X + Y = ?

So for the second time in three seasons, England has no clubs in the last 8 of the Champions' League. Yet the UEFA Coefficient (a clever piece of x + y), that decides how many clubs from each country play in the CL and Europa League, still ranks England second behind Spain, which means we are entitled to 5 teams out of a max of 7 in the draw next time. Germany and Italy sit just below us.

Let's be fair, our Premier League doesn't have English clubs anymore does it? Football is global, many other European clubs are also multi-national, but if you look at the comparative squads, they have more home grown players in their ranks than our top English clubs. Barcelona has 10 Spaniards, Borussia Dortmund 15 Germans , Juventus 14 Italians, PSG 9 Frenchmen etc, whereas Chelsea has 5 English , Arsenal 8 and Manchester City 4. If you looked at the squads, some of our local lads are just there for show.

There were 5 English born footballers playing in the 2^nd legs of the Champions League this week. Cahill, Terry, Welbeck, Hart and Milner. Gibbs and Walcott came off the bench.

Give our teams more Englishmen-would that make our representatives better?

In the Bundesliga, money is invested into the home academies to improve German born footballers. In England, Greg Dyke says “We are not a charity”, so money from the big TV deals probably won't find its way into grass roots. There is also FFP, which doesn't seem to stop our multi-national clubs from spending silly money on foreign imports who don't work very well but keep our youngsters out of the top flight.

The German's have a winter break. Bayern Munich had 41 days off from the 19^th of December, whilst Manchester City played 8 games. It's an old “chestnut” over the winter period that has its critics. If Harry Kane is torn between playing for Spurs in a friendly tour of Australia towards the end of this season rather than play for England, what will happen to him over Christmas when Spurs in their rest decide to have a money making tour of a warm place just to keep the sqaud fit?

Or perhaps we just got a bum draw in the Champions League-did Mr Blatter have anything to do with this? It's a conspiracy, must be.

Perhaps our top teams are past their sell by date and need restructuring. Even our foreign imports are fading; what's happened to Ya Ya? Is he burnt out or just resting?

It's all a mess, and apart from the short Halcyon days of our dominance in Europe, it's never been any different. Thank goodness for the FA Cup, the League Cup, Johnstone's Paint, Trophy, Vase....

Graphic from BBC website-English teams in Europe.