Doomed by the past?

Helenio Herrera was in one of his more abrasive, arrogant moods. But then, he had cause to be. His Barcelona had just battered Wolves 9-2 on aggregate in the 1959-60 European Cup and, at Birmingham airport, he was holding court.

“The English,” he proclaimed, “are creatures of habit.”

One of those habits, clearly, is suffering from harsh lessons like that handed out by Barcelona. As we well know by now, England’s history is punctuated with them.