20 seasons of Premier League

20 seasons of Premier League

Chance to vote for the best matches, goals, celebrations saves and players of the last 20 years of the EPL.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/20-seasons.html

jaskelainin's double save... wow

the list of games was surprisingly narrow and mostly recent

apart from that, that was pretty cool

Wouldn't surprise me if Man Utd 1 - Man City 6 wins, just because its Man Utd losing.

I see Harry Kewell made the list for Left Mid.

Can only make my mind up in the player section about Henry and Le Tissier..

Why isn't Danny Hay on the shortlist?

Agreeeeed. Love it as a concept though.-

Right, so I've added Schmeichel to the list of Henry and Le Tissier.. Thinking the second forward might be 'O ah Cantona' or Bergkamp.. Or Alan Shearer.. *sigh*.. This is what happens when you love football to much.

Doesn't even have Yeboah's best goal on the list

l-i-n-k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBBnKu5bnCE

That Craig Gordon save is just ridiculous.

the first liverpool v newcastle 4-3 game was quite amazing.

I agree, that game still has legendary status. I'm sure the following or previous season the same fixture was almost as exciting.

another 4-3 game, but not as good from a pure spectacle. I think we were 3-0 down at half time.

some tough decisions to make

looking forward to giving some thought to them

waahhooo! football!!!

Going against the grain, I dont think the creation of the EPL has been a good move.

To be fair though I think this is a consequence not of the EPL specifically but of the overall increase in global interest in the major leagues. More and more money being thrown around has made it easy for big teams to consolidate their positions by buying up any talent on the market. The top clubs generate so much money from marketing that they can afford to spend ludicrous amounts of money on players and facilities. How often do you see people wearing official Barcelona or Real Madrid merchandise compared to any other La Liga club for instance? There's a bit more spread in EPL shirts out there but its still a rarity to see someone in say, a Birmingham city or Fulham shirt compared to the premier league big boys. Plus the big teams who get into the CL earn yet more money and global market share from it that it solidifies their place. I don't think that the EPL itself is responsible for this, its just part of a larger trend.

All of which is why I have no problem with teams "buying" trophies - because having a rich owner is about the only way a mid-level club can break into the top echelon these days. Once a team in the middle teir has any sort of sustained success and looks to build a solid squad to have a shot at the title all their best palyers get snatched up by the big boys. The only other alternative is to get hugely in debt to sustain the growth, and we saw how well that worked out for Leeds.It strikes me as slightly hypocritical for teams to complain about the opposition buying trophies when thats what they've done, just with a different source of income.

What could be interesting in the future is that the "bubble" in player values and wages might burst, which will level the playing field, or the spread of rich clubslike Malaga, Anzhi, or the CSL teams will spread the finite talent pool of ootball more thinly and thus it will become more competitive again. UEFA's financial fairplay might help too, although I worry that it might also work in favour of big established clubs.

Can't be @rsed creating a new thread: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/aug/08/football-premier-league-olympics

Football is less predictable than, say, Olympic track cycling or rowing, because Great Britain have been able to achieve success at these disciplines by throwing money and resources at them. Manchester City have spent many millions more in their quest for trophies, but they still ended up in that ridiculous dogfight with QPR on the last day of the season to win their first Premier League title.

Must say that I am not salivating over either the start of the EPL or indeed the A-League (but I am incredibly bored on the sports front since I'm really only interested in football and two UK heptahletes), but I'm sure that will all kick-in when the business on the pitch starts happening.