The majesty and splendour of Plzen |
Let me take you back a few years. Remember Aston Villa beating Bayern Munich in Rotterdam with a clumsy swipe from Peter Withe’s simple black Puma-clad foot? Or John Robertson bouncing Forest’s daisy cutter winner against Kevin Keegan’s Hamburger SV? How about Porto beating Monaco 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen in José Mourinho’s first final, ten years ago? Fine, memorable moments in the history of a spectacular club competition and not a single one of them likely to be repeated ever again at the rate we are going.
ESPN writer Miguel Delaney recently posted an interesting
article, reflecting on the continental porridge that we are slowly but surely falling into,
as far as carrying off the Champions League is concerned. It is without doubt a
tournament that creates different emotions, depending largely whether your team is
participating in it or not. Manchester City, for so long the ugly bridesmaids looking
in through the steamed-up glass at a party that they had practically never been invited to (apart from one inglorious occasion when some noisy Turks destroyed our concentration),
now include themselves in a tiny elite group of clubs that look set to dominate
this competition for years to come. Who in their right mind can see anyone from
outside Bayern, Real, Barcelona, the Manchesters City and (perhaps even) United, Paris St
Germain and Chelsea winning it in the future? Delaney includes statistics that
fair numb the senses, but probably only confirm what many of us have been
thinking for a long time: we are fast heading for a closed shop:
The number of years since the following clubs had tasted
glory in the European Cup/Champions League around the end of 1996-7 season is
in the first column. The number of years since their last win as of today
stands alongside in the right hand column. Just look at how the it has all changed...
CLUB 1996
2014
Real Madrid
|
32
|
0
|
Manchester United
|
31
|
6
|
Bayern Munich
|
25
|
3
|
Barcelona
|
40
|
1
|
Chelsea
|
-
|
2
|
Manchester City
|
-
|
-
|
Paris St Germain
|
-
|
-
|
City struggle with Fenerbahçe in '68 |
As well as the afore-mentioned Villa, Forest and Porto, it
is difficult to imagine the likes of Marseille, Red Star Belgrade, Hamburg,
Roma, Steaua, PSV or Sampdoria ever coming anywhere near again. Even clubs, who
are still relatively big noises in their own leagues (Roma, Juventus, PSV, Liverpool)
are unlikely to make a splash again on the big stage like they once did.
UEFA have constantly tinkered with the European game in an
attempt to, in their words, increase competition, and in the eyes of many, ensure
a revenue stream that dissuades the giants from breaking away and forming their
own tournament. When the Champions League began in 1992-93 (what a year that
was), with Glasgow Rangers and IFK Goteborg coming close to the final as losing semi-finalists and
Marseille and Milan actually making it, there were two series of groups. The
second phase was later discarded for the
Just another night at the Nou Camp |
City, new to this sumptuous banquet of noblemen, have already had to visit
Prince Ludwig's lair twice and they have only participated three times. City’s opponents in the Champions League so
far have been:
2011-12
|
BAYERN
|
NAPOLI
|
VILLAREAL
|
2012-13
|
REAL MADRID
|
BORUSSIA DORTMUND
|
AJAX
|
2013-14
|
BAYERN
|
CSKA MOSCOW
|
VIKTORIA PLZEN
|
City’s chances of drawing Real, Barcelona or Bayern yet
again next season are high, given they are likely to emerge from Pot Two. Already
a familiarity is seeping into the experience and we have only seen the side
escape the group phase once in three attempts. It is likely that City will, FFP attempts
to derail them notwithstanding, become one of the staples in this diet of
stellar teams, megastars and wide-eyed camera-holding spectator-tourists. How
are we going to feel about that? Until City win the thing – and this will surely
happen one day, given the momentum the club now has and despite its historical bent towards avoiding such glamorous outcomes– it will no
doubt hold a sufficiently high level of interest for most onlookers. The chance to see City step out in the cathedrals of Europe (and Plzen) is still a novelty of high enough value to attract many of us brought up on the away end at Huddersfield and trips to the Baseball Ground, but how much time do we still have in this world of unhappy millionaire footballers before even this becomes a little too stale for our liking?
Thank You, for sharing this information, it was nice.
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