From BBC website: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says it is a "massive wake-up call" that no English clubs have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Ironic from a foreigner who is part of the collective ruin of English football.
Because there's a massive queue of quality English managers being kept out of managing PL clubs and who would be dominating the Champs League?
Or he could just say we never lose we only ever get cheated out of things like a certain British manager
Not sure I agree with this considering how many English sides have made the latter stages over the past 10 years, in fairness it's just been a one off bad season for English clubs, what I would say about the Premier League is that we have Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs who are all capable of making the latter stages and have done so in the last few years, as for the other top leages, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, there may not be the same strength in depth.
Not talking about the last 10 years ago, talking about now. And look at the Man United team, is that the best Manchester United team they've had over the last 10 years? No where near, and they're top of the league by a country mile, the only team out of those 5 you mentioned which is imporving is Spurs, the others are not, Man City have had an awful year, Chelsea the club is a mess, Arsenal aren't going to even make the top 4, and Man United are a very good side, compared to the rest and that's all the need to be this year because the quality is very average.
It's a naive, knee-jerk statement from a frustrated accountant, or is that manager. One season he is lecturing us on the need for financial prudence, then it is team building (RVP !!!), now we have let everyone catch up. The guy is a walking excuse and needs to address his last 8yrs of management on a top salary. As tall as he is, we know he can't lie straight in bed - Spitgate taught us that.
Agree with that. And it's not like our teams have all been humiliated or anything. Man City just got a ridiculous draw that was always going to boot two quality sides out in the first round, Man Utd were very unlucky against one of the best sides and Arsenal lost on away goals. Chelsea ****ed up a bit with an easy group so they were the only side who let us down really. People have been saying for the last 5 or 6 years that our teams aren't as good as Bayern Munich, Barca, Real etc. yet two of those haven't had any more success at all. Only Barca are significantly better than anyone else IMO and after that you've got a fairly well matched group of Man U, Real, Bayern, Arsenal and a few others. Maybe Dortmund in fact. The English teams are still far better than anything from France, Italy or Holland IMO.
I really dont see any irony in there at all. All this season in the CL has proven is what most of us have known for years - the PL is massively over-hyped when it comes to quality. I dont agree. Man City, the PL champions, failed to win a single game. And it wasnt just that, they didnt even look like winning and when they managed draws were lucky whilst being comprehensively outclassed by teams with a fraction of their budget. Dortmund won 0-4 away at Ajax (I think from memory) in the same group.
Someone was always going to get ****ed up in that group though. It was an insane draw having the Champions of the 3 top leagues, plus another Champion of probably the 5 or 6th best league all in the same group. People said the same thing last year when Man U went out and it was only a matter of time before Chelsea went out... It's cool to go on about England being **** now and bumming Germany in particular but really it's only Spain, and in fact only really Barca at that, who have done any better than our teams over the last few years. Look at what Real Madrid have spent and achieved nothing in Europe.
Crock of ****. An English club has either won, or been runner up, in all but one of the last eight years... 2005 - Liverpool(Milan) 2006 - Barcelona(Arsenal) 2007 - Milan(Liverpool) 2008 - Man United(Chelsea) 2009 - Barcelona(Man United) 2010 - Inter(Bayern Munich) 2011 - Barcelona(Man United) 2012 - Chelsea(Bayern Munich) Poor year this year, but England has been by far the most successful nation in the Champions League over recent years.
Winners since inception of the PL: Portugal - 1 France - 1 Netherlands - 1 Germany - 2 (surprising) England - 4 Italy - 5 Spain - 6. In that time Real Madrid have won it 3 times, which no English team has done.
Remind me what you win for being runner-up again? And how does 'not winning' constitute success in a cup competition? You can change stats to say what you want but in the 21 years of the PL England have been the 3rd most successful in the CL. FACT.
Sounds like you're the one twisting the stats to suit an anti-English football outlook really. We've had an all-English final, when was the last time another country had one? 8 finalists out of 16, no other country comes close. 3rd best in terms of winners really isn't that bad either. And I don't know why the 21 years is so important. Why not restrict it to a relevant timescale like 10 or even 5 years? That's rhetorical of course because we know it's because you just don't like English football.
Nobody is saying that English football isn't the most entertaining, personally I'm just saying right now it is behind the rest quality wise.
What's the rest? Clearly behind Barca, but everyone is aren't they? I think all the fuss about German teams is a nonsense looking at what they've done. Who else is there of note? The Italian teams are boring as **** and just cheat (sorry BCC ) and the French league is a joke.
