And the eyes in his head sees the world spinning round

History is written by the winners.  The value of perspective of time.  Time to nurture those old clichés.

It's pretty much possible to divide all time periods in eras.  European club football is no different and UEFA Champions League (previously the European Cup) in itself is a good yard stick although the format of the competition has changed over time and although by nature it only a measurement of the premium end of each league.

I'm talking about the eternal question "which league is the best?" Whích league is the best, you think, right now? And what would you have answered in 2008? In 2000? In 1990?

There are eras and the eras are sometimes so intense that we lose perspective. Really.

Right now, Barcelona are by many considered unbeatable (bar some unsportsmanlike tactics from the villain, Mou).  That's pretty new. Barcelona has been a top team in Europe for many years but when Barcelona made it to the final two years ago it was with a last minute winner against what was then the favourite, Chelsea.

Back then, all focus was on British domination.  For the second consecutive year, England had produced three out of four semifinalists.  It seemed England had dominated for long, and would dominate for the foreseeable future.

Actually, the Premier League domination era was fairly short and generated in, at most, two titles.  When Liverpool reached the final in 2005, that was considered a huge surprise, and that win is the story of one of the greatest underdog win in non-fiction life (the game belongs to the horror genre in my book, but that's a different story).

England partly overlapped with some rather odd AC Milan success period (2003-07), although the world would never admit that AC Milan was the dominant team in Europe in this period.  But if you need to pick one team, based on merit, clearly AC Milan is the team standing out despite most limited domestic success.

Who would have thought that when Zidane volleyed in El Galacticos third win in five years in 2002? What could possibly have stopped them at that point? Spain dominated football and Real Madrid dominated the world.

We saw that coming when Hierro and his team beat Juve in 1998.  What we may not have guessed at that point was that no Italian team would reach the final until two of them did it in 2003.  Because in 1998, Italian participation in the final was a rule.  Seven straight finals and nine finals in the last ten years - 1998 (Juve), 1997 (Juve), 1996 (Juve), 1995 (Milan), 1994 (Milan), 1993 (Milan), 1992 (Sampdoria), 1990 (Milan), 1989 (Milan).

That Italian domination followed on a period in the 1980s where, just like around 2003-2005, European domination was up for grabs, six countries had lifted the trophy in as many years. In a way, the Heysel disaster in 1985 marked the end to another era, this time with the difference that for everyone watching, it was clear that was exactly what was happening.  We knew English teams would be banned, and we therefore knew that an era of English/German battles has come to an end.  Between 1974 and 1984, the 11 European cup titles were divided between England (7) and Germany (4), with England dominating the latter part of that period.

And so the history has developed.  Before my lifetime there were four more periods, the Real Madrid Era in the fifties was followed by a short Benfica (Eusebio) spell in the early 60s, followed by Italian domination for the rest of the 60s until the Dutch in general and Ajax in particular dominated the early 70s.

The recent English period was short, intense and did not result in a whole lot of silverware.  Will the Barca era turn out the same? Or is the English domination not really over?

I guess time will tell.