Most people don't really follow a competition once whoever they follow
closest has had their interest ended. I couldn't really tell you what happened
in the World Snooker Championships after Jimmy White was knocked out, and the
end of the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 are pretty much a blur. Many casual
British football fans will feel the same way about the Champions League this
year after British interest was ended this week. For the first time in 15 years
there are no team from the Premier League in the latter stages of the
competition, a long fall from the days when England provided 3 of the 4 semi-finalists.
We had five teams in the competition, each of them have their own
reasons for having been knocked out, but there are also a few other general
points which, though have been made before, are worth repeating.
The Premier League isn't as good
as we all think
Like the best myths in life (Santa Claus, the moon landing) no one
really knows how it started and not many people are brave enough to speak out
against it. The Premier League isn't that great in terms of competitiveness as
you can pretty much say who the top 4 will be every season. While this may be
true of other leagues (in fact nearly every other league in Europe) the quality
in the middle and lower sections of the Premiership is pretty dire. The number
of games the top sides are playing against similar quality opposition probably
numbers no more than 8 a year as they spend the rest of their matches either
trying to break down sides who simply park the bus or scoring for fun against
QPR, either way not the best preparation for European games. The style of
football we play also doesn't help. While the mad kick-and-rush of a Saturday
afternoon makes it more exciting to watch it’s no substitute for a well organised
defence and decent midfield with a bit of width. Just look at Ronaldo and
Messi. Then there is the organisation of the game in Britain around Sky. No one
really seems to care until Manchester United had to play Real Madrid with 48
hours less rest. As long as our top teams are being forced to play on Sunday
for TV purposes while the rest of the continent are flexible enough to allow
games on Saturday, Friday and even Thursday we will continue to come up against
fresher and fitter opposition.
We don’t have European style
managers
Sir Alex Ferguson isn't a great manager. There, I said it. He’s an
above average manager who has been gifted with some of the best players of
their generation, most of whom he has either sold or fallen out with. IN the
transfer market he has made some shocking buys too (Eric Djemba-Djemba, Jordi
Cryuff). He’s done all right in the Champions League given how long he has been
at Manchester United, but he isn't a European Manager. The best days for the
Premiership clubs were enjoyed with Rafa Benitez in charge of Liverpool and
Jose Mourinho in charge of Chelsea. Arsene Wenger, despite all his obvious
Europeaness and incredibly poor eye-sight has made only a couple of
medium-sized waves in the competition. Roberto Mancini always looks like a
tiger in the Arctic whenever he tries to make his sow’s ear of a team into a
silk purse. We need to either train British managers how to be successful in
Europe by encouraging them to go and play/manage/coach on the continent or get
back to attracting the best coaches to come here. When Tottenham play in the
Champions League next year they’ll do well, because they have a decent European
coach who will set them up to play a good European game, and unlike when he was
at Chelsea he’ll have a few decent plays to put the plans into action.
But that’s enough about the issues, what about the individual teams who
qualified:
Arsenal
Had they not defended like a primary school 3 XI in the first half
against Munich, who knows what would have happened. But a fair guess would be
that they at best draw the first leg and then lose 2-0 in Munich. The fact that
Bayern were in such control of the tie actually hindered them in the second
leg, for some reason they couldn't decide whether or not to attack or defend
the lead. Even then Arsenal couldn't get the job done, despite what their
supporters might tell you this is another season of abject failure. The
probably need to strip the team down to the bare bones and start again, first
out of the door should be Wenger. I'm not sure how many players they have who
would get into any of the remaining eight sides in the competition?
Celtic
Included purely for comedy value. Everyone was amazed they managed to
qualify from their group and when they drew Juventus the writing was already
very much on the wall and despite the various moans and whines from their fans
about what the referee did or didn't do they were soundly beaten. They will of
course be back next year owing to the fact that the Scottish Premier League is
a total joke, but don’t expect them to make it out of the group, if they reach
that far.
Manchester United
Arguably the unluckiest of the sides to get knocked out, with the sending
off of Nani in the second leg against Madrid which could have easily been a
booking. Although it undoubtedly changed the game I'm not certain that it wouldn't have ultimately be the same outcome. United have been shaky at the back for a few
years, but given the weakness of the Premier League all too often are allowed
to get away with it. When it comes to the business end of European football
though it’s harder to hide the deficiencies.
Chelsea
Without a doubt one of the luckiest winners of a competition ever when
they somehow managed to beat Bayern Munich last year, it was never going to be
the same again this time round. Missing Drogba and failing to manage to remove
the squatter that is Fernando Torres was never going to make this an easy
season, but the problems were only exacerbated by changing their manager 7
times during the groups stages. Ultimately it was the loss against Juventus
that did for them, a game they should have at least got a point from. They need
to do a pretty severe rebuilding job if they are to venture into the latter
stages again.
Manchester City
I had to use Wikipedia to even remind myself that Manchester City were
in the Champions League this year. Obviously I didn't but they left so quickly
and with such a small mark that it would be easy to forget. They didn't even
ended up in the Europa League, which we all thought at the time would help them
catch Manchester United in the league, not sure how that one is going to work
out at this stage. City’s biggest problem this year, as with last, is the fact
that they really aren't very good. Sure they’re made to look good in the
Premier League but when they come up against a little quality they’re beaten
before they start. Sure they had Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in their
group, but the familiar problem of drawing too many games (all three they
played at home) saw their interest in the competition end as prematurely as
[suitable metaphor to be added later].
There are few signs that any of the above will change any time soon, which means that next year we'll probably be looking at a similar quarter final line up as the teams from Germany, Spain and Catalonia continue to dominate.
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