots of British players with plenty of ability (just think how many tricky wingers England have available at the moment, for example), but where we fall behind the better teams is the lack of footballing intelligence amongst the majority of the players. If you watch the movement off the ball of the players from the top club and national sides in comparison to that of the English team, they are at entirely different levels. Our players pass the ball to a teammate and think, 'job done' unless they are running up the line for a one-two. The continentals (and South Americans) immediately move into a position where they can receive the ball if necessary. We've often seen British players succeed at overseas clubs, but never really in a 'playmaker' role and most of the creative types in the Premier League are from overseas.

We always have these great hopes arising from time to time such as Wilshire and Barkley but they don't tend to come to much respite their obvious ability on the ball. Perhaps things might be a little different if some of the young players moved overseas to learn more about the game elsewhere, but there is little impetus for them to do so when they can easily become multi-millionaires, never having to leave their comfort zone here in England.

As it stands, I expect we'll continue to create good 'blood and thunder' footballers such as Gerrard, but we'll continue to lack the intelligent types who can slot in beside them and make the team work effectively.

£5.1bn rights deal announced. Only real change is BT have SNF and Sky get the new FNF rights. Bottom club set to receive estimated £99m (minimum) over the three years the deal runs.

Scudamore just said Burnley are a richer club than Ajax.

Quoted from Maringer

I think you see lots of British players with plenty of ability (just think how many tricky wingers England have available at the moment, for example), but where we fall behind the better teams is the lack of footballing intelligence amongst the majority of the players. If you watch the movement off the ball of the players from the top club and national sides in comparison to that of the English team, they are at entirely different levels. Our players pass the ball to a teammate and think, 'job done' unless they are running up the line for a one-two. The continentals (and South Americans) immediately move into a position where they can receive the ball if necessary. We've often seen British players succeed at overseas clubs, but never really in a 'playmaker' role and most of the creative types in the Premier League are from overseas.

We always have these great hopes arising from time to time such as Wilshire and Barkley but they don't tend to come to much respite their obvious ability on the ball. Perhaps things might be a little different if some of the young players moved overseas to learn more about the game elsewhere, but there is little impetus for them to do so when they can easily become multi-millionaires, never having to leave their comfort zone here in England.

As it stands, I expect we'll continue to create good 'blood and thunder' footballers such as Gerrard, but we'll continue to lack the intelligent types who can slot in beside them and make the team work effectively.

Thinking back to the World Cup there was really only one top notch playmaker and that was Pirlo. Is it a dying art? Possibly Rooney could do that role but as you say, while playing abroad might give him the learning opportunity, he won't do it. Wilshire is much too injury prone. He has never yet played a full season as a professional. Barkley is a better bet physically but watch him closely and he is caught on his heels receiving the ball too often for my liking. He does have talent though. His goals and the way he plays remind me a bit of Tony Curry.

Perhaps the Prem's frantic all-action demands don't lend themselves to the considered playmaker though. I can't see how even someone like Lothar Matthaus would fit in the hurly-burly where pace and getting the ball forward asap are the key features.

Quoted from LH

£5.1bn rights deal announced. Only real change is BT have SNF and Sky get the new FNF rights. Bottom club set to receive estimated £99m (minimum) over the three years the deal runs.

Scudamore just said Burnley are a richer club than Ajax.

Just a tiny percentage could make such a difference to lower league, conference and semi pro football and then basic grassroots football but it will end up in the pockets of players and agents

Not expecting BT Sports free as part of my broadband after the end of this season. How else are they going to pay for PL and CL?

Don't disagree with any of the majority points made here:

Premier League football is removed from the common man.
The money at the top level of the game is killing the levels below it.
English football is suffering the influx of too many average foreign players.

Despite all of the above, Sky and BT wouldn't have spent a combined figure of £5.1bn to secure the rights for a single league if it they didn't have the audience for it.  

Until people stop paying subscriptions, this won't end.  

There were questions as to whether any of the new record deal would be going to grass roots football or cheaper ticket prices. Here is the answer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31384481

Oh great, the latest 'cool guy football' trend, the Bundesliga, is being argued for again. Unlike La Liga or the Premier League we already know who's won, in their cheap stadiums with conducted chants on megaphones, can't beat it. Also, the Premier League earns its money for their own games, what they should do is give the money to failing clubs like Grimsby and Lincoln who can't keep their books anyway. Once they get that money it'll be spent on pure causes and not, say, extra wages for players. In fact, as we know, Grimsby get more TV money than say, Marine of the Northern Premier Leagues. To be honest we should split our money with the teams in the leagues below us so they themselves can spend more money on players. To top it off let's claim we should give the money to soldiers so they can come home from massacring peasants in the Middle East to a Porsche. That'll be good for the nation economically!

"It's not a charity" apparently.

Given that QPR have  a bigger wage bill than European Champions League finalists Athletic Madrid and the team ending BOTTOM of the Premier will bag £97m (3 times more than Bayern Munich would get for winning the German League) I don't really know what it is, a money-grabbing success of epic proportions along with a dismal failure is near enough though.

Quoted from RoboCod

"It's not a charity" apparently.

Given that QPR have  a bigger wage bill than European Champions League finalists Athletic Madrid and the team ending BOTTOM of the Premier will bag £97m (3 times more than Bayern Munich would get for winning the German League) I don't really know what it is, a money-grabbing success of epic proportions along with a dismal failure is near enough though.

Not only are we told it isn't a charity for the rest of English football, it is also supposed to be the best league on the planet. So it fails on two counts.