In the 2006-2007 UEFA Champions League, three of the four semi-finalist teams were English (Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United). As of today, only Chelsea and Arsenal remain in the first knockout round of the 2011-2012 Champions League. Liverpool and Tottenham didn’t qualify for the tournament. Manchester United were an absolute disgrace; they couldn’t qualify from a group that included football minnows FC Basel and Otelul Galati. Manchester City didn’t fare much better, as they were miserably knocked out of the Group of Death, which included Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villareal.
Even Arsenal’s Champions League dream is all but over, after they were destroyed 4-0 by AC Milan in their first knockout game last week at the San Siro. The question we should be asking is how did English teams fall down the European pecking order in such a short amount of time?
My personal theory is that while the quality of English teams has decreased, teams from other countries have improved. When Liverpool and AC Milan contested the 2007 Champions League Final, current European champions Barcelona were nowhere near as good as they are now. Barcelona’s attacking players Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Pedro and Alexis Sanchez virtually cut through opposition defenses like hot knives through butter. Since 2007, other teams such as Bayern Munich, Porto, Lyon and Real Madrid have been improving at an alarming rate. World-class superstar Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United in 2009 to breathe new life into Real Madrid, who are now cruising ahead in the Spanish league (Ronaldo recently scored his sixth hat-trick of the season).
Liverpool is partly to blame for the fall of English teams on the European scene. Their 2007 final appearance was the second of two finals appearances in the space of three years. They failed to qualify for the Champions League in 2009-2010, which ended with the departure of manager Rafael Benitez. As for Manchester United, once Cristiano Ronaldo left, they were never the same team again. Although wingers Nani and Antonio Valencia showed signs of promise, they could never fill the boots of the brilliant Ronaldo.
Chelsea is another English team that has fallen far. It is incredible to think that they were one penalty kick away from winning the Champions League back in 2008 (John Terry — who I’ve previously discussed several times in the DBS report missed a penalty in a shootout against Manchester United in the final). Since then, the ageing spine of the team (Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Didier Drogba) has become too old to compete at the highest level. Arsenal, on the other hand, has been an English team with a lot of promise — partly because of the brilliance of Robin Van Persie, who has been in fine scoring form. The Dutchman’s brilliant 2011 has given Arsenal fans a renewed sense of optimism.
Will English teams continue to fall, or will they return to the summit of the European scene, as they were only a few years ago?
