Research by bwin showed that the Premier League's "new spending power" will likely fail to equate to Champions League success, according to Tom Bassam of the London DAILY MAIL. The bookmaker conducted research into the last five years of the Champions League "to see if financial muscle equates to success." The results "do not bode well for the ever-increasingly flush English clubs." The research looks at each nation's average spend per group-stage participant and "the average spend per club vs their nation's win percentage." Despite England's financial dominance, "only once in the last five years has this resulted in a Champions League trophy," Chelsea's title in '12. In Chelsea's trophy-winning campaign English clubs spent on average £68.5M and had a 51% win percentage throughout the tournament. Despite the "injection of wealth from the new TV deal," the English hopefuls will "struggle again according to the stats." Leicester City, Man City, Arsenal and Tottenham have an average spend of £96.5M ($127.3M) each, with "only the Italian clubs in this year's competition averaging more." In '14-15, Germany's top European contestants won 12% more games than their English counterparts, despite spending an average of £71.5M less. The report "does demonstrate the under performance by Premier League clubs since the second half of the last decade" (DAILY MAIL, 9/13).
NEW GOLDEN ERA: In London, Samuel Lovett reported after "years in the wilderness, England’s top clubs are poised to enter a new golden era of footballing success in Europe." That is "what Gary Lineker thinks at least." There was "plenty to take" from a 30-minute chat with the former Leicester City striker, "but it was the topic of Champions League football that raised the most eyebrows." On the back of a record-breaking transfer window, there is a "growing sense among many, Lineker included, that English football is finally returning to its former lofty heights." Lineker: "It's only a matter of time. In terms of success of countries in international football, obviously at the moment Spanish football is super-dominant, and we've seen that not only in the Champions League but also in the Europa League as well. ... It might not be this generation in terms of the Messis and Ronaldos, it's a bit late for them. But I'm almost convinced that we'll see the next superstars come to our league and our big clubs will be the Barcelonas and Real Madrids of tomorrow. It might take a year, two years, three years, but I think it will happen." Roughly £1.17B ($1.54B) was spent by the Premier League throughout this year's summer transfer window -- "almost double" what Serie A spent (£590M) ($778M) and "nearly triple" La Liga’s spending (£400M) ($528M) (INDEPENDENT, 9/13).
