The simple reason behind the decline of the Premier League?

The Premier League has been famed for its unrivalled status as a spectacle, its tenacity, the world class stars it attracts and the passion which is inherent from the fans. This belief has been firmly held for years now, with television funding giving clubs greater resources to buy players and pay their wages. Has this now gone too far? Are players becoming complacent due to their comfortable lifestyles and millions in the bank? These questions if answered in the affirmative would then lead to the further contemplation that the Premier League has become a victim of its own success, with the standards declining, as player’s motivational impetus wanes.

I’d like to suggest that the recent trend in promoted clubs achieving far beyond their expectations or means is partly due to their undertaking, but also largely to do with opposing teams’ inability to motivate themselves to play these sorts. This season has witnessed the likes of Blackpool, Bolton and Stoke creating havoc amongst the regular flow of proceedings and their players can be seen exerting plenty of effort because the Premier League is new to them, they’re deemed underdogs and aren’t on equivalent wages as some other players are.

An example can be seen when you buy an expensive item, you treat it with reverence and fawn over it until a certain amount of time passes and it loses its original appeal. The same is of football players, they reach the Premier League and treat it with respect, endeavouring for many games, until they reach a plateau or start to decline as their environment becomes familiar. I’m not stating this is universal, for certain players manage to motivate themselves regardless of tangible rewards, but then they are normally great players or have further goals they wish to attain.

But when the Premier League starts to become unpredictable and ever tighter, how much can be attributable to the enhancement of inferior teams or the decline of the top teams? With Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, players are earning ever increasing wages, but are they deserving of these wages when the League is contracting? A trend would seem to appear when emerging clubs get promoted with players who aren’t earning as much as the top club earners start to assert themselves during their first season.

The ‘second season blues’ would then be explained by the Premier League being familiar to the previously promoted club and possibly the bonuses players enjoyed for staying up. The quandary then becomes about how to motivate players who seemingly have everything for a comfortable life. With all of the hardships, tribulations and energy expended involved in playing football I’m fairly sure many players have woken up thinking of walking away with their sizeable savings and living an easier life.

I’m not sure how far my theory follows and how revisionary it may become, but I think it holds in certain aspects to be a fair reflection on the reasons behind some of the circumstances we are beholding in the Premier League. Who else believes the standard of the Premier League has declined? Or is this an unfair judgement to make, for which measurements do you judge it on?

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