I was just thinking thatReal Madrid being held up on here as a paragon of virtue is
I'm not buying this. Sure, a good 1-2 year period is probably not gonna cut it for a small team, but longer periods of good football? Most definitely.
Firstly, 1 CL and 7 PL was quite good at the time. Secondly, there's no wonder that we were marketable: Law, Charlton, Busby, Best. Entertainment value should not be taken for granted.
Slivio B is also rumoured to have connections/dealings with the Italian mafia (pretty hard not too in Italy with their tentacles in big business.) However, he appears to be allowed as he was around when the posters where growing up.
Excellent post. I am a Utd fan but the lack of awareness of some posters on the actual history of clubs in Europe and how they were able to establish themselves is fairly ironic to say the least.
No, of course, a dictator like Franco would never have such influence to be the De Facto owner/chairman but not the De Jure one.
His only interest was in the PR the club generated for Spain(and in turn, his regime). Could he have forced things? I'm not sure about that. Didn't need to though, given Bernabeu was the president and was happy to give him what he wanted(PR) so long as he stayed the feck out of the club itself
At this point I'd put PSG as having the least chance of the 4. They're prone to flakiness. City are the favourites to my mind, with Real probably 2nd (although I still think we have a good chance to take them).
Would be my preferred outcome too. A city quadruple would be devastating.
PSG got to the final less than a year ago, just knocked out the champions at a canter and they are flaky yet City who have never reached the final and gone out to Monaco, Lyon and Spurs yet they are a rock of stability? Okay.
I gave you Ajax and Benfica as examples, they did as well as United in 90s and aslo did a lot better before the 90s. Now if I tell that they are not the top 20 according to Deloitte money league while great clubs such as West Ham were in the top 20 in 18/19 or that the successful Newcastle were in the top 20 in 17/18. Big brands don't care about success in isolation, they care about visibility and market sizes.
I meant in the PL.
PSG are heavily reliant on a couple of main players to an extent that City aren't. PSG are even struggling to win the French league this year. Sure City aren't the most consistent in Europe which is exactly why I'm hoping we get them in the final and Pep chokes again, but PSG are much less scary a threat.
Every club has a couple of players who are their best players, the fact that PSG's 2 are in the best 5 players in the world does not really seem a knock on them in my opinion.
Yes a club from London that is currently marketable(Top 20 in terms of revenue worldwide) for no reason other than being in the PL and in London, also known as huge market size, would be a powerhouse if they finally became successful. They are a typical example of my point, they are currently in Deloitte's top 20 and have been for years. As I told you earlier being in a big city, in a large market, in a wealthy market, not having other major sports as rivals are all crucial when it comes to being attractive from a commercial standpoint, many clubs that are successful, have been succesful, will never match the top clubs because they don't fit in this capitalistic system, these clubs are in Football "purgatory" and will be feeder clubs forever.
I meant compared to other domestic rivals. Any PL team, whether they are in London or Newcastle, would become a powerhouse if they were successful and entertaining enough domestically. That is ultimately the foundation of my argument.
Your thread is about European football and sugar daddies, so I really don't follow the point that you are trying to make. The financial power of the PL isn't the fruit of success but marketing and Skysports.
The best side in Europe apparently need their 32 year old striker to get through, and without him the whole competition just becomes boring? OK then..
The best side struggled to score without having the best player in the world. Apologies is it controversial to say the current champions of Europe are the best side in Europe? You seem to have a weird obsession with it somehow being a bad thing if a side relies on 1 or 2 players quite a lot. Most great sides throughout history have had a couple of players that really stand out.
Is drawing 3-3 on aggregate against an injury hit Bayern going through at a canter?
Didn't even score against PSG in the final last year, wouldn't have made a difference for them this year either.
Did you quote the wrong person here? I never said anything about PSG going through at a canter.
The best side should probably not struggle to score without the best goalscorer in the world, yes.
I wouldn't say it's controversial, but why is it that people are constantly thinking that Bayern Munich are going to enter a period of European domination? It happened the last time they won the CL too. This club wins one title and people immediately want to crown them champions in perpetuity, it's bizarre. Lewandowski's won 1 CL for feck's sake.
I think the point some posters are making is that money has pretty much always won in football as if you go through history most clubs that have dominated their leagues or had success at domestic level have been the financial powerhouses of their time and the vast majority of those have been funded by some sort of businessman.
The interesting question is what they will do if/when they win the ultimate prize in club football? Will the immense investing continue or will they go on 'autopilot' now that they reached a certain level?
City have shot themselves in the foot the past few years regarding CL qualification. Their inability to make it to the semis had nothing to do with FFP. Classic correlation not equal to causation
Wouldn't be the 1st time the best side doesn't win it.
You just gave us 6 examples from a sample size of 15. Seems like it happens very often!
I mean yeah
I don’t think you can be considered the best team in Europe if you don’t even win your own league, and since 2000 that ‘double’ has only been done (I think) about half the time.
I agree.
I feel lucky that every CL final that United have got to (in my lifetime anyway) came at the end of a hard-fought title race which we’d eventually won. We went into each of those finals as the champions of England.
