ENGLAND TO REIGN?
CHRIS DUNLAVY SAYS ENGLISH CLUBS’ SUCCESS IN EUROPE THIS SEASON DOESN’T NECESSARILY HERALD A NEW ERA
Premier clubs seek to dominate
ACCORDING to Rio Ferdinand, the “tide has turned” in favour of English clubs in European competition. Two years ago, the Premier League didn’t have a single team in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Yet when Tottenham take on Liverpool in Madrid and Arsenal face Chelsea in Baku, it will mark the first time in history that one nation has provided all four finalists for UEFA’s blue riband events.
But before we all string up the bunting, sing God Save the Queen and jump on Rio’s bandwagon, let’s have a little reality check.
To provide all four finalists is a remarkable achievement, but domination is measured in sustained superiority, not freak aberrations.
Spanish sides have won nine of the last ten European finals, the only exception being Manchester United’s Europa League triumph under Jose Mourinho in 2017.
By any measure, this remains the age of La Liga, and it will take far more than a solitary clean sweep to oust the Spaniards from their throne.
Consider, too, that Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea in the Champions League final of 2007-08 capped a decade of steady improvement.
In the three seasons prior to Europe’s first all-English showpiece, the Premier League had provided one winner, two runners up and six semi-finalists – more than any other nation during the same period.
Yet in the three years before Liverpool met Real Madrid in last season’s final, only Manchester City and Leicester had progressed beyond the last 16.
The current situation is more reminiscent of Leicester’s title win in 2016, when the Foxes successfully pounced on a rare instance of mass transition among the Premier League elite to pull off an unprecedented feat.
Magnificent though Ranieri’s men were, Jurgen Klopp didn’t pitch up at Liverpool until mid-October. Jose Mourinho, winner of the 2015 title with Chelsea, was suffering his standard third-season meltdown.
At Manchester City, Manuel Pellegrini was treading water, painfully aware that Pep Guardiola was already inbound. And across the City, the unpopular Louis van Gaal was enduring the last of two-and-a-half fractious campaigns.
Similarly, the great European sides of the last decade are all in decline. Real Madrid allowed their team to grow old, failed to recruit adequate replacements and were then struck by the simultaneous departures of Zinedine
Zidane, who has since returned, and Cristiano Ronaldo, the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Bayern Munich, too, are little changed from their 2013 heyday. Unlike Joachim Lowe, who dramatically terminated the international careers of several ageing stars, Die Roten have struggled to cut ties with men like Arjen Robben (35) and Franck Ribery (36), though both will leave this summer. By the end of the season more than half the squad were over 30.
Even Barcelona, for all the enduring brilliance of Lionel Messi, are a shadow of the Tiki-Taka terrors who once ran circles round every club in Europe.
Replacing Xavi and Iniesta was always going to be impossible, but too many subsequent signings have been either inconsistent (Ousmane Dembele), useless (Malcom) or unpopular (Philippe Coutinho). In Ernesto Valverde, Barca also have a coach whose divergence from the Cruyff blueprint has irked players and fans alike.
All of them have dropped the ball to some extent, and at a time when Liverpool, Spurs and City are right in the groove.
But it won’t stay dropped for long. Aside from prestige and pulling power, such clubs benefit from a scarcity of competition in their domestic leagues that ensures near-certain Champions League qualification and all its attendant wealth.
Much has been made of the Premier League’s spending power as a factor in this season’s success, and it is true that eight of Europe’s most expensively assembled squads ply their trade in England.
It is also true that Man City, effectively backed by a nation state, can blow anybody out of the water.
Yet the fact remains that even Pep can register only 25 first-team players. There is plenty of world-class talent to go around and for the majority of players, especially those born in mainland Europe or Latin America, Real and Barca generate a magical pull that no English club can match. They also remain, for now, the financial equal of any rival.
One need only look at this summer’s impending transfer business, with Antoine Griezmann set for Barca and Eden Hazard off to Real. Both at their peak. Both capable of commanding a starting berth at any club on Earth. Both electing to play in Spain.
Make no mistake. The current iterations of Liverpool and City are no flash in the pan and, if left intact, have the capacity to dominate the current decade just as Spain’s giants did the last.
But the big boys will be back, and put it this way - they are likely to face sterner tests than Ajax, Porto and Roma in quarter-finals to come.
At the highest level, then, it is probably fanciful to expect a constant diet of English winners. In the Europa League, however, it is a different story.
There, money does talk. Because the Premier League is so wealthy, and its riches shared relatively fairly, the pool of ‘big’ clubs has grown from four a decade ago to six now.
Only a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that sides like Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United would feature regularly in Europe’s second-rate showpiece. Now, with City and Liverpool miles ahead and Spurs bolstered by a new stadium, it is almost guaranteed.
Below that, aspirants like Everton and Wolves can offer wages far beyond the scope of similar-sized sides in Spain, Germany, Italy or France.
Bernard, Everton’s highest-paid player on £120,000-a-week, earns more in a season than all but three of the Atletico Madrid team that reached two Champions League finals.
In other words, England’s also-rans can afford better players than Europe’s also-rans, which – as two Europa League crowns in three years demonstrates - has an impact.
So an era of dominance? A turn of the tide? Not quite. But it will be an era of competitiveness – and after the humiliation of the last decade, that, at least, is worth celebrating.