FALSE 10: You are an embarrassment

After the first leg of the Round of 16 Champions League games (March 10/11th) the English public was shocked. None of the six clubs in the competition won in the first game! What is worse, three of them suffered heavy defeats (Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City) and one was expected to lose in the return leg anyway (Newcastle), while Arsenal and Liverpool were expected to go through. Eventually, it happened like that this week and only the Reds and the Gunners went through to the quarter-finals. Others lost their ties with a combined aggregate score 28-11! A big blow for the ‘best league in the world’, which also gets the most money for TV rights of all other Top 5 leagues. Not to mention that the wealthiest owners are in the Premier League, and that the biggest transfers happen in England every season. So, what is the problem then? Why are the clubs from the best league so awful?

There are many reasons for that and money is not the only factor. Still, we will start from the finances. During the current 2025-26 season, including both transfer windows (June 2025 and January 2026) English teams spent large sums: Chelsea 339, Manchester City 301.80, Tottenham 265.60 and Newcastle 278.85 million euros, while the teams which defeated them spent less: PSG 111.2, Real Madrid 167.5, Atletico Madrid 229.9 and Barcelona 27.50 million euros. But, there are some things which could be considered here. First one is that for example PSG made a core team during the previous seasons when they spent much larger sums so this time, they needed only a great defender and a new keeper and nothing else. Second one is Real Madrid, who spent less money than one would expect from the world’s richest club because they have a habit of attracting great players due to the greatness of the club and buying them for free, when their contract runs out (Mbappe, Rudiger, Alaba, Alexander-Arnold). In reality, getting one of the world’s best strikers cost them a lot, lot more, but looking only at the statistic column, Mbappe came as a free agent, so the transfer fee is zero. As for Barcelona and their humble amount of 27.5 million spent (less than 2/3rd of the Premier League clubs), the reasons are simple: The have the best Academy in the world (La Masia) and they are in deep financial crisis for years and they cannot afford spending more money. But considering the amount of talent they get from La Masia, they have the best base for quality players off all clubs in the world.

The money league: No English clubs in the top four

There is also one thing to consider here: recruitment success. Barcelona leads here as they already have their future stars in their academy, playing in front of first-team coaches and playing the same tactics which are used for the first-team. When they come to Hansi Flick, they are already trained and with experience in the system and they usually flourish already. Newcastle, for example, bought players for almost 280 million euros, but none of the new signings made instant impact, apart from Malick Thiaw, who was, after all, guilty of two out of 7 goals scored by Barca. Similar can be said for Tottenham for example, while PSG, in contrast, didn’t miss with any of their signings, apart from goalkeeper Chevalier who is currently on the bench. So, even if you spend tons of money, it doesn’t mean you are better than others.

FALSE 10: Last train to Titlesville

Then there is an important factor – number of games played. Since the final international break on November 18, the six English clubs played 175 matches between them; their six opponents played 152. In five of the six ties, the Premier League side had played more football than the team they faced. Newcastle are the most extreme case with 32 games, an average of 3.61 days between fixtures and no break of seven days or more in the entire period. They are the only club among all 12 without a single full week off since October. During the Christmas period, the Germans, the French and the Spanish had a break, English club didn’t. For example, Bayer Leverkusen had 21 day of rest, PSG 15. The next reasons to think about is connected to the last one – the strength of the opponents. Arsenal and Liverpool had to play against Tottenham in the Premier League, a team which is currently 16th at the table but has the players worth of 802 million euros. The 16th placed club in La Liga is Mallorca, worth 89 million. In France, when PSG play against Auxerre, they are playing against a team which is in16th place and worth 70 million euros. So, the English clubs are played much stronger teams domestically than other clubs in Europe.

Premier League is the best league in the world – Are you sure?

Then there is the state in which the English clubs are in now. Clubs like Chelsea are in a rebuilding mode, but for the Blues, you could argue that they are in a rebuilding mode forever, or at least since they got the new owners. They buy and sell a huge amount of players every transfer window and one cannot expect consistency coming out of that. Especially not if you change six managers in the span of three seasons! That’s even more appliable for Tottenham, who had the same ownership in decades, including the recently departed executive chairman Daniel Levy, but still changed 16 coaches during his 24 year career in the club. Newcastle were forced to sell their best player and striker Alexander Isak to Liverpool on a deadline day, leaving them with less time for find the suitable replacement and they are struggling since September to find any sort of balance. As for Tottenham, there are in crisis for two consecutive seasons and are playing the Champions League only because they won the Europa League the previous season, How they are in 16th place in the Premier League while last year, they finished in 17th place.

Let’s also look at the schedules. The new Champions League format brings some interesting matchups in the Round of 16 and semi-directed draw also saw some strong teams playing against each other while others have less stronger opponents. If you already forgot Sporting was playing Bodo/Glimt while PSG played Chelsea and Real played against Manchester City. One of the reasons for this is the format and the opponents. Only eight teams (out of 36) go through directly in the Round of 16 while others have to go though playoffs and don’t have the home field advantage in the next round. So, English clubs who finished in the Top 8 (which means they were good) had to play PSG (the current Champions League champion) or Real Madrid, due to the fact that they were not among Top 8. Considering all of this, and not looking at the financial strength of the clubs, maybe the title of this article is not fair.