You guys don't know how happy you make me to be coaching a Classic team at one of the smaller clubs, where all I have to worry about is whether my players are developing both individually and as a team, and whether they're getting something positive out of the experience--not always about who is "best" and who wins the most championships, as if that were always truly a measure of how much players have progressed as a result of being a part of the club.
Yes, CESA has the advantage of being an established winner, and players who want to be recognized want to play for an established winner--which leads to a larger and more selective player pool, which helps to perpetuate the winning, which increases the reputation, et cetera, and so on, ad nauseum. It does leave the question of whether the winning is a result of the player pool, or whether the player pool is a result of the winning. Chicken or egg.
Could CESA win as many championships if good players from other areas didn't travel there based on reputation? Could CUFC win more championships if more of those players came there rather than CESA? Could a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters working for a thousand years eventually reproduce the combined works of Shakespeare?
A better question might be, is my child/young adult having a positive experience at his/her soccer club, and is he/she gaining the skills, confidence, and motivation to succeed at his/her goals?
If the answer is yes...it really doesn't matter what the "other" guy is doing.
