Tbf tho it's like that in any sport, so I don't think it can be used as an indicator of anything. The premier league is probably the most competitive football league yet only a select few have won it.

The main problem is that the salary cap hasn't gone up for over a decade. Buy £1 worth of bread in 2004 and £1 worth of bread now and see what you get for your money.

But they don't have a salary cap in football to even it out. Football is usually who spends most wins the league but super league we are all suppose to be on level playing field.

Whilst the winners have been restricted in the GF. You look at the CC and the league leaders and there has been a lot more variation in recent years.

Relegation team Huddersfield topping the table.

Warrington who always pretend to be good, winning back to back CC's and topping the table.

It's not as stagnant as the GF suggests.

It probably highlights that certain teams are able to cope with the big high pressure games more than others? That's a culture thing more than anything

Thats correct, clubs have looked away from real long term quality. Instead of shopping at Marks and Spencers its a short term fix at Poundland instead.

The quality across the board is considerably less than a few years ago. Put our current strongest 17 up against 2006 strongest 17 and it would be an embarrassing scoreline

Put the Saints side from the 60's (Murphy,Van Vollenhoven, Karalius,Watson,Killeen,Mantle) in, and they would give some of these teams a run for their money !!!!

I think that whilst the competition is closer than it has ever been up at the top the reason for that is simply the top clubs becoming weaker rather than the lower clubs getting better. Go back 10 years and the likes of Wigan, St's, Leeds, Bulls, would walk the competition in it's current state, I'm glad that its a more even playing field, But it's an even playing field for all the wrong reasons.

Go back a decade and we had real stars in the game and some top quality imports from aus (albeit it usually at the end of their career) . We struggle to even hold onto those kind of players now.

The current wigan/saints teams wouldn't have got near the top of superleague 10 years ago.

Too right! Holding the cap at its current level for years has made it a more even playing field by bringing the top teams down to the lowest common denominator rather than raising the quality of the poorer teams. If we carry on like this we'll all end up playing like London.

Germany domestic league have a cap in place and they won the world cup.

If that's true then Bayern must be the Salford of their league to be able to get all them players under the cap.

I think there are cost control measures, but not a salary cap per se.

Quote ="St pete"If that's true then Bayern must be the Salford of their league to be able to get all them players under the cap.'" www.economist.com/blogs/gametheo ... ll-success The prem is possibly the 4th best league in Europe. Just look at the players that have left England in the last 4 seasons, just because its the most paid doesn’t make it better. Plus the German and Spanish structure is better and England. They have for example Man U reserves in the Championship. If they win the league they don’t get promoted. also i hate it when people say the English league is competitive.... So is the Blue Square league... doesn’t make it any good though. I’ve said for years to my mates and work colleagues that I see it like this 1. German league 2. Spanish League 3. Italian League 4. English League 5. French League

Quote ="St pete"If that's true then Bayern must be the Salford of their league to be able to get all them players under the cap.'" www.economist.com/blogs/gametheo ... ll-success The prem is possibly the 4th best league in Europe. Just look at the players that have left England in the last 4 seasons, just because its the most paid doesn’t make it better. Plus the German and Spanish structure is better and England. They have for example Man U reserves in the Championship. If they win the league they don’t get promoted. also i hate it when people say the English league is competitive.... So is the Blue Square league... doesn’t make it any good though. I’ve said for years to my mates and work colleagues that I see it like this 1. German league 2. Spanish League 3. Italian League 4. English League 5. French League

Competitive wise, the German league is a shocker. Didn't Bayern win it by 20 odd points?

Lack of 'stars' doesn't help, i don't think. You guys had some brilliant players between the late 90's and late 00's; Sculthorpe, Cunningham, Long, Albert.. Wigan had Farrell, Lam, Radlinski, Dallas.. Bradford had Robbie Paul, Vainikolo. I'm not convined that there's that caliber of player just now, though, that said, is that just the nostalgia goggles? Super League is undoubtedly more competitive now, which surely can only be good, i'd like to think that i know the OP enough via his posts that it's not a case of ''well, we don't win much lately, the sport must be poo''

I think that's about right. The teams from about mid-table downwards are pretty much as they've always been - perhaps even a little stronger. The top teams are all quite a bit weaker from not being able to attract top quality NRL players (with the odd arguable exception) or to keep hold of top-notch homegrown players that 10-15 years ago would have stayed put.

No way is the Italian league stronger than the Prem. Also, other than Bayern, the German league is pretty weak - even David Moyes dished out a whupping to a German team in the CL last season!

If you moved United, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea into the German league they would fill 5 of the top 6 spaces each year and Bayern wouldn't have it all their own way.

No way is the Italian league stronger than the Prem. Also, other than Bayern, the German league is pretty weak - even David Moyes dished out a whupping to a German team in the CL last season!

If you moved United, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea into the German league they would fill 5 of the top 6 spaces each year and Bayern wouldn't have it all their own way.

disagree. If you where to drop the teams from 4-8 from the English league and German league into one league then all the German teams would be on top.

No way!

It's a one team league with maybe Dortmund being half decent. Look at the scores Bayern won by last year. The German league is a shocker.

None of the Germans would finish in the top 5 other than Bayern

RL fans in football debating shocker

Have I logged in to the wrong forum?

The football debate is in context.

The super league defences from 10 years ago wouldn't be able to cope with the systematic and structured attack needed in the modern game to break down much tougher defences. People are looking at individuals and their quality and comparing them.

Oh in yesteryear we had newlove and lyon and etc now we have josh jones and we put x amount of points on teams in devastating displays theres no contest.

Teams as a unit are much much better now and if you took the top teams now, and pit them against the top teams 10 years ago the present day teams would win comfortably because of the defensive and attacking structures.

It's an irritating trait. Every year the standard is worse than it's ever been. 10 years ago they were saying the same. 10 years before that, the same. It's a human nature i guess. To rose tint some of the past and get nostalgic.

In 10 years time, the same will happen again.