Originally Posted by
J R Hartley
Sadly those days are long gone regardless of the format. The big European clubs now snap up the very best young european (and south american too) talent from a very young age. Gone are the days the very best talent in Holland all coming through the Ajax first team at the same time.
There was a good article in The Athletic on the subject recently, in particular the eastern bloc teams of the past and how we wont see that again.
In some respects thats why the Europa League is a bit more interesting for the neutral and football romantic come the latter stages, although Seville started to ruin that by winning it every year!!