Serie A - the sick man of European football?

[Cambridgeblue]

This week's Champion's league results which have seen AC Milan fail to even score against Tottenham (despite having Robinho, Pato and Ibra to call on) and Roma absolutely thrashed over two legs by Shaktar, combined with the relatively poor showing of some of the Italian teams in the Europa League (Juventus, Sampdoria and Palermo I'm looking at you) shows how poor Serie A is in comparison to the other major European leagues.

Unless Inter Milan can overcome a one goal defecit against Bayern there will be no Italian teams left in the last 8 of the Champions' League, which would leave 2 German teams, Between 1 and 3 English teams, 1 Ukrainian team, 1 or 2 Spanish or, just possibly, French teams. If I were Italian I would be embarrassed by the state of club football there.

 

[balkanno]

I was saying right after the Draw, they all 3 are out.

 

[inbetween]

They didn't fare to well in the World Cup either.

 

[Anonymous]

right ive had it!!

mancini out!!!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Under the UEFA coefficient system for calculating qualification for European club competitions Italy has now fallen below Germany which means that the number of Italian teams qualifying for the Champions League will reduce to 3 the season after next.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... k2011.html</a>

I have always found Italian football too slow, and I much prefer the Bundesliga. Long way back for Serie A now methinks.

 

[fbloke]

Lets not forget that historically Italian clubs have been bankrolled by billionaire owners (wait a minute before you say anything) and have stadia built and owned by local government.

Unfortunately the investments have not been in youth and academies and so they need the same to happen again but the FFPR will stop that even if owners could be bothered, which apparently they can't.

Then there are the fans, the ultras etc who firmly believe that they control the sport in Italy.

Perhaps they do and that's what we are seeing the results of?

 

[Damocles]

3 teams who qualified out of the CL groups. Italians dont care about the Europa League and barely want to be in it.

Italian teams have won the CL twice in the past 5 years, including last year. The league over there is also full of exciting young prospects.

Hardly what I would call dying. The same clichéd arguments were thrown out about the Prem last year when we didnt do well in the CL and had big players leave. That was full of shit then too

 

[Anonymous]

3 teams who qualified out of the CL groups. Italians dont care about the Europa League and barely want to be in it.

Italian teams have won the CL twice in the past 5 years, including last year. The league over there is also full of exciting young prospects.

Hardly what I would call dying. The same clichéd arguments were thrown out about the Prem last year when we didnt do well in the CL and had big players leave. That was full of shit then too

Do you think we'll see in the next couple of years AC, Roma, Juve, getting any stronger - or do you think that we'll see the likes of Lazio, Napoli, et al usurp them and create a new power base in Italian football...?

For me it's a league I've always had a love/hate relationship with. As a kid I didn't really watch it that much. I've always had a certain antipathy for Italian teams in Europe, but in the last three or four years have watched more of it because of the good young players out there.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

i think inter well over achieved last year.

I think give it 2 or 3 more years and I think the Italian teams will become stronger, maybe not to the height that they were when they were dominant, but much more competitive, and I think it will go beyond the usual suspects. I think clubs like AC and Juve are starting(just starting) to learn from previously woeful transfer and managerial policies and I think that once they finally get rid of their golden generation I think they will makes strides forward with the pretty talented younger generation.

The debt issue is quite a concern though.

 

[leighton]

The Italian league is in the shit. No doubt about it Liam Brady was talking about Arsenal and there scouting network and at the moment there is no real stand out players in the Italian league and there younger players at the teams are over looked for the more senoir players at the clubs which doesnt help there progression into there first team when injuries occur. All the major clubs in Italy need fresh faces but they are happy to keep there older players and it shows in the European games that they are now not up to the standard anymore.