RUUD GULLIT: ENGLISH TEAMS HAVE BEEN FOUND OUT IN EUROPE

ABOVE: Cristiano Ronaldo dumped Manchester United out in the last 16 of the Champions League

I wouldn’t say you have got complacent, I just think the others have learned.

Ruud Gullit

25th May 2013

By Adrian Kajumba

RUUD GULLIT has warned England’s Champions League pretenders they need to go back to the drawing board.

Gullit says the Premier League’s top sides have been sussed out by their European rivals and that’s why they hardly caused a ripple in this season’s competition.

The Champions League trophy will be on English turf this year – but only because the all-German final is at Wembley tonight.

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will battle it out for European club football’s biggest prize after seeing off Barcelona and Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

The Germans and Spaniards are enjoying a period of Champions League domination, like England did not so long ago.

Three English sides made the last four for three years running in 2007, 2008 and 2009, with Manchester United winning in 2008. This season only Arsenal and United reached the last 16.

Holders Chelsea and Manchester City were dumped out in the group stages, with United eventually going out to Real and Arsenal being beaten by Bayern.

Dutch legend Gullit said: “The English teams must understand that the rest of Europe is not sleeping. They want to improve. I wouldn’t say you have got complacent, I just think the others have learned.

“That’s what happens to every club. Look at Barcelona, they had a few years and all of a sudden people suss you out and you need to do something different.

“And this is the same thing with the English teams. The others think about it. The English teams’ performance in the Champions League was very surprising.

"The biggest surprise was Manchester City, that they couldn’t get through while, for instance, PSG, they did the same in one year and they got through. Why is that?

“They also had a lot of players and foreigners, spent a lot buying players, but at least they went through to the last stages.

“England have to think about how to deal with this because I am a fan of the English league but you haven’t been good enough for a couple of years now.”

Double European Cup winner Gullit believes copying the German model based on home-grown players is the way to go if English football wants to catch up.

He is convinced part of the problem is the number of foreigners playing in the Premier League.

Ironically, he was among the wave of overseas stars to arrive in England following the early-90s birth of the Premier League.

But Gullit said: “When I came there were only a few. Eric Cantona was first, then Jurgen Klinsmann, then I came, then Dennis Bergkamp. And they were great players.

“Now there are a lot of average foreign players withholding English players and that is bad.

“I don’t mind having foreigners but they have to be better than what you have.

“At the same time you can’t buy English players because they are too expensive. A lot of teams play sometimes with no English players. It is a little bit odd. Strange.

“It’s not supposed to happen because the fans need to relate to the team.

“Germany is an example for all the leagues in Europe. It’s a good follow-up because you are forced to use your own players. Holland has already been doing it for a few years.

“In Germany they said, ‘We don’t have the money to spend and we want to stay healthy. That’s why we have to invest in our youth’.

“That’s what they did and look at the results. It will take you some years but at least in the end you are going to profit from it.”

Gullit’s old club Chelsea at least bucked the recent trend of English Champions League disappointment by stunning favourites Bayern to win last year’s final.

Of tonight’s game, Gullit said: “I think Bayern are favourites but they will also be scared that the same could happen that happened last year.

“When you play a final you know it’s a one-off game.

“For that reason they could still think about last year – being the better side but losing.”

MasterCard ambassador Ruud Gullit today revealed some of the children who are set to enjoy a Priceless Experience as the official player mascots for the UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2013.

Visit www.pricelesslondon.com