Top four is top four, wherever you may be

The recent video produced by Touchline TV featuring Mansfield Town’s Carolyn Radford, reminded us of the apparent lack of competitiveness in the English Premier. True enough, the top four of the EPL seems to be a closed shop, but is it really so different from anywhere else?

There’s no denying that a rarely changing top four has become tedious, unless of course you happen to be a fans of Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchester duo. Over the past 10 years, and before this season, only one team had consistently finished in the top four – Arsenal. The’ve virtually made fourth place their own property. Chelsea and Manchester United had featured nine times and City, just four.

How does this compare with other top European leagues?

	Top 4 clubs	Title winners	Ever presents
Austria	10	4	None (Red Bull Salzburg and Austria Wien x 9)
Czech Republic	10	4	None (Sparta Prague x 9)
England	7	3	Arsenal
France	14	6	None (Lyon x 9)
Germany	11	4	Bayern Munich
Italy	10	3	None (Milan x 8)
Netherlands	7	4	Ajax, PSV
Portugal	8	2	Benfica, Porto
Russia	10	4	None (CSKA and Zenit x 9)
Spain	11	3	Barcelona and Real Madrid
Switzerland	9	2	Basle

 

So the English Premier is far removed from the ultra-democratic French Ligue 1, but take a look in a year or two and things will undoubtedly look different as the influence of inflated investment begins to take hold.

The fact is, most football leagues have their monied clubs and their also-rans. Across time, it has always been the teams with money that win prizes. Success outside that bracket has never been sustainable.

In some ways, the English league was behind the curve in creating an elite group of ultra-dominant clubs. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, we used to pride ourselves in being a nation where a large number of clubs could win prizes. At the same time, we looked at other countries and sneered at their duopolies and monopolies. Today, we know the dominant clubs in each of the top leagues almost as well as we know our own: Spain – Real and Barca; Germany – Bayern; Italy – Juve; France – PSG; Portugal – Benfica and Porto; Scotland – Celtic.

Just consider the period at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, what many consider to be something of a golden age for English domestic football (League champions and FA Cup winners):

	England	Scotland	Italy	Spain	Germany	Portugal
1967-68	Manchester City & West Bromwich	Celtic & Dunfermline	Milan & Torino	Real Madrid & Barcelona	Nurnberg & Cologne	Benfica & Porto
1968-69	Leeds United & Manchester City	Celtic & Celtic	Fiorentina & Roma	Real Madrid & Athletic Bilbao	Bayern Munich & Bayern Munich	Benfica & Benfica
1969-70	Everton & Chelsea	Celtic & Aberdeen	Cagliari & Bologna	Atletico Madrid & Real Madrid	Borussia Moenchengladbach & Kickers Offenbach	Sporting & Benfica
1970-71	Arsenal & Arsenal	Celtic & Celtic	Inter & Torino	Valencia & Barcelona	Borussia Moenchengladbach & Bayern Munich	Benfica & Sporting
1971-72	Derby County & Leeds United	Celtic & Celtic	Juventus & Milan	Real Madrid & Atletico Madrid	Bayern Munich & Schalke	Benfica & Benfica
	7 Clubs	3 clubs	8 clubs	5 clubs	6 clubs	3 clubs

 

There’s one way that perhaps we can change things, but it probably won’t happen. The “uber clubs” can create their own competition and run it independent of their domestic leagues. Given that these clubs build their squads not just to win their league but for European domination, it should make little difference to them. A 20-team European Super League, packed with multinational teams. Then the rest of the world can get on with their domestic competitions. The top four would look different in England then….