Last night marked the worst English performance in European club football since 2003. Following the best part of a decade of Champions League and Europa League (UEFA Cup to the seasoned supporter and I) success, the drying pool of English European talent is becoming abundantly clear.
The current UEFA Country Coefficient reads as such:
| # | country | 07/08 | 08/09 | 09/10 | 10/11 | 11/12 | ranking | teams |
| 1 | England | 17.875 | 15.000 | 17.928 | 18.357 | 14.000 | 83.160 | 1/ 8 |
| 2 | Spain | 13.875 | 13.312 | 17.928 | 18.214 | 16.000 | 79.329 | 5/ 7 |
| 3 | Germany | 13.500 | 12.687 | 18.083 | 15.666 | 13.583 | 73.519 | 3/ 6 |
| 4 | Italy | 10.250 | 11.375 | 15.428 | 11.571 | 11.214 | 59.838 | 1/ 7 |
| 5 | Portugal | 7.928 | 6.785 | 10.000 | 18.800 | 10.833 | 54.346 | 2/ 6 |
| 6 | France | 6.928 | 11.000 | 15.000 | 10.750 | 10.500 | 54.178 | 1/ 6 |
| 7 | Russia | 11.250 | 9.750 | 6.166 | 10.916 | 9.750 | 47.832 | 6 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 5.000 | 6.333 | 9.416 | 11.166 | 13.200 | 45.115 | 1/ 5 |
| 9 | Ukraine | 4.875 | 16.625 | 5.800 | 10.083 | 7.583 | 44.966 | 1/ 6 |
| 10 | Greece | 7.500 | 6.500 | 7.900 | 7.600 | 7.600 | 37.100 | 5 |
Fulham provided England with an extra team following a fair play league bonus entry this year but from now on, the focus falls on the future of coefficient; and whether England will fall back down the rankings. Spain effectively need their 5 remaining representatives to win both ties of their quarter finals and then two of their teams go on to win the Champions League and the Europa League between them, to overhaul England this year. A repeat of this season's performances - minus Fulham's results as they were a bonus side this year - would leave England's yearly coefficient at 11.875 (plus Chelsea's results in this year's Quarter Finals). With a total of 77.16 and Spain clearly on top, Germany would more than likely surpass the English and England's focus would be on retaining their 7th representative from the sides below.
In terms of calculating England's Coefficient, the teams' performance's impact as so:
| Clubs | qW | qD | qL | W | D | L | Bonus | Pts | Average | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arsenal | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9.000 | ||||
 Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10.000 | ||||
 Man. City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 4.000 | ||||
 Man. United | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4.000 | ||||
 Stoke | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0.000 | ||||
 Tottenham | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0.000 | ||||
 Birmingham | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0.000 | ||||
 Fulham | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0.000 | ||||
| 1 |  England | 13 | 4 | 1 | 28 | 14 | 20 | 27.000 | 112.000 | 14.000 |
When both Manchester clubs were pre-season favourites to progress in the elite tournament, their failure and subsequent elimination in the sister cup resulted in the significant knock to England's coefficient. Some cite a lack of interest from the best sides in an 'inferior' cup whilst the need to win the Premier League and qualify for next year's Champions League takes priority. This mentality will only damage the future of English football. If our representatives throw their games to maintain their elite status the gulf between the perennial European sides and the aspirational pretenders will only widen and a reduction in the designation of English spots will all but remove hope for the likes of Everton, Newcastle, Stoke and others.
The presence, or lack of, of Manchester United and City in the Europa League is a blight on the Premier League, when the whole midtable would give anything to represent their country on that stage. I'm not suggesting that Sunderland would be able to stop the beautiful play that Bilbao produced in two legs against United, but the stadium would be sold out, the team would play with the passion of a cup final and the country would be well represented. Take Stoke City's play compared to Tottenham's in their Europa League groups. Stoke progressed from a tougher group while Spurs played their reserves and lost, the rewards for next season - Spurs will play Champions League and barring a FA Cup triumph Stoke have nothing.
Is a change in the way England is represented at Continental level needed? Or will forward financial planning and Europa League snobbery shrink our coefficient and segregate the elite from those actually want to be there?
Or are we just not as good as we think we are...
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