Chelsea can't buy European Cup glory

14 April 2012

Despite their European Cup exit, Jose Mourinho knows the fans will salute Chelsea's remarkable achievements with fervour when the Premiership trophy is presented at Saturday's final home game against Charlton.

A fulsome demonstration of gratitude by the Stamford Bridge faithful is just what is required to lift a desolate team still unsure how they came to slip up at the semi-final stage of their quest for European football's greatest prize.

Winning the Premiership is the ultimate accolade in the domestic game but the 1-0 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield suggests Chelsea are still falling short on the European stage. How can they beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich over two legs, but fail against Liverpool?

The squad cost around £200million but how much more do they need to spend to win the European Cup? Perhaps it is a trophy that goes to the best - like Porto last season - rather than the richest.

Money buys good players but there are other elements that play a role in shaping clubs and turning them into dynasties such as Liverpool and Manchester United.

Rafael Benitez inherited a great club living on past glories. He has shown that a group of players, little better than average by Premiership standards, can gnaw at the confidence of superior footballers until they doubt their own ability.

Using fitness, discipline and team spirit, Liverpool embraced the gospel according to Benitez and became one of the few teams this season to outmanoeuvre Chelsea. Liverpool's history of success over the last four decades began with the old League Championship title in 1964.

They built on that and learned the value of sustained achievement. That, surely, is the challenge now facing Chelsea. Can they maintain this season's high standard? Mourinho's team are good enough to win the major prizes and big enough to learn from their disappointments.

In every European match, bar one, Damien Duff or Arjen Robben gave the team the creative edge that few defences can legislate for ... until the semi-final. In both legs neither Duff nor Robben was in the starting line-up.

It is this detail, these small margins, that often separate the winners from the losers and Mourinho can, at least, take consolation from the fact that this season he has got the detail right far more often than Benitez.

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