Liverpool champions, City relegated...

[bobb]

...if only goals scored by English players counted:

Amended Premiere League table

[Salvatore]

...if only goals scored by English players counted:

Amended Premiere League table

I wonder if that would still be the case if Swansea and Cardiff could only count goals scored by Welsh players.

[LEE]

Despite not wanting to see Liverpool win the Premiership it's a Premiership I'd much prefer.

Premiership football is basically becoming more and more like a US Franchised Football team, with no association to area around it.

A talented local boy, living close to most Premiership stadiums, has no realistic chance of playing for them.  The exceptions being Southampton and Manchester United usually.

Supporting Manchester City is as relevant to a person from Manchester as supporting AC Milan really.

Give it 20 years and the teams will be based abroad most likely.  "Manchester City of Dubai All-Stars" vs "FC Shanghai Barcelona"

[drossall]

Supporting Manchester City is as relevant to a person from Manchester as supporting AC Milan really.

That's what City fans always said about United. "There are no United fans in Manchester", that kind of thing. Obviously something of an exaggeration.

We've supported City since it was our local top-division team, but it's the kind of support where you only actually go to matches occasionally, and we've still been to Maine Road more often than the Etihad. Winning is nice, but I share some of the sadness at the way that you can only win now by having a rich uncle in charge of the club.

There again, Sky put a lot of money in to their cycling team...

[caerau]

It doesn't really take account of goals prevented by 'english' players.  What would it be like if you took account of english goalkeepers and defenders...?


Plus, yeah, I was going to mention Cardiff and Swansea.  I'm sure they'd be delighted at their inclusion in this 'english' league table. 


Lets stir the pot and do a similar analysis of english players in the Scottish Premiership. 

[LEE]

Supporting Manchester City is as relevant to a person from Manchester as supporting AC Milan really.

That's what City fans always said about United. "There are no United fans in Manchester", that kind of thing. Obviously something of an exaggeration.

That tired old stereotype came about because Manchester United had millions of fans outside of Manchester as well as inside. You can't help being globally popular 
At school, in South Manchester, it was about a 50/50 split I'd say and probably still is.

No doubt there will be lots of born-again City fans outside of Manchester now.

My point is that it's hard to look at most Premiership clubs and identify with them on a local level.
They are usually owned by a foreign consortium, they are normally coached by foreign coaches, they have mostly foreign players and are sponsored by mostly foreign corporations.

Manchester City even moved right across Town.  Old Trafford is now closer to Maine Road then Eastlands.

Southampton, God Bless 'em, are like a feeder club of talented English players, for the top premiership teams.  You could make quite a list of ex-Southampton players who were truly top class.

Lets stir the pot and do a similar analysis of english players in the Scottish Premiership

Let's not.

[sg37409]

There was a good article on the radio the other night about man city's committment to the local community.  How much of their investment is made using local firms for construction and maintenance only.   Maybe window dressing, but showed how they take the need to be seen to do this into account.