According to England manager Roy Hodgson, the exit of Premier League clubs from the Champions League is "just one of those things."
Jose Mourinho, Brendan Rodgers and even Arsene Wenger, after yet another Arsenal failure, to reach the quarter-finals are safe. Whether Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City's billionaire owner, will see another early European exit for an expensively assembled team as "just one of those things" remains to be seen.
True, City lost — for the fourth time in two years — to a magnificent Barcelona with Lionel Messi at his mesmeric best, his display so dazzling it prompted one observer to claim that "he could nutmeg a mermaid." But City's team that lost 1-0 at Nou Camp cost £200 million, while the bench had another £100 million worth of signings. Big money, no Champions League return.