Ray Curren and I have a respectful, ongoing discussion.

Ray is a big fan of the English Premier League. He writes about it for Set Piece Analysts and listens to the site’s podcast, on which I am a regular.

Last week, I got an email from him in which he mentioned that I was more down on the English league than he. As is often the case with Ray, he’s right.

I think the English Premier League has taken a noticeable step back this season. The teams at the top are noticeably weaker, to the point that I don’t think any of them would have finished in the top three in 2008-09. The teams are the bottom seem thin, weak, and resigned to a style that is more likely to grind out a season where they barely survive rather than actually try and win matches.

In between, there are a number of teams – exemplified by Birmingham and Stoke – who seem to be overachieving. My feeling: they are the beneficiaries of a weakened league, clubs who would be near relegation just a few years ago.

Stacked against clubs in the corresponding position of the Spanish Primera’s table, the English teams do not compare well, though this should not be construed as a slight on the English top division. If anything, it is confirmation of a natural cycle which has existed in European football for decades. Whether the leading league is Dutch, German, Spanish, English or Italian, the reign of that league will eventually be ended by another league that catches-up.

England’s recession is just part of that cycle. Three years from now, we’ll be having this same conversation about Spain.

For now, that conversation will have to happen between myself and Ray, who talks England before providing his observations on Major League Soccer; specifically, the phenomenon of MLS losing domestic talent (like Michael Parkhurst) to second-level European leagues. Ray talks about some of the frustrations for fans who see the MLS teams they support lose their best domestic talents to European clubs willing to pay two-to-four times more for their services.

In the long run, it is difficult to argue this is a good thing. Players like Michael Parkhurst or the recently returned Troy Perkins profile as the type of player a strong domestic league should be able to keep. But MLS is in a unique place right now. It’s right in the middle of an expansion era, an era that may require some belt-tightening. The franchise fees MLS gets for those expansion teams might say otherwise, but let’s accept the frugality as a premise.

Once the expansion era is through MLS should be able to pay to keep the Parkhursts of the world. Whether it will is something Ray and I discuss.

It’s all on the Friday edition of Inside the Six.

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