by Michael Johnson

Created on: April 20, 2009   Last Updated: April 22, 2009

The best known and foremost teams in Europe are not always the best teams at any given moment. A vivid example of this is the legendary English team Tottenham Hotspur. At one time they were far and away the best team in the country when Northern Ireland's great midfielder, the late Danny Blanchflower, was their captain and dominating influence.

However,Spurs as they are called were at the bottom of football's top English division for a considerable time early in the present season and looked like relegation candidates.This state of affairs has now been turned around and Spurs are in a safe and comfortable position.

Unfortunately,another legendary team, Newcastle United, have not been so fortunate and are still in serious danger of relegation. Their near neighbours Middlesborough and Sunderland are also at risk now. However, it does look as if the North East of England will have at least one team in the top tier of English football next year.

All teams have their good and bad times. For example,Manchester United lost most of a great young team in an air disaster and Danny Blanchflower's brother Jackie was seriously disabled and could never play again. United, however, survived this tragedy thanks largely to the recovery of their legendary manager Matt Busby and the on field influence of Bobby Charlton, who was now their dominant player.

The recovery of Man. Utd. was completed by two master strokes from Busby. He signed the Scottish international Denis Law from Torino in Italy. This was exactly what Charlton needed and the two were a strike force to be reckoned with. In their first season together United won their first trophy since the Munich air crash, the F.A. cup, and the following year, when Charlton and Law really got going, Man. Utd. were again champions of England.

Then Busby's ability to inspire young players really paid off. He had brought a boy from Belfast to Manchester and by the time this player was ready, the first team was successful and established.The boy was George Best. Northern Ireland, captained by Danny Blanchflower, had reached the quarter finals of the World Cup in 1958 and Blanchflower once said of Best 'If we'd had him in 1958 we'd have won the World Cup.'

The dominant team in Spain at present is Barcelona, but they have usually been playing (a very good) second fiddle to Real Madrid, who are always there or thereabouts. In Italy, Inter Milan have enjoyed a considerable spell of success, but they have traditionally been overshadowed by their cross town rivals A.C. Even as things stand, A.C. are still the more interesting team since they have the big name players Kaka, Ronaldinho and probably Beckham.

Benfica of Portugal has been a major and respected name since the days of Eusebio, although Porto are now the major team from that part of the world. Then there is Holland,with legendary teams like Ajax Amsterdam, Feyenoord and Sparta Rotterdam. Dutch football has always been entertaining, which is the most important thing. It is nice to see football in the U.S.A. adopting the same approach.

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