In the case of English dominance, I see club-quality & management having equal influence. Even now you see that Dynasies like AC Milan have uneven years.

I think we will see the money clubs always contending, but it does not rule out another Porto, or Fenerbahça from going even further one year or the next.

Adam, you mention that 50% of the money spent by Chelsea is from Roman’s pockets, but you forget that without his initial investment they wouldn’t have theother 50% to spend either. They were hardly rich in the Bates eta. Its all his, because he completely owns the club.

I didn’t mention Real or Barca. Real have an awful club image if you ask me – probably why half of spain detests them while the other loves them. Its the arrogance of champions, which also shows in Liverpool, or in Turin at Juventus. Man United have undoubtedly got some in the last 15 or so years too.

Barca have a ‘More than a club’ image, where they represent Catalonia and a slightly political, rebelious vaguely leftist position as a hangover from the Franco days. They also have the reputation of playing beautiful football, as a hangover from the Cruyff days. They have a strong image, but the reason I didn’t mention Spanish clubs is because they aren’t bought and sold in quite the same way with the presidential elections.

Of course there will always be upsets, but will they get less often if the CL becomes a playground of the very rich? Time will tell.

As far as smaller clubs winning CL. Porto won the CL when Real Madrid had squad full of galacticos. Porto beat Man Utd when Man Utd’s squad budget was 10 times than that of Porto. That year all the 4 clubs in CL were underdogs. Monaco had beaten Real Madrid. Porto had beaten Man Utd. Chelsea had beaten Arsenal. Depo had beaten Milan (4-0). And all these beaten clubs had superstar players. Still they got defeat. This means it doesn’t matter how many superstars you have. If you play like a team then you can beat anyone. And yes this year Fenerbahce defeated Chelsea.

areallatichasanyonetoldyouuournameistoolong – I was critical of both the sacking of Ranieri and Jose, but you can’t argue that Jose did a better job than Ranieri, and Grant has done an amazing job taking the reigns from Jose. He has in fact scored more points in the EPL than Alex Ferguson since his appointment.

Matt – I’ll always throw in an Ajax shout out when I can. I rather like them, and Johan Cruyff is something of a hero to me. I did a profile of him here somehwere. But yeah I agree about Roma. They’ve become one of my favourite clubs, I’m not sure that would stay even with more success.