Boring, boring Premiership has eaten itself

Something is definitely in the air. Almost every soccer fan I know - sports journalists and friends alike - are doing what is almost unthinkable for arm-chair fans. They’re agreeing. Agreeing that the Premiership just ain’t interesting no more.

Most, it seems, are pissed off with the hype. We’re constantly bombarded with ‘morkeshing’ telling us it’s the greatest league in the world. Yeah? Is that why English teams dominate the European competitions?

And then there’s the money. Millions paid to thicks who would probably find it difficult to comprehend the contracts they’ve signed. The clubs do everything to pamper they’re players. Witness a recent BBC documentary about the sad life of footballers when they retire when Mike "Razor" Ruddock declared: "I didn’t know how to do anything. When the boiler on the central heating broke I didn’t know what to do. The club did all that."

Any wonder then they constantly end up in the tabloids in gang-bang/rape stories?

Simon Hattenstone in today’s Guardian compares and contrasts English footballers with the Ashes winning English cricketers. He writes: "...when England won they managed to go on a bender without being charged with common assault or rape."

If you compare the same stars to the GAA’s amateurs - those players who every summer create sporting lore and legend for no recompense - the picture of the spoilt Premiership brat gets even sadder.

Try comparing hurling and football to soccer. Ever watch a soccer match after watching the hurling? Just pure shite. No excitement and no commitment.

Where’s all the skill and excitement gone from the Premiership? It would be interesting to have a word with the editors who put together the Sky packages to see if they have more or less choice of footage to splice together when doing the highlights or best of the season segments.

The money stakes are high in the Premiership and for club owners, especially for those clubs that populate the mid-to-low table, it is essential not to get relegated and face the prospect of millions walking out the door.

Getting a result - any result as long as it’s not a loss - is the object of the game and it doesn’t matter how you get it is the mantra of many clubs in the English top-flight. Win ugly? Who cares?, it’s a win.

Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger recently bemoaned the fact that many teams were playing negatively, but, haven’t we heard this before from the Frenchman when Arsenal have failed to break down stubborn mid-table opposition.

And while one might point out to Mr Wenger that he might try and use some different tactics, his argument can still be backed up by looking elsewhere.

Greece in Euro 2004. Porto in the Champions League 2004. And then Chelsea.

Every one wants to blame Chelsea for the demise of the Premiership. "They’ve just gone and bought it, haven’t they," is the common cry. But, it seems, Chelsea’s success is more to do with Jose Mourhino’s football ethos, than Roman Abramovich’s billions.

Real Madrid used to spend more than anyone else on players, but, never, ever resorted to winning ugly.

The most entertainment you’re likely to get out of a Mourniho side is the manager’s pre and post-match interviews in which he invariably hypes everything up like a world title contest in boxing.

It’s all been hyped up so much, not just by the likes of Mourinho, but also the very tiresome Wenger v Ferguson spats and of course Sky Sports.

Every now and then Pop music does eat itself, but, it always comes back. You’d think there’s too much money at stake for soccer not to come back. But, you’d have to ask, if it was such a beautiful game before the Premiership, why were the crowds so low?