English Clubs Bitch, Whine & Cheat Supporters On Thursdays. Stan Speaks…

Two years ago, on Call Collymore, I made a simple statement about the Champions League.

“Unless England takes the Europa League seriously and invests in truly world class talent, English football will have 3 Champions League spots in the blink of an eye”.

We are nearly there folks, and quite simply, all of the hype around the Premier League, the glossy trailers on TV telling ourselves we are the best, the billions of TV cash which is the envy of the world, none of this can hide two simple truths.

1. We are paying way over the odds for good but not great players

2. The lack of focus on the Europa League and poor recent Champions League campaigns sees the Italians ready to take our 4th spot

Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal all take all European competitions seriously. Seville, Porto, Braga and Atletico have all pushed their clubs on significantly by understanding that success in the Europa League can be a springboard to the Champions League.

English clubs bitch and whine and cheat supporters on Thursday nights by disrespecting the competition, thinking it’s easy and beneath them.

Because of that, the English malaise in Europe, as always was going to happen, is now impacting on the biggest tournament of all.

The Kaiser, Beckenbauer, had it right. English clubs have more money than sense and can’t wait to fritter it all on potential, good, but increasingly never great players.

De Bruyne, Sterling, Martial. What’s the common denominator? All of the selling chairmen were dancing down the road doing cartwheels when they had the call with the figures on offer. That’s not buying great potential for a fair and proper price, that’s waste for waste sake.

Atletico Madrid, Seville and Roma don’t have a wallet so full that they can waste money, so their recruitment has to take a more familiar method. “Can we get him cheap? Can we mould him into a better player in 2 years? Can we sell him to England for a fortune and laugh all the way to the bank? YES WE CAN!!

It would be an embarrassment to Richard Scudamore and his 20 clients if England only had 3 places in the Champions League. No longer could we argue (if we’re being honest there hasn’t been a great Premier League 90 mins for years) that we are parity with Spain as the world’s best league. All of a sudden we are battling for second or third spot with Germany and Italy, and frankly, with the money we have, it would be one of football’s modern day disgraces.

Make hay while the sun shines my old Mum says. In football that means developing more homegrown talent, putting them in the team, and spending realistic but not crazy money on average second rate players coming from afar. Unless we do, we’ll have the world’s best paid and most expensive transfer fee playing in the worlds 4th best league.

Totally unacceptable. More British kids, less wasteful spending. Now.