The Premiership is in Danger of Falling into European Shadows

Llorente celebrates against Manchester United
Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images

Since 2005, with the exception of the 2010 season, there has been a Premiership team in the final of the Champions League every year. Disappointingly, out of those six finals an English side has managed to win only twice, and one of those times was against another English team. Chelsea are England’s last dwindling hope of European glory this year, and to be honest unless Fernando Torres scores three hat-tricks, Petr Cech doesn’t flap his arms at any sight of danger and David Luiz doesn’t go back to an amicable working relationship with Sideshow Mel on The Simpsons, they’re going to be absolutely obliterated by the tremendously superior Catalans. 

What has caused the English meltdown in European competitions this year? Stoke were the only team out of 4 to make it to the knockout stages of the Europa League, then Man City and Man U went crashing out of the Champions League and both popped over for a brief and very unsuccessful stint in the lesser competition. Man City have built up a hugely formidable force which can definitely contend with the big dogs in Europe, Man U have the experience, and Arsenal have well....you know....young Theo, bless him, he can run fast and straight though. Yet none managed to make any sort of impact on the biggest stage this season.

In the two European competitions, out of the 8 semi-finalists spanning across both competitions there are 5 teams from the La Liga. Athletic Bilbao has made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League, they managed to pull off a 5-3 victory against Man U over two legs, and that score compliments United. Everything about Bilbao was superior to Man U and from their displays they are in with a massive shout of winning the competition. How did Bilbao, not even in the European qualifying places this year, beat Manchester United, who are European giants, they featured in the Champions League Final last year, again two years before that, and then won it the year before that? Madness. A lot of people, including myself, naively assumed that the teams from Manchester would at least get to the quarters or semis of the Champions League, not get knocked out by the two teams who are now facing off to reach the final of the Europa League. 

Italy had one of their Champions league places taken from them at the beginning of this season, yet no other country has had their teams feature in as many European finals as Italy, and was it not a club from Italy that sent Arsenal out? It's not impossible to imagine England losing its 4th spot given the poor display this year. In fact, with the way European football is going, maybe UEFA should just cut out the middle man and let no one but Spanish teams in. It'd certainly be a better standard, and we wouldn't have to watch any more English sides labouring to defeat in far flung corners of the continent. APOEL, of course, can come too.