Lol Preston. The original Invincibles. Awesome pic btw.

top 5 leagues? Portuguese league is ranked as the 4th best league and has been the 5th best for years now and the russian league is also close to the french? i dont know why the french league is in top 5 leagues even historically Portugal and Turkey did better

oh now I see that the language of your post is in french.. of course

Since the last 20 years... a small group of clubs start dominating every league... we can see that easily right? Am I the only one smell something bad? Anyway:
In France: look at Lyon, it's sad... what happened to them?

In Spain: Real and Barca domination is obvious, but they also dominate Europe (the world).

In Germany: BM & BVB lolllz. Now it's gonna be BM for the next 5 years....

In Italia: Inter Milan might look impressive, but mostly because of the Moggi scandal...

In England: MU rocksssssss!!!

Real and barca dominate europe since when LOL? they dominate their own league thats it. how can you say something like that when we have teams like BAYERN (if anything bayern dominates), United, Chelsea, Juventus etc?

Judging on trophy winners, Holland is 5th. On the League strenght, France can arguably be 5th, not a big deal anyway.

@V Thank you.
@Tuan : Lyon sold half of their stars, others were aging and the transition were dificult because some expensive signings like Gourcuff flopped.
They are actually building their stadium and suffering from the PL escape of their youngsters, they have a brilliant president : Jean Michel Aulas, but competing actually with Monaco and PSG is difficult, they remain in top 5 so its a little consolation for them.

I agree with your predictions and thoughs as always :).
Eredivise should get recognition as well, home of talents and land of Fooball.

@Lilywhite

If Bayern dominates Europe so much, why did they lose to a mediocre Chelsea squad at home, and get thumped by Real 5-0?

Bayern have had a fluctuating recent history. They do very well in Europe in certain seasons, then don't live up to expectations in the next. They were finalists against Inter Milan one season, then knocked out in the quarters in the next. Their highlight was winning 7-0 against Barca, but one year later, they lost 5-0 against Madrid (which has to be their lowest point in the last 4 years).

Madrid has won 10 European Cups, and Barca has won 4. Madrid dominated the 50's, and late 90's/early 00's. Barca has dominated from 2006-12. That's what dominance is. 14 European Cups from the Spanish duo. Not the

Bayern have had a major period of dominance as well. The mid 70's was a key part of their history. But other than that, their other victories came in the early 2000's, and 2 years ago.

United have not "dominated" Europe as much, but they have been a powerful force in the Sir Alex era. Their CL victories have been separated by decades, so it is not "dominance" at all. Dominance is when you repeatedly win or reach the finals over a small period of time (e.g. Barca from 2006-12).

Chelsea have also only won the European Cup once, so there is no sign of dominance there. But they have reached the semi finals on plenty occasions in the past 10 years, so they are also a very formidable force to reckon with.

These days when Lyon won league 7 seasons in a row..
They have the longest winning streak of winning the league, or is there someone else from another league?

@Dynastian
so in your view Italy doesn't exist.

@Shpalman

Lmao, no. I was just in too much of a rush to address Serie A's role in Europe. Milan enjoyed a dominant period in the late 80's and early 90's, and another dominant period from 2003-07. Pretty sure Juve reached the finals a few times in the mid 90's as well. :)

@LilyWhite: they kinda did. Barca for example won repeatedly by big margin for years and always score a lot of goals till they won, or even got knocked out of CL's semi final... They always screwed their opponents badly. Dominated might be misleading, but they have always been world's one of the most powerful teams.

@tiki: Uhmn, I still find it's sad for Lyon, and nowaday competing with $$$$$$ is even more difficult.

@Dyn: Well said!

@sphal: Italian's football 10 years ago before Moggi scandal was a joy to watch...

Anyway, The most impressive team should be Juventus, (Milan almost did the same)... Juve was taken away trophies, got fined (rightly so), lost their best players... got relegated and - 20 points or something. Bounced back the next season, won by large margin, promoted and almost win... now they are dominating. RESPECT!!!

@Dyn
lol no worries it was a joke actually, glad to see you got it.

@Jinn
yes you're right mate, also about Inter dominance, i think we were talking about it also in the Allegri thread.

in general, talking about European dominance, if we look at the last 14 years the situation is quite balanced along the 4 strongest leagues; Spain won it 5 times now with RM's decima, Italy 3 times, England 3 times and Germany 2. there's 1 Portuguese appareance too. i wouldn't talk about dominance, dominance is when a club wins something n times in a row, and that didn't happen anymore since the '80s.

Those gaps look horrible, for what they represent, dark times in history...

anyways.. Its funny to look at some clubs which had their richest piece of history long time ago and nowadays they are mediocre mid-table clubs. Aston Villa had 5 leagues before United managed to win its first.
Genoa wtf?... Those are the clubs you would never imagine to have won a league tittle before.
Pro Vercelli was a amazing club which btw just got promoted to serie a. This one and many other historic clubs have been erased from modern history.

@Tuanis: true :(

Btw, with new statistic and in this economic floating circus where billionaires are everywhere, I hope those clubs you mentioned will be on top flight again.

Later or sooner some sugar daddies will need to invest money somewhere and legitimating their incomes, where else would be better than an "old club" that used to be champ and now "no where".

For me, being every year in semi final of CL ( top 4 ) is a proof of strengh in Europe, nobody has won the new CL twice in a row let alone n times.
Barça tried for 6 years won 3 out of 6, Bayern tried last year and was present lately in Semi or Final, Mourinho made RM serious contenders reaching Semi-finals each year, they will try this year to make the first double, but as you know its very complicated.
Chelsea lately were very strong reaching Semi many times until their first victory...
Each year, there is few changes in the CL quarters, Barça / Real Madrid / Bayern / Chelsea are always in top 8 lately, Dortmund joined the top 8 group lately...
Dominance is very approximative word because if we judge about successive wins, nobody won it twice in the whole modern CL competition.
I have to agree with Tuan again :)

Real madrid have 33 trophies title they are the most highes winning title

"For me, being every year in semi final of CL ( top 4 ) is a proof of strengh in Europe"
^that's an understandable point, you also need to win it tho' :)

@Tuan

I wouldn't agree with Juventus. They got thumped by Bayern 4-0, nice and clean. They also failed to qualify out of their group with Madrid, Galatasaray, and Kobenhavn, and failed to beat Benfica in the Europa League. That's not what I would call 'dominating'. They are dominating domestically due to a lack of competition. I suspect that Roma will prove to be serious contenders (and favorites) this season.

^ Agreed.

^