Two of world football’s biggest but worst performing clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur face off in Bilbao on Wednesday in the Europa League final. There is quite a lot at stake, not only Europe’s second most important club title but the substantial bonus of a place in next year’s Champion’s League (worth an estimated £60 million) and with it the kudos to attract top players. It’s been called back door entry to UEFA’s elite tournament, but it feels more like a magic portal transporting the currently humdrum aspirant super clubs into another dimension, and not one where they necessarily belong. If football is all about stories, this is a very odd one.
Both Man Utd and Spurs have had atrocious seasons and would be dicing with the ultimate indignity of relegation were it not for the even more pitiful form of Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton (now that would have been a good story).