Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho, who saw his side knocked out of the Champion’s League by Manchester United, was gracious in defeat (for once), saying Man U deserved to win and may well go on to win everything in sight (they’ve already won the World Club Championship and the Carling Cup).
In which case he’ll be more sanguine than European football bosses Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini who will have watched all four English clubs (Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool too) dump the likes of Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid out of the competition.
Platini, once a great French midfielder, has been vocal in his opposition to the dominance of English clubs which he says is only made possible by the huge amounts of debt their owners have run up. And, with the exception of Arsenal, whose debt has gone into the building a new stadium rather than players and players’ wages, he has a point.
Now it’ll be interesting to see if UEFA rig the draw for the quarter finals to try to ensure that we don’t have another all-English final (last year Man U beat Chelsea on penalties).
Actually it would be good for the English if Barcelona or Bayern Munich make it through to the final.