Barca open talks over Fabregas

[Craig_H]

I'm not so sure. When italy was top dog they had AC, Inter, Juve and then Lazio, Sampdoria, Napoli, Udinese etc all fighting amongst the best from accross the continent. England had its 'big four' phase, if anything I would say the overall quality in Spain has deteriorated over the last few years. Real have improved, Barca stayed about the same and everyone else has dropped massively. Athletico are still quite strong but Sevilla, Valencia etc are going to the wall.

Performances in the Europa cup by english teams finishing outside the CL qualifying places I would argue back up the fact that the EPL is the strongest league in any depth at the moment.

How do you qualify that statement? Are you meaning just financially speaking?

Cos Atletico finished way down the table whilst Sevilla and Valencia finished 4th and 3rd respectively, qualifying for the CL.

[the rev leeroy brown]

hope to **** they get fabregas. not only to weaken a team we compete against but i would love to see cesc play in that team.

heaven help any team they come up against if they get torres also!

[Rich]

Am I the only one who cannot understand the fuss over Cesc. He is excellent but nowhere near as good as is made out. Typical English media overhyped player. IMO.

I don't think he's absolute top drawer either. Not at the moment anyway. He's a level below the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and others. He's still so young though so he could be anything eventually.

I think he's class but I kind of agree with Duncan() he's not as good as Xavi or Iniesta (yet), still he'd walk into the Liverpool team.

[Exiled_red]

I can see him being Xavi's long term replacement. Not sure how he'll fit into the current set up, unless they move Iniesta up as one of the front three.

I'm wondering where he'll fit in their system too!

[Assassin]

I'm wondering where he'll fit in their system too!

He will be cleaning Messi's boots

[Rich]

Barcelona do make a lot of personel changes through the season. Keita, Busquets, Toure, Xavi, Pedro, Iniesta, Henry, Messi, Bojan (probably others I've forgot) all play the 5 behind the target man.

If Toure leaves then Cesc will just take his place, just means that Busquets will probably get more game time as the one midfielder sitting deep.

[BillobShaisley]

How do you qualify that statement? Are you meaning just financially speaking?

Cos Atletico finished way down the table whilst Sevilla and Valencia finished 4th and 3rd respectively, qualifying for the CL.

Not sure exactly what happened at Athletico this year, they blew hot and cold a lot. Valencia are more in debt than us and selling all their best players and while those teams did well in spain they didn't do anything impressive in Europe. Teams doing well in th Europa had dropped out of the CL unlike Fulham for e.g.

After Barca and Real Spanish quality has IMO dropped like a stone over recent years and is set to continue while they have their current TV structure.

[peekay]

Not sure exactly what happened at Athletico this year, they blew hot and cold a lot. Valencia are more in debt than us and selling all their best players and while those teams did well in spain they didn't do anything impressive in Europe. Teams doing well in th Europa had dropped out of the CL unlike Fulham for e.g.

After Barca and Real Spanish quality has IMO dropped like a stone over recent years and is set to continue while they have their current TV structure.

It is a bit difficult to compare quality among leagues. The quality does drop after Real and Barca, however the mid table clubs in the La Liga have far more impressive records in the UEFA cup than their English compatriots.

Sevilla, Valencia, Atletico have won the UEFA cups and if I recall correctly Espanyol, Deportivo, Alaves have had impressive runs.

[BillobShaisley]

How many of those teams did well in the Europa after finishing 5-7th though? I think most/all of them dropped down from the CL so we're comparing the 3rd or 4th best teams in spain with the 5,6,7th best teams in the EPL.