Ian Ladyman: Five English teams in UCL is an insult to Busby, Clough & Paisley
Even from the sofa, Wednesday’s Champions League game between Manchester City and Real Madrid felt like an event. The stakes were high and so was the quality of the football.
Pep Guardiola’s City swarmed over their opponents like bees only for Real to show the courage and energy to draw their sting. Man of the match was probably Real’s former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger and there is nothing wrong with that. Defending is an art form at this level too.
And all this, I would imagine, is something close to what the French journalist Gabriel Hanot — editor of the esteemed L’Equipe publication — had in mind when he successfully petitioned UEFA to put on the inaugural European Champions Club Cup in 1955.
The clue — as it still is — was in the title. It was for the champions, the very best of each country. It was then and indeed still was by the time Celtic and Manchester United became the first British clubs to win what was by then called the European Cup in 1967 and 1968 respectively. Yes, a tournament for champions.
What a very quaint idea that seems now as English clubs prayed last night for unexpected twists in the Europa League and Europa Conference League results that would ease our UEFA coefficient into such a position that it would be us, and not Germany, that would be offered five rather than four places in next season’s Champions League.
It’s not hard to wonder what the likes of Jock Stein, Sir Matt Busby and other fabled winners like Bob Paisley, Brian Clough and Ron Saunders would make of that now. All those men triumphed first in their domestic leagues and then flew the flag for their nation across land and sea — often in difficult conditions — to lift that most beautiful of club trophies. Yes, the European Cup
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