EUR A GONER ... Champions League football
could be a thing of the past for Steven Gerrard
IAN WRIGHT - Columnist
England's most successful team in Europe's elite
competition will finish sixth at best in the Premier League this
season and be reduced to playing in the Europa League. And if
tomorrow's game at Eastlands goes the way I expect it to, I fear it
could be five years or even longer before the Kop are able to
muscle their way back into the top four.
If Tottenham win, they will secure fourth spot and
finally be able to get that lasagne-eating monkey off their backs
and hold their heads up high in the company of Arsenal fans, who
have taunted their north London rivals about their European
inadequacies for so long.
But if City win, they will be in the box seat for
Sunday's final day of the season when they play at West Ham and
Spurs go to Burnley. I do fancy City to win and finish fourth...
and before you start screaming Spurs fans, it is not because of my
Arsenal heritage. Nor is it because my boy Shaun plays for City. I
just think Tottenham, despite having an incredible season under
Harry Redknapp, are not always the best on the road.
Harry is a good friend of mine and I'd love to see him
do well. But I'm not sure his team will be able to go to City under
this pressure and get the result they need.
City know they will never have a better chance to
finish fourth. And if they do, it is not only Tottenham who should
be disappointed and apprehensive.
For it would alter the landscape of the Premier League
and Champions League, if not for ever, then certainly for the
forseeable future - particularly at Anfield.
If or, more likely, when City get into the Champions
League, it is unlikely to be a flying visit. It would give their
mega-rich owners fresh reason - as if any was needed - to buy
expensive new properties.
Many of the players who have served them so well and
helped achieve their dream this season would simply be deemed
surplus to requirements.
Stars moving to Eastlands on bank-busting contracts
would no longer have to use money as a reason. They would be able
to say they were joining to play Champions League football.
It would make the blue machine even more unstoppable in
their quest for domestic, European and, dare I say it, global
domination.
And it would also leave Liverpool out in the cold.