England’s best may miss final shake-up

In light of yesterday’s Champions League draw, there might be good reason for optimism English clubs will survive the marathon of the group stage but rather less grounds for confidence in the notion they will still be in the race for Milan when the sprint section turns into the final straight.

If, for the attentive reader, there’s more than a hint of deja vu about that opening paragraph, it might just be because, barring the insertion of Milan for Berlin, those were precisely the words which appeared on these pages almost exactly 12 months ago to the day, on the morning after the 2014/15 Champions League draw.

And apart from the inestimable advantage you can’t be sued for self- plagiarism — hell, I’ve tried — recycling a chunk of a year-old article seems entirely justified on the basis (a) the prediction was proved correct and (b) nothing which has happened in the interim to suggest it won’t come true again this time around.