By Charlie Bourne.

The 2023/24 Premier League season drew to a close on Sunday and Manchester City were crowned Champions for the fourth time in a row. This is causing many people to claim that the Premier League is becoming the new farmers’ league amongst Europe’s top leagues.

For those that are unfamiliar with the term ‘Farmers League’, it is often used by football fans to refer to a League which is often uncompetitive with the same team winning every year and recruiting the best players from the rest of the League. These terms are mostly associated with the French ‘Ligue 1’ (where PSG have won 10 of the last 12 seasons) and the German ‘Bundesliga’ where Bayern Munich had won the league 11 years in a row prior to this season. However, English fans who are proud of their League and its competitive nature may be in for a bit of a shock.

Over the past 7 years, Manchester City have won 6 Premier League Titles averaging 91 points per season in the span. The only team to have bested this Manchester City team was the 2019/20 Liverpool team which was massively helped by winning 26 of its first 27 games. We can see from this that the only way to beat Manchester City at the minute is to have a somewhat perfect record. This is evident this season as although Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Aston Villa in April was their only loss since the turn of the year, it ultimately lost them enough ground to give Manchester City the League. So, it leaves the question, is Manchester City’s dominance enough so to call the League a ‘farmers League’.

Another aspect of a ‘Farmers League’, in addition to the unparalleled success, is the idea of buying out the other teams. It is fair to say that Manchester City have spent a lot of money on key players. Over the last 10 years, City have a net spend of over a billion euros and many rival fans are much aggrieved by the lack of action over the 115 charges for financial breaches over a period from 2009-2018 (just before the start of their recent success). However, it is only fair to point out that Manchester United and Chelsea also have net spends over a billion euros and, with the exception of Chelsea’s slightly unexpected 2021 Champions League triumph, their respective levels of success are nowhere near the level of Manchester City’s.

It’s also worth noting how far clear Manchester City have been in their winning seasons. In the 2017/18 season, City picked up 100 points and won the League by 19 points. Whilst this implies dominance, this hasn’t been the case every season, with 3 of their 6 winning seasons being won on the final day of the season. You can compare this to the French League, which also has a similar status. Some seasons have been closer than others, but in general, PSG have won the League fairly comfortably – in 2016 they were 31 points clear of their nearest challengers.

However, even so-called ‘Farmers Leagues’ have years in which other teams win. In the 2016/17 season, after dominating all other teams the year before, PSG could only finish second to a very strong Monaco team. Equally, Bayern Munich’s dominance has been ended in Germany where Bayer Leverkusen have stolen their crown. It could therefore be argued that Liverpool’s title win in 2020 could be the exception that proves the rule, meaning that we could be expecting Manchester City dominance for years to come.

Overall, it seems too early to call the Premier League a ‘Farmers League’. Manchester City have only won 6 Leagues – Manchester United won 13 of the first 20 and yet that seems to be forgotten. However, if Manchester City continue their dominance over the next couple of years, the Premier League will no doubt be questioned, and a reputation of a Farmers League may be completely justifiable.