Liam Mackey
If you view your English football almost entirely through the prism of Sky Sports, you could be forgiven for concluding that the World Cup never happened at all. Even on the odd occasion when the camera has picked out Roy Hodgson as a face in the crowd, the voiceovers have tended not to mention the war, simply noting that the England manager is there to watch the game.
But no, barely had the Three Lions returned early from South America with their tails between their legs than England’s football commentariat turned, with undisguised relief, to “the greatest league in the world”, investing all their hope and hype in the Premier League’s proven ability to entertain the masses at home and abroad.
And, even with the new season still in its infancy, the cheerleaders haven’t been let down, whether it’s Chelsea and Man City starting as they mean to finish, or Manchester United looking like they’re finished before they’ve even started.
Speaking of United, Hodgson briefly stuck his head above the parapet yesterday to announce that Wayne Rooney would be his new captain, the second time this season the player has been asked to take over an unhappy ship.
But, even then, Hodgson found himself having to vie for headline space with the group draw for the Champions League, which tended to exert a rather greater pull on the public imagination across the water than the prospect of another international campaign which, like all the other ones, is odds on to follow a competent qualifying campaign with a total collapse at the business end of things.
The problem of late for English club football, however, is that for all its multinational character, it tends to ape the national team when it comes to moving outside its comfort zone.
Because no matter how crazy, unpredictable, dramatic and thrilling the Premier League has been in recent seasons, it has managed to come up disappointingly short when pitted against the best Europe has to offer.
Indeed, this is not even a new phenomenon.
Still fresh memories of Chelsea beating Bayern Munich on the latter’s own turf in the Champions League final of 2012 or Manchester United coming out on top against the Blues in the All-England final of 2008 in Moscow, tend to distort the historical record which shows that reigning champions Real Madrid have won twice as many European Cup/Champions League titles as their nearest English rivals Liverpool, with AC Milan in second place on seven and Bayern Munich sharing third place with the Anfield side.
Then come Barcelona and Ajax before United, the first English club ever to win the competition, enter the picture with three wins.
And recent history is not much more favourable to the English cause, Chelsea’s against-the-odds triumph in 2012 only a brief interruption of Spanish, German and Italian victories over the last six years.
Perspective is also added in light of Arsenal’s narrow elimination of Besiktas in this week’s play-off, a victory hailed for the fact that it meant Arsene Wenger’s team had qualified for the group stages for a 17th year in succession. Which is a notable achievement, right enough, yet put in its proper context by the rather less flattering stat that, in all that time, the best they could then manage was a runners-up place to Barcelona, in Paris in 2006.
All of which is to say that, in light of yesterday’s draw, there might be good reason for optimism that English clubs will survive the marathon of the group stage, but rather less grounds for confidence in the notion that they’ll still be in the race for Berlin when the sprint section turns into the final straight.
But, right now, there’s everything to play for and at least one game involving an English side to really stir the romantic soul, in the shape of Liverpool taking on reigning champions Real Madrid on the occasion of the Merseysiders’ return to the competition after an absence of five years.
Little wonder that Brendan Rodgers responded thus: “I’m already thinking of Anfield on that night.”
For Manchester City, there’s an unwelcome air of familiarity about the draw as they come up against Bayern Munich for a third time in four seasons — as well as meeting Roma and CSKA Moscow — the erstwhile “noisy neighbours” still looking to parlay their recent domestic successes into the European arena.
Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund will expect to prevail over Galatasaray and Anderlecht while Chelsea look to have a comparatively easy ride, up against Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor.
The Slovenian side, of course, were the team who ensured Celtic would have to make do with the Europa League this season, the second-tier competition which almost everyone now accepts is the Scottish champions’ “correct level”.
The big question this season for the English champions and the Premier League’s three other representatives is whether the group or knockout stages are their “correct level”.
And speaking of uphill tasks — the very best of luck to Cillian Sheridan, flying the Irish flag in the Champions League as the striker’s APOEL Nicosia side prepare to do battle with Barcelona, PSG and Ajax. Now that’s what you call the real premier league.
