The Premier League Is Dominant Over Europe Again, But Can It Last This Time?
The English League has proven its the best this season, but can it break the cycle to stay on top forever?
Two English clubs qualified for the Champions League final this week. Chelsea are set to meet Manchester City at the end of May to determine the best side across the continent. This will be only the third time to English sides meet in Europe’s most important fixture.
Chelsea met in the first, against Manchester United, and Tottenham lost to Liverpool in the other. Most significant is that this is the second such final in three years.
When Chelsea played the Red Devils in 2008 it was obviously a very important moment for English football as it was the first time it happened. But it was also the zenith of the country’s first peak in the continental competition.
Between 2004/5 and 2011/12, English football was essentially the main character of the European Cup. Liverpool, Man United and Chelsea all won the competition. Those three clubs all also lost finals on four occasions. Arsenal also reached a final, as well as another semi final. Tottenham too even reached a quarter final.
These teams met each other in some of the biggest games of the season. A Champions League campaign wasn’t complete without a meeting between Chelsea and Liverpool. Twice, England had three representatives in the semi finals — a feat no other league has ever matched.
This peak ended with Chelsea’s victory in 2012. The following five seasons was a barren spell for Premier League clubs in Europe. Only Manchester City and Chelsea reached a semi final and no club went one step further to get to a final, let alone win the competition.
However, it now looks as if Liverpool’s run to the final in 2018 has sparked a revival. Liverpool won the tournament in 2019, Tottenham reached a final and now two more Premier League clubs have earned their way to the last game.
The 2019/20 season only saw one English quarter finalist, but it now looks a one-off during this period. Four reached that stage in 18/19 and three in 20/21 — with both resulting in all-England finals.
This has immediately led to the assertion that this is a sign of the strength of the Premier League relative to the rest of Europe. During that dry spell in the mid 2010’s it was Spain who picked up the mantle. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid all reached the final, with the former pair winning five titles in a row from 2014–2018. There were also two all-Spanish finals during this spell too.
The Italian clubs of Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan were the most dominant of the early 2000’s, with the Milan clubs winning three titles and Milan and Juve losing another each.
These are cyclical patterns of dominance. This is nothing new to the European game, English clubs also had an era of winning the European Cup in the early 80’s. It is also important to remember that none of these cycles ever lasts forever.
However, given the significant financial advantages of the Premier League relative to their peers, it is easy to see how this could be a very strong decade for the English clubs.
Both of the Spanish giants are in massive debt and struggling to overcome the difficulty of transitioning past their great sides. Juventus, too, have become stale since the departure of Max Allegri.
Yet, even with all these advantages plain to see, it still poses one question that the English top flight has never been able to answer: how come the best players in the world never want to play there?
Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland are both highly regarded as the future of the game. Both are being linked with moves away from PSG and Borussia Dortmund, but they’re both being linked with Real Madrid and Barcelona.
It remains to be seen if those clubs can afford to sign either of these players, and Haaland is being linked with a move to England, but both of their preferred destinations reportedly still involve moving to Spain.
For all the money the Premier League has, and has had, why can’t it attract the biggest names? Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry both became the best player in the world playing in England, but they too left for Spain. Gareth Bale followed suit half a decade later. Michael Owen departed a Ballon D’or winner half a decade earlier.
Harry Kane has stayed in England, but that comes down to a loyalty to Tottenham as someone with an emotional attachment to the club from a very young age. And even then, he is also being linked with a move away from England this Summer.
This problem is what ended England’s dominance in 2012. By then, both Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were both fighting for the highest honours in Spain, where the two best managers duked it out on the touchline.
A decade on and now England is that hotbed for the best coaches in the world. Pep Guardiola was convinced to come to City, Jurgen Klopp moved to Liverpool. Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino both had successful stints in the Premier League.
If this stumbling block can be overcome, and the likes of Mbappe and Haaland can be brought in, then there will be very little to stop the Premier League sides from dominating European football for a long time to come. If not, then the same cycles will continue.
