The end of an era?

A few years ago the Premier League regularly produced 3 of the 4 Champions League semi-finalists. The domestic English league finally seemed able to compete with Europe’s best once more. Success in 2005 and 2008 for Liverpool and Manchester United respectively were the highlights of a period that saw an English club in each final from 2005-09. Those with longer memories believed we were to see the return of the glory years of the early 1980s, when England’s clubs were the dominant force in Europe. However from 2010 onwards this success has somewhat dried up. No English club reached the semi-finals in 2010 and in 2011 Manchester United were given a footballing lesson by the tica-taka masters from Catalonia.

Barcelona remain an almost insurmountable object, the only team anywhere close to their level being fellow La Liga side Real Madrid. The superior talent seems to have steadily drifted to Spain in recent years. This is highlighted by the fact nine of this years’ FIFA Pro 11 were based in Spain. Of these nine players five were from Barcelona and six were from Real Madrid. The Ballon D’or race was similarly dominated by La Liga, with Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and Xavi (Barcelona) losing out to the mercurial Lionel Messi (Barcelona). All of this seems to support the idea that hegemony of European club football has drifted south to Spain.

Aside from a southward talent drain, the style of football employed by Barcelona in particular has left the English clubs increasingly forlorn. Possession football has proved superior to the fast paced, athletic style that English teams successfully utilised from 2005-09. The box to box midfielders Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard epitomised so much of this, but have been usurped in terms of effectiveness by playmaking central midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi Alonso. The template on which the ‘big four’ built their European success has thus been somewhat eroded.

This years Champions League has seen England's best two teams crash out in the group stages. Furthermore in all likelihood Arsenal will follow them out of the exit door at the first knockout stage as they face an impressive AC Milan side. This would leave a fairly average Chelsea team as England’s sole representatives. The domestic league in England also shows signs of declining standards. The Manchester United team of Ronaldo and Tevez has been shed of much of its previously enviable playing resources. At Chelsea an aging team has been an obvious problem for a while, but one that very little has been done to address. The decline of these two teams, who between them have won the last seven league titles, is indicative of declining standards at the elite of English football.

The last couple of years in English Football are also notable for the closing gap between the elite clubs and the rest of the Premier League. This can of course in part be deemed a logical consequence of a deficiency of quality at the top. However it also relates to a higher standard of football being played by clubs in the bottom and middle rungs of the EPL. A promoted team such as Swansea playing Arsenal off the park just would not have happened a few years ago. These teams now feel able to play their own game and win against the Champions League clubs. Very rarely does the league now produce a ‘parking the bus’ scenario. Therefore whilst I lament the failure of the leading English clubs to compete with Europe’s best, or in Manchester Uniteds case FC Basle, I feel this has helped the EPL as a whole become a more competitive league. ..

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