Arguably the best league in the world in terms of quantity of quality, revenue, wages and media exposure, the Premiership seldom fails to deliver week in, week out.
But as the BIG BOYS in Europe prepare for the quarter final round of games in the European Champions league, it would take a football wonder to find any of the remaining teams from the British Premier League in the hat.
England started with four teams; Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.
Many moons ago and earlier in the Champions League group stages however, Liverpool fell from the champions league skies into the deep end of the Europa League waters, after struggling against Swiss and Bulgarian opposition, leaving the other three to fly the flag. Brendan Rogers team looked like school boys against Real Madrid in both ties against the European champions, and against Ludogrets and Basel, both ties looked like a debutant or novice team playing veteran opposition in any cup completion, Liverpool the debutants.
Chelsea also fell short against PSG, both home and away, thoroughly beaten by skill, flair, power, technique and tactics. Over two legs against PSG, Chelsea were flogged hands down and for the first time in almost a year I saw Mourinho tactically taken apart and his boys struggling to breathe after been suffocated by PSG.
The only positive again for Chelsea was that they were not beaten (lost out on away goal rule) but if both legs were decided on points, it would be a unanimous landslide for PSG who outplayed, out muscled and outsmarted Chelsea.
Arsenal were goners after 45 minutes against a depleted Monaco team full of young school leavers. They were bashed, outpaced, outplayed and totally humiliated on home soil by a Monaco that looked like an U-21 team.
Manchester City didn’t even put up a fight! Pellegrini set out his team to dare Barcelona but after the first twenty minutes, someone needed to put Pellegrini out of his misery from the director’s box. It was a no contest and the scoreline could have been anything and whatever Barcelona wanted on the night.
So why are the mighty fallen? Why are the mighty falling? The signs are ominous for British football once again.
Even if Manchester City and Arsenal manage to conjure up some results in Monaco and Nou Camp, the damage has already been done, no European giant would be afraid to go to the Emirates or Etihad again this season: and irrespective of how much the Sheikh has spent, this team can be taken apart anytime, anywhere.
What the league table has long hidden in the Premiership is what Europe has now discovered ; there is no more dominant team in the Premiership; and turning any team from good, or very good to great, has been the biggest challenge facing the premiership in the past few years.
Manchester City have had the best squad in the Premier league for the past few years and have played the most attractive and purposeful football, yet their champions league sojourns have always ended abruptly and have never really been able to stand pound for pound, or shoulder to shoulder with the European heavyweights (forget the Bayern game, Bayern were already through) for the past few years.
So is it a worry that the Premier league may not be represented at the draw for the quarter final of the Champions League or am I just simply fretting in the over reaction theatre?
Can a truly great team emerge within the next season, that can step up to the plate and dare to be a powerful European force to reckon with?
Great sides put a distance between themselves and the opposition: Real Madrid 1955-60, Benfica 1960-62, Inter 1963-65, Ajax 197070 -73, Bayern 1973-76, Liverpool 1976-84, Milan 1988-94, (Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid 1997-02) and Barcelona 2006-11 have been great teams.
Everybody in Europe and at home pointed towards Stamford Bridge in England, as the next colosseum that would house many European trophies, but the way they fell against PSG, even Mourinho must know that the gulf between his team and ‘great’ is too wide to bridge with his current team.
If Chelsea must be great again – and I’m not talking of one season, but of four, five years down the road – then heads have to roll at Cobham and Mourinho’s pen needs to start working as he draws up a shopping list for the Roman General that would once again take Europe apart. He has done it before and he can do it again.
As for City, I am sorry but for that team to be great and go on to dominate British football and European football, they need a tactical genius, a proven manager, who has won several titles and knows how to do it and not someone who has just won his first major title in Europe a year ago.
Man City deserve a good ROI (return on investment) and they may not get it with Manuel Pellegrini.
I am sorry to disappoint my Arsenal, United and Liverpool friends, but your teams are far from being great at the moment and are not ready to take on the might of Europe – I’m not talking of winning one title here and winning another there – and dominate all comers.
In the modern era, Lionel Messi’s Barcelona have been the dominant team domestically and in European football from 2006-11, winning four domestic league titles, 3 European Champions League titles, 2 Spanish League Cups, 4 Spanish Super Cups, 2 European Super Cups and 2 FIFA club world cups.
In an era of greatness, they have had great players: Ronaldinho, Puyol, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Deco, Neymar, Suarez, Pique, Villa, Busquets, Alves, and Alba.
The gap to bridge is wide, too wide in fact between our best teams and the great teams in the Champions league:
BARCELONA: 103 goals
Messi 46 goals, Neymar 28, Suarez 13, Pedro 10, Pique 6
REAL MADRID : 95 goals
Ronaldo 41 goals, Benzeema 21, Bale 16, Rodriguez 11, Ramos 6
BAYERN MUNCHEN : 60 goals
Robben 17 goals, Lewadonski 15, Muller 13, Gotze 9, Ribery 6 (been injured all season)
MANCHESTER CITY : 48 goals
Aguero 23 goals, Da Silva 10, Toure 9, Milner 6
CHELSEA: 45 goals
Costa 17 goals, Hazard 15, Oscar 7, Terry 6
Any striker scoring less than seven goals I have taken out, I have left only one defender scoring six, and I have only used goals from regular starters, so you can see what the great teams have compared with City and Chelsea; fire power that is ASSURED from every single boot in midfield and attack in OPEN PLAY from the REGULAR STARTERS.
All great teams score goals endlessly and effortlessly, all great teams dominate the local league, instil fear on all opposition, play fantastic football on purpose; to entertain the fans and annihilate the opposition.
ALL great team win MANY and several titles, and they possess an array of the greatest talents and stars in their team.
Can Chelsea do that? Can City make haste before their current team age?
Time would tell.