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The UEFA champions league appears to be one of the major if not the most prestigious club competition among European football clubs. In the last decade English teams faired well in the competition as we see the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United most times making it to the semifinal and sometimes beyond as the 2008 final episode of the competition even featured two English teams. But this decade seem crippled for the teams in England especially the last four editions of the competitions. But on the other hand, the mighty Spanish titans Barcelona, Real madrid and Athletico madrid seem to dominate the semifinals of the competition with one or none English team showcasing.
From my point of view, a reason to the recent disappointing outings of the English teams could be how the transfer market had turned out especially between Spain and England. The Spanish warriors Real Madrid and Barcelona lure high quality players from reputable clubs in England with exorbitant transfer fees, this transaction at the long run leaves the English clubs wanting at the end of the day and settling for a replacement that is not as good as the sold out quality. Example of such high profile transfer done were the likes of C. Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid. Real saw how magical Gareth Bale was and they went for him. Same with Luka Modric, Barcelona targeted Song at the peak of his career in Arsenal. And even if you traced back, one of the transfer that rendered Liverpool crippled in England and Europe was done to Real madrid when their charismatic midfielder Xabi Alonso was sold to Real. Recently again, Real Madrid has made tremendous effort to land the best Goal keeper in England De Gea, but fortunately for the Old Trafford faithfuls, the deal could not be struck which might be the reason Real blocked Morata from completing a move to Manchester United. In the same manner, Real brought a lot of pressure on Eden Hazard of Chelsea to make him force a move away from Chelsea to Madrid, though the waves of the transfer had gone down for the moment but I'm sure they will surely come back for the Belgian.
On the other hand, this Spanish teams have a way of sealing off their best players, they always make sure such players remain in their team. And they will make sure other teams come with exorbitant fee for their bench players, players that are not in their first team regular line-up. An example to this is Alvaro Morata, who has not been a regular at Real Madrid but a scary heavy price tag has been placed on the striker, and still they made it difficult for Manchester United to sign him thereby opting for Lukaku. Now for a whooping sum of around 80 million Euro Chelsea is closing up on the deal. Now what baffles me was how James Rodriguez was loaned out to Bayern Munich at a low price instead of the English clubs that initially made a bid for the Real midfielder.
Now is the time for clubs in England to sit tight and sell their stars among themselves instead of Tottenham packing and selling loads of stars to Spain. Let the champions league be more competitive again, and not only Real Madrid dominating European football. Here stands my candid opinion and suggestions.
