in the Champions League after Barcelona's victory over Manchester City on Wednesday.
The assertion that Premier League clubs have massively underachieved in Europe for far too long can no longer be challenged. For a country which has led the way off the pitch in its marketing of the modern game to fail so spectacularly on it is nothing short of unforgivable.
The wonderful thing about football is that you can have all the pioneering business models and record-breaking broadcasting contracts in the world and it will still mean absolutely nothing if you do not deliver on the field. The most lucrative domestic competition the Premier League may well be, but it has delivered the most laughable collection of European performances this season.
And we shouldn’t be surprised. In the past decade, 20 English clubs have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Yet only two went on to win the competition, with one of those triumphs – Manchester United's in 2008 - coming against domestic rivals. When Premier League clubs have faced a big European night in less familiar surroundings, they have generally fallen flat on their faces.
The winning mentality has been severely lacking for some time, with Arsenal typifying the culture of glorious failure which permeates throughout English football. In four successive last-16 ties they have lef
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