⏱ 4 min read
The World Cup kicks off in a few weeks and I’ll be backing England like I always do. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the Premier League isn’t going to save us this time round.
For years we’ve leaned on the idea that our league prepares players better than anyone else’s. The intensity. The quality. The relentless week-in, week-out grind that supposedly forges champions. Except that version of the Premier League doesn’t really exist anymore.
I watched Spurs draw 1-1 with Leeds at the weekend. It was flat. Predictable. The sort of game where both teams looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. And that’s not unusual now. It’s standard. The supposed best league in the world is churning out football that wouldn’t get you out of your seat if someone paid you.
The quality has dropped. Not a little bit. A lot. You can see it in the way teams set up, the way they defend, the lack of genuine technical ability in midfield. Half the league plays with ten men behind the ball, nicks a goal on the break, then spends 35 minutes rolling around on the floor clutching various body parts. It’s tedious and it’s not preparing England players for what they’ll face in the summer.
Look at what happened across Europe at the weekend. Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-0. That’s a proper football match between two sides who actually try to play. Milan lost 3-2 to Atalanta in a game that had more genuine quality in 90 minutes than most Premier League weekends manage in a month. Even the Portuguese league is serving up better technical football right now. Sporting put four past Rio Ave. AVS beat Porto 3-1. These aren’t meaningless results. They’re evidence that other leagues are producing environments where players have to think, move, create.
Our lot? They’re learning how to manage a 1-0 lead from the 60th minute. They’re getting comfortable with sideways passing and percentages. They’re being coached by managers who treat every game like a cup final that needs grinding out rather than won properly.
The commercialisation has killed what made the Premier League special. Too much money. Too much caution. Too many mid-table sides playing like they’re protecting a European spot when they’re nowhere near one. The game has been sanitised to the point where genuine risk-taking is seen as reckless rather than necessary.
And the theatrics. I cannot stand it. Players going down like they’ve been shot, staying down for two minutes, then sprinting back into position the second the ref waves play on. It happens every single game now and nobody does anything about it. That’s what we’re teaching our players. How to con officials. How to waste time. How to avoid actually having to be better than the opposition.
The problem for England is that international football doesn’t work like that. You can’t sit back for 70 minutes against decent sides and expect to nick something. You can’t roll the ball around the back four for five minutes waiting for the perfect opening. World Cups are about intensity, quality under pressure, players who can think two passes ahead when the game is stretched.
Our players aren’t getting that week to week. They’re getting comfortable. They’re playing in systems designed to avoid losing rather than to win. They’re surrounded by technically limited teammates who’ve been bought because they “know the league” rather than because they’re actually good at football.
As someone who’s watched Spurs for long enough to know what false preparation looks like, I can tell you that’s exactly what the Premier League is giving England right now. It looks impressive from a distance. The stadiums are full. The television coverage is slick. The hype is relentless. But underneath it’s hollow. There’s no substance there anymore.
I’ll still watch every England game. I’ll still hope we can pull something together when it matters. But I’m not kidding myself that the Premier League has prepared this squad properly. If anything, it’s done the opposite. It’s made them comfortable with mediocrity dressed up as pragmatism.
International tournaments expose that pretty quickly. You either have players who can handle elite technical football played at genuine intensity, or you don’t. Right now, I’m not sure we do. And the league they play in every week isn’t helping.