Dietmar Hamann has told talkSPORT the Premier League will fall further behind Europe’s superpowers while it continues to turn average players into multi-millionaires.
The English top-flight’s apparent lack of quality has come into sharp focus in the past fortnight with the big four of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United losing five of their six Champions League group stage matches so far.
Questions are now being asked again about the spiralling costs of watching football in England – particularly around ticket prices and ever-increasing TV subscription packages – while the performances levels continue to dip.
And Hamann, who was a key member of Liverpool's 2005 Champions League-winning team, blames the culture that has been created in English club football, where mediocrity is rewarded with riches.
In a damning but thoughtful assessment on talkSPORT's Colin Murray show, he claimed: “The problem is that in England in the last five or six years there has been a culture created where you can earn vast amounts of money by being average. This is the core problem of the Premier League.
“You see mid-table Premier League players, average players, picking up cheques every week which mean in four or five years they will have earned enough money [to keep them] for the rest of their lives.
“The [top] money should be earned by the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Silva, Aguero – I’ve not got a problem with whatever they pick up if they are successful, if they score goals, if they win titles.
“But I think there has been a culture created that you can earn ridiculous amounts of money by being average.
“It doesn’t matter whether you win or not because you pick up the money anyway, and I think that can take the edge off players. Some of the players come here for the wrong reasons. The way they are paid in England – there is no appearance money, there are hardly any bonuses, which is the case in Germany. In Germany you have to play and play well and win to earn top dollar. In England, you don’t.
“In England you sign a contract, and you give a 20-year-old kid a five-year contract on 60 or 80 grand a week, which is worth £20m whether he plays or not, or plays well or not. It doesn’t matter, the kid still picks up £20m. That is irresponsible. It’s the wrong approach. The pay structure needs to change in this country.
“Yes, it’s worth a lot of money to stay in the Premier League but the prices are inflated. Arsenal are struggling to get out of a group made up Dinamo Zagreb, Olympiakos and Bayern Munich. Liverpool last year didn’t get out of a group including Ludogorets and Basel.
“I wonder whether the time will come when clubs ask themselves, ‘why do we pay these players 100-120 grand a week if they can’t even get through against these [teams]?’
“Look at the wage bill of Basel and Ludogorets and I reckon it will be about 10% of Liverpool’s and they couldn’t even beat them.
“And I wonder when or if there is a time when the likes of Sky and BT say, ‘hang on, what are we paying all this money for?’ because if you look at the international standard in the Champions League, the English teams are miles off."
I think he is spot on and i think that's why we are so rubbish at international level also. Kids spoiled by riches.
Why we are falling behind
posted on 30/9/15
Supply and demand. As J99 says many people watch it so in a way it's only right players get that proportion of money.
This theory doesn't explain why City have constantly failed in Europe however. Would you say their squad is made of average players? No way. A lot of those players you could say justify their wages. A bit too easy to point at money and over paying players. It's a bit of everything. Not sure what, maybe tactically naive plays a part
posted on 30/9/15
Actually the fact that BT Sport outbid Sky on the Champions League TV rights should tell you everything.
Sky could have spent more and kept the Champions League rights. But they didn't because they have had figures on the amount of money they are generating from European football and it was not enough for them to bid higher than BT.
This is why owners of top clubs in Europe are panicking that the TV revenue of premier league is going to even make Champions League football become a secondary competition. And UEFA earns a billion pounds a year from the CL. Thats why Platini has stopped ffp.
Frankly players are more motivated to do well in the premier league than they are in the Champions League. Its just not that important to English clubs as it used to be. Why do you think Wenger is rotating for the Champions League? Look at the team he put out against Dinamo in Croatia that put us on the back foot immediately!
posted on 30/9/15
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 30/9/15
To be fair wages are only going to go higher with the BT Sport CL money.
posted on 30/9/15
I just had a thought, maybe bonuses for these teams are much higher this year if they make it past the group stages. This means the lower ranked sides have a lot of motivation to navigate past the group stages. The BT Sport money is huge.
posted on 30/9/15
comment by Posh Mufc Great Hafi Not Arrogant Just Better (U6578)
posted 6 minutes ago
I just had a thought, maybe bonuses for these teams are much higher this year if they make it past the group stages. This means the lower ranked sides have a lot of motivation to navigate past the group stages. The BT Sport money is huge.
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5.5mil euro compared to 3.5mil euro last year.
Don;t think the club earning more money is that big an incentive to the players though.
posted on 30/9/15
I suspect 3 of the 4 English teams will still make it out of the groups, and that would be like the normal standard wouldn't it? Yeah everyone knows we're behind the likes of Munich, Madrid, Barca, but I think there's a bit of overreaction going on.
Both Manchester teams could win tonight and then what will people be saying?
posted on 30/9/15
Hamann is 100% correct in his assement. I've been saying the same for years.
Why do we pay stupid wages to young players that have done nothing. Half a season of being good gets you almost 100k per week. Where is the need to improve when u got it all at 21?? Players in England are all interested in having the fittest , best car ect and at such a young age you take the eye off the ball.
Wilshite got almost 80k per week for half a decent season and then spent the next 2 years injured on that salary. Szez got something like 60k per week and I'm a still asking why.
The problem is only going to get worse with all the extra money coming into the PL. The fact that Walcott gets 140k plus tell u all u want to know.
Just choosing arsenal as obviously I support them but problem is with all PL teams. Luke Shaw almost 150k per week lol ect.
posted on 30/9/15
Good analysis by Haman. However how does it explain how much players at mid table clubs have improved?
I think the struggles of the best teams are simply linked to the improvement of the rest of the league. Whilst barca bayern etc can build up a run of form and confidence (crucial aspects of a league campaign) by playing average opponents and rotating and still winning comfortably, city can have a game against palace where they have to strain every sinew and steal a winner. 10 years ago things were very different it was far easier to win
posted on 30/9/15
IMO the root cause is a lack of quality defensive managers. I've said this many times before but 10 years ago the arrival of Benitez and Mourinho heralded a golden era for the PL teams in Europe. With their park-the-bus tactics and excellent 2-leg management, which also rubbed off on Fergie (and briefly, Wenger), the PL was able to develop its own unique blueprint for European success, mastered over the course of the season in the various meetings between the top 4.
These days instead we have the likes of Pellegrini, Wenger and Rodgers who all have poor track records in Europe thanks to their naive/open styles. They've succeeded in turning top 4 encounters into ridiculously high-scoring affairs, which leaves English teams ill-prepared to face the heavy hitters from abroad (or increasingly, even the smaller teams).