Its great to see four English teams in the last eight of the Champions League. Quite a remarkable achievement.  I’m not sure we can take much patriotic pride in it though.
The four teams between them can only just scrape together a squad-load of English players – and not a proper squad either: no goalkeeper. None of them has an English manager and one of them only had one English player on the pitch, and that was only for the last 20 minutes.
Its no wonder that the success of English clubs in Europe doesn’t carry over to the national squad.
I had to drown out the conversation behind me on the bus the other morning. According to the guys behind me it would be a crime if anyone but Portsmouth won the FA cup because it would be a national disgrace if Barnsley or any of the lesser teams got into Europe. Not that it was a proper FA cup any more without any real teams. Apparently nobody in the Premiership is worthwhile beyond Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. And maybe Everton, Aston Villa and, of course, Portsmouth otherwise they would just be talking rubbish…. Now I know why everyone on the bus has headphones on…
Liverpool always do well in European competitions, they take some beating.