Another way to judge the leagues is by the amount of top players playing in it, given that the two best players of this generation and quite possibly any generation play at Madrid and Barca it is difficult to look past La Liga again, with top English sides looking weak in comparison. Another way is transfers, where does the best talent go to. Gareth Bale, the Premier League's best talent of last year has already left for Madrid. More importantly when clubs in England attempted to sign players from Spain they didn't want to leave or picked Germany over it, in the case of Thiago. Obviously there are more factors involved than just looking at transfers coldly, each is an individual case. Thiago for example went back to Pep Guardiola and the current European Champions, put like that it is more understandable. None of these ways include the lesser teams however, they all just the larger teams with the money, in the Champions League but forget the mid table sides without which the league wouldn't function. So how do you judge a league as a whole? As football is an entertainment sport and fans want to see goals, why not try the average goals scored per match across the league. This takes relegation battles, mid table dead rubber matches and the top end matches in to consideration, and provides some interesting results.
The Spanish game that the world has been admiring for the last six years or so since they started to win international trophies, had the least goals this week. Only 1.7 goals per game for your money does not sound like the attractive Spanish football that we have become accustomed too across the last few years. It is no surprise that the Italian league is so low with the emphasis that the Italian game has on defense, but the Premier League is very low down for a league which is apparently the best in the world. It even has the SPL and Welsh Premiership ahead of it. Now I'm not saying that everyone should go out and watch Prestatyn Town against Afan Lido, when over the Manchester derby. What I am saying is that however, much money is in the Premier League, sometimes what fans want to see is goals. The Bundesliga is a far more creditable rival for the the English Premiership, it hold the current European Champions, one of the games most exciting managers and more importantly for fans cheaper ticket prices. Also to cap it all off they see more goals! Four goals every game is a figure that Premier League fans can only dream of when they're on a bus too Stoke on a Wednesday night in January. Hoffenheim for example are comfortably mid table at this early stage of the season, they won't be bragging about they're defense as they've conceded eighteen, but they have a goal difference of nil. In seven games Hoffenheim fans have seen 36 goals, what is not too love about that. I would happily settle for mid table every year if every game was a 3-3 thriller. The stats get even better in Europe's academy the Dutch Eredivise, where so many great players have learnt their craft. With 4.3 goals per game Dutch fans have more entertainment than any other league in Europe best summer up by Heerenveen who despite conceding two goals a game for the first eight, are still 3rd because they've scored 21 already. That is what I call total football.The argument against this is obvious and it is that the other leagues have far weaker teams and aren't as competitive and the English Premier League. This is a good argument, particularly this year where the Premier League, looks more open than it has for a long time. However, if it's pure entertainment that your after Holland and Germany are the leagues that you should be watching.
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