Euro woes just a blip

SO, for the first time in seven years, England doesn’t have at least one representative in the last four of the Champions League: so what.

There’s been an awful lot of soul-searching in the days since the demise of Arsenal and, in particular, Manchester United – but, honestly, I’m not in that camp. Of course, I wanted both to go through but there are times when you have to shrug off any parochialism and think of what might be good overall for football.

Wasn’t it getting just a little bit boring? Weren’t we thinking, at the start of each campaign, which English team would reach the final if not which two? Wasn’t it, in contrast, healthy that six different countries were represented in the quarter-finals?