Arsenal/Chelski - teams of international mercenaries, bring back the days when if you were born in Preston you only wanted to play for North End until the day you hung up your boots, and when moving to play for a team like Stoke seemed like travelling to a foreign land and took 2 days by milk float.
I like to see all English teams do well in Europe and Celtic too, why on earth people would rather see a German team beat an English team (for example) is beyond me, and very VERY small minded !!
Chelsea maybe, but definately no Mercenaries at Arsenal. Wenger has proved to be a master at buying young bargain players and making them into fookin geniuses!!
Hope they do well but don't really identify with them when they only have 1 or 2 english players.
BTW, none of the goals scored by 'english' teams in europe so far this week involved brits. Only Sutton in Scotland!
You do have to question what the whole thing is all about.
Say the final is Real Madrid vs. Arsenal, on the Real side you have Woodgate, Owen and Beckham, on the Arsenal side you have only Campbell and Cole. 3 English players vs 2 English players.
If Real win it reflects well as regards English footballers, in much the same way that the AC Milan team of the late 80s had Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten as its core, reflecting well on Dutch football.
On the other hand Arsenal winning reflects well on the Premiership as being the strongest league in Europe.
Yes - but not necessarily because they are 'english'. I think they play the game in an exciting and attractive way. After watching Liverpool last night I might have to support them in europe as well
Otherwise I tend to watch most european games as an interested neutral.