As managers such as Stefano Pioli and Marco Rose try to work out how to set up against English clubs for the Champions League’s returns, executives across the competition’s clubs are actually thinking in similar terms. Such is boardroom fear of Premier League power that there is now an increasing refrain in meetings: “Something must be done.”
It remains to be seen whether that something will be the Super League that was relaunched last week and is intended to supplant the Champions League itself. It is nevertheless a feeling that frames the knockout stages, especially amid the expectation that at least three English clubs will get through from the last 16 for the fourth time in five years.
