Petrovic: Premiership is crap

Petrovic slams Premier League as crap

November 24, 2010


By ESPNsoccernet staff and Harry Harris

Former West Ham assistant boss Zeljko Petrovic has hit out at the Premier League after he was sacked by the club on Tuesday, claiming that the English top flight is ''crap''

Petrovic had been Avram Grant's No. 2 for just a few months, but left in mysterious circumstances as the club lie rock-bottom of the Premier League and has now slammed the standard of the league.

"The Premier League is a crap league, it is nothing,'' he told the Sun. ''In truth the level is shocking. Every team has just three good players. If you take those players out of the teams then there are only players left who would not be playing in the bottom team in Holland. The Bundesliga is far better."

Reports have suggested that the players were unhappy at Petrovic's training methods and 'arrogant' personality and the Hammers are now set to bring in ex-Brentford boss Wally Downes.

The confrontational Downes is a one-time member of the Wimbledon Crazy Gang, and has been out of work since he was dismissed as a member of Alan Pardew's backroom staff at Southampton in August. He has plenty of coaching experience, having been part of Steve Coppell's coaching staff at Reading after nearly two years in charge at Brentford where he was sacked in 2004.

Downes will work primarily on a West Ham defence that has leaked 25 goals this season and will hope to have an immediate impact for the match the club have officially billed as the match to save their season: at home to Wigan on Saturday.

luke. wrote:3 good players?

VdS, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Rooney, Nani, Valencia all in 1 team not good enough?

Essien, Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Malouda and Anelka all not good enough?

menalawyerguy wrote:All the teams are shit, and West Ham is easily the most shit of them all. What's that say about this cunt? haha

(polskaGOLA) wrote:I do agree with him, that the quality of teams outside of Arsenal/Chelsea/United/Spurs/Everton/City is very very very bad for supposedly the top league in the world.

Compared to the likes of Italy, Spain and Germany's bottom table sides anyway.

Danny B wrote:Whats that got to do with anything?

Danny B wrote:I meant what's Barca and Real being probably the best 2 teams in Europe atm got to do with the standard of the "lower" premier league teams?

menalawyerguy wrote:I beg to differ. The mid and bottom table teams are just as good, if not better, than most of the other leagues. Almost every week, we see Barca or Madrid (sometimes both) roll up some poor lower table La Liga side. 5-0, 6-0, 8-0. Scores like that. You don't see that happening in the Premiership very often.

In fact, I'd say the Premiership is the most balanced league in Europe. The table is wide open.

iPepe wrote:

Danny B wrote:Whats that got to do with anything?

My post? Menala said that we´ve been trashing teams, it´s because we´re a class ahead of others, Chelsea had the same for a while this season but that magic seems to have been gone.

Danny B wrote:Meh, you wouldn't beat many teams 8-0 in the Premier League tbh

coolmarvin wrote:

(polskaGOLA) wrote:I do agree with him, that the quality of teams outside of Arsenal/Chelsea/United/Spurs/Everton/City is very very very bad for supposedly the top league in the world.

Compared to the likes of Italy, Spain and Germany's bottom table sides anyway.

If that was the case, those teams would be head and shoulders above the rest.

If you really think that then you can't watch that many EPL games tbh. Silly statement to make.

menalawyerguy wrote:

iPepe wrote:

Danny B wrote:Whats that got to do with anything?

My post? Menala said that we´ve been trashing teams, it´s because we´re a class ahead of others, Chelsea had the same for a while this season but that magic seems to have been gone.

Maybe they're trashing teams because those teams they are trashing are garbage. We won't know until Barca and Madrid take on the other power brokers in Europe really how good they are. As of now, they've played a bunch of garbage and cleaned them up nicely in most cases. But Barca has two draws in Europe. Real Madrid drew their toughest game and could have easily lost it. So we'll see. Jury is still out on exactly how good they are.

(polskaGOLA) wrote:

menalawyerguy wrote:I beg to differ. The mid and bottom table teams are just as good, if not better, than most of the other leagues. Almost every week, we see Barca or Madrid (sometimes both) roll up some poor lower table La Liga side. 5-0, 6-0, 8-0. Scores like that. You don't see that happening in the Premiership very often.

In fact, I'd say the Premiership is the most balanced league in Europe. The table is wide open.

This is because EPL is a physical league, not because teams are balanced.

Teams like Sunderland or Wolves can keep from having 5 goals get passed them by bullying the opposition physically. If you notice, only sides who tried to not play as physically in the EPL got thrashed, like Blackpool and Newcastle.

Plus as Egzon said, Barcelona and Real Madrid are so effective at scoring goals, it's not a comparison to Chelsea/Arsenal/United/City.

And on paper, EPL's bottom table clubs are horrendous even compared to mid-table French Clubs tbh.