Fergie may have a
point...
The end-of-season trilogy between Manchester United and Chelsea has
been down-graded to a duology and those familiar with the history
of English clubs on the Continent may not be surprised. Scaling
twin peaks to become champions of England and Europe has generally
proved a mountain too far and this week Sir Alex Ferguson and José
Mourinho have been thwarted in their attempts to plant flags on
both summits.
United and Chelsea, the only realistic challengers for the Barclays
Premiership title since November, meet in a league match at
Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and again on May 19 at Wembley in the
FA Cup Final. But their hopes of a third showdown in the Champions
League final collapsed and the match will feature instead a
Liverpool side vastly inferior to both on the domestic front.
Of the 14 English teams to have reached the final of Europes
senior club competition, only three have collected the league title
that season. Of the remaining 11 instances, only United, in 1968,
came close to winning the league. The other ten, the latest being
Liverpool this season, have been well off the pace.
Even the three sides to have achieved this double hardly ran away
with the domestic title. When United won the treble in 1999, they
edged past Arsenal to win the Premiership crown with only 79
points, since when the average number of points recorded by
champions has been 88. Liverpool, who recorded the other two such
examples of triumph at home and in Europe, won the league by one
point in 1977 and by three points in 1984.
There have been some dismal failures to add success at home to
European Cup final appearances. In 1975, Leeds United lost to
Bayern Munich but finished ninth in the table; in 1982, Aston Villa
beat Bayern in the final but came eleventh in the league.
This is the third consecutive season when an English finalist has
been hopelessly off the pace in the Premiership. Liverpool finished
37 points behind the champions in 2005, Arsenal 24 points behind
last year and Liverpool are 18 points from the top now, having
played one game more.
It has also proved hard to maintain a continental push while
enjoying a good FA Cup run. Of the 14 English finalists in the
European Cup, only two reached the FA Cup Final that season
Liverpool lost to Manchester United at Wembley in 1977 while United
beat Newcastle United in 1999 en route to their treble. Of the past
three English finalists in the Champions League, Liverpool exited
the FA Cup at the first hurdle this year and in 2005, while Arsenal
went out in the fourth round last season.
Challenging for trophies at home and abroad is perhaps tough
psychologically as well as physically and, in the case of the
latter, it has become no easier as the workload in Europe has
increased. Liverpool have played 14 matches in the Champions League
this season to reach the final, whereas they needed only either six
or eight games to reach each of their five finals of the 1970s and
1980s.
Yet, while English sides have toiled to excel simultaneously at
home and abroad, clubs from other countries have not experienced
such great problems. Of the 90 non-English finalists in Europes
leading club competition since it began in 1955-56, 40 won their
domestic title that season.
How can this difference be explained? Until recent years, leading
clubs in this country played far more than their counterparts
abroad because of the 22-team top division, unlimited FA Cup
replays and the presence of a second domestic knockout competition,
the League Cup. Cutting the league to 20 clubs and scrapping FA Cup
second replays and League Cup replays has largely removed that
disadvantage but the English league is still considered by many to
be more physically demanding than others in Europe.
Whatever the reasons, bookmakers who have avoided paying out
fortunes on a United treble or Chelsea quadruple will be thankful
for the continued difficulties faced by multitasking clubs in this
country.
