Fat Cats Wrecking Competition

Fat Cats Wrecking Competition

ARSENE Wenger doesn’t see much. Even when he does it tends to be viewed through a red and white prism. This, after all, is a man who witnessed

Dennis Bergkamp fell Jamie Carragher at the knees, then argued that the Dutchman was “just trying to impress”.

“A lot of people have seen a bad intent,” groused the Frenchman. “But Dennis wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.” A bit like, say, Ryan Shawcross.

Yet when it comes to the dearth of competition in European football, the Arsenal manager’s observations are bang on the money.

“When you look at the five big leagues in Europe, in December we already knew four champions,” he said this month. “That means something is not right in our game. The huge financial power of some clubs is basically destroying the competition.”

Wenger, it’s fair to say, would be less concerned about the competition if Arsenal were doing the destroying. The 68-year-old is about as objective as Andy Carroll is cultured, but that doesn’t make him wrong.

At the time of writing, Man City were 13 points clear at the Premier League summit. In France, Paris Saint-Germain had an 11point cushion. In Spain, Barcelona lay ten ahead. Bayern Munich, 18 points clear of Leverkusen in second, are already over the hills and far away.

And this is no isolated incident. PSG have won four of the last five Ligue 1 titles. Bayern have won the Bundesliga five years running, a German record. In Spain, only one side in the last 13 years - Diego Simeone’s Atletico - has managed to break the RealBarca duopoly.

Last year, Juventus sealed a sixth straight Scudetto, another national record. A mere point behind Napoli, the Old Lady is odds-on to make it seven.

This, then, is an era of unprecedented dominance. And the reason for that dominance is cold, hard cash.