I know we've kinda discussed this a few times, but it's often a lot of biased commentary based on which league is loved best. I cannot claim to be unbiased but I like the EPL, La Liga and Serie A and I don't have a history of being a 'hater' one way or the other..altho I do hate certain teams in each league. So here is my (hopefully unbiased) take on ONE FACTOR that I think contributes to the recent rise of the EPL in the Champion's League.
Let me first say that I am not even going to attempt to compare leagues. That is an exercise in futility as it requires some sort of complex analysis and initimate knowledge of just about every team in each league...and given relegation and promotion, your fomula requires tinkering every season. That, and everyone loves different things. Some factual..others, presonal preference. Second, I am doing my analysis in comparison of two other roughly comparable leagues in terms of CL success in the modern era - La Liga and Serie A.
In recent years, we see Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea and Arsenal look like good money to make the latter stages in the semifinals of the CL, and even win it. Imo, no other league has a top 4 that is that excellent and consistent in the competition today. More important and central to my theory is that no other league has a top 4. The fact that the same 4 EPL teams consistently play in the competition every year, means that there are the same 4 teams gaining valuable experience and the financial success required to build deeper CL-ready squads (independent of the superior financial health of the EPL).
Now take Spain. La liga only has a big two: Barca and Real Madrid. La Liga pretty much has a revolving 3rd or 4th place finisher: Villareal, Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Deportivo, Sevilla and even Betis have qualified for the CL. Call it inconsistency, or call it league parity, but Spain does not have a big 4. Because these teams don't consistently qualify for the CL, they never develop the experience, nor benefit from the big money the competition provides.
Now take Serie A. Prob. closest to the EPL in that you expect every season to see AC Milan, Inter and Juventus. It doesn't always happen but that's the general expectation. The fourth spot is a revolving door with Roma laying the closes claim to consistency in recent years. But you've had teams like Parma, Fiorentina, Udinese and Lazio (i think) all squeeze in. Again no consistency. So Serie A can claim to have a big 3. So in a way, one can say that the EPL big 4, La Liga big 2 and Italy big 3 should be roughly on par in any 90 minutes head to head.
Now lets say as an example 1 in each group has a tough year (not that big of a stretch imo.). You should still expect 3 from the EPL in the latter stages (QFs and/or Semis), 1 from Spain, and 1 or 2 from Italy.
Of course there is a lot more to it but I do think that if the same 4 teams qualify year after year for a competition, then you will have 4 teams that will consistently do well, and statistically even if 50% of the EPL big 4 screw up, you still have 2 teams that have a great chance of getting into the semis. For Spain to do that both Barca and Real Madrid have to be on top of their game which is statistically less likely. Same for Serie A (you can almost scratch out Inter as a perennial underachiever
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So what allyuh think? Is experience a substantial difference maker. Or is it because there is greater quality in the EPL top 4 in these last 3 or so years. Or maybe there are too many ingredients to even analyze it.
