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despite twice eliminating Chelsea. Still, Juventus, Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund have found a way to be competitive in a way English clubs have not.
Of 16 semi-final places since Chelsea’s victory, eight have been taken by Spanish teams, five by Germans, and two by English clubs – Chelsea in 2014 and Manchester City last season – with Juventus in 2015 the one Italian representative. For the richest league in the world this is a poor return, even before we address the deficit of English footballers in the competition.
There are some things the English game can take pride in. The league does not bend its fixture schedule to accommodate Champions League teams as is often the case elsewhere – as if the millions of euros from Uefa were not advantage enough over domestic rivals. That serves only to entrench an elite.
Then there is the Christmas fixture binge, an English tradition occasionally treated by a new foreign coach as if they were being asked to play some Royal Shrovetide equivalent in which the likes of Sergio Agüero or Alexis Sánchez were man-marked thigh-deep in the village stream by the hungover crew of the local Kwik-Fit. Yes, it can be gruelling, but English teams of the past have coped with these demands.
There is no doubt the English season is hard, and the quality of the Premier League A return to English football sponsorship for that 1980s Japanese electronics big-hitter Sharp, who were on Manchester United’s shirts for 18 years. But now they have a marketing budget that extends only to branding the south stand at Stoke City’s home ground, which we are obliged to call the bet365 stadium.
United have 22 official sponsors partners now. They have had four shirt sponsors since 2000, when Sharp were supplanted, yet none evoke United to a certain vintage of fan like Sharp. In those innocent 1980s, there were Manchester City fans I knew who would not countenance buying a Sharp VCR, and, likewise, United fans who felt a strange affinity with them. Now, that was brand loyalty no amount of money these days can buy. Tottenham v Monaco Wednesday, 7.45pm Spurs had good players when I was managing them in the Champions League, like Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Luka Modric, and they have good players now. That said, it is a big disadvantage not playing at White Hart Lane. When I was manager and Spurs were still at the Lane, Bale and Lennon really went for teams from the first whistle, with the fans close to the pitch, urging us on. Wembley will be a completely different atmosphere for the players. Nevertheless, I can still see all the English teams qualifying for the knockout stages, and that includes Spurs. Club Brugge v Leicester Wednesday, 7.45pm Playing in both the Premier League and the Champions League will be difficult for Leicester. But I think they will expect to qualify for the knockout rounds, even if they only finish eighth or ninth in the Premier League. Robert Huth and Chris Morgan will be dangerous on set plays, Jamie Vardy will stretch Brugge’s defence and Riyad Mahrez is a fantastic player.