A year or so back I wrote a long post (which I now can't find - maybe
@version can help [though maybe best not to cos it will probably end up being totally different from how I remember it and make me look stupid]) about how it looked to me as though premiership clubs would dominate Europe for the next few years. If I remember correctly I think I said that the Italian teams seemed to be a level below, Bayern appeared to be going in the wrong direction and Barca were too crippled by the financial problems arising from the years of overspending deemed necessary to compete with Real at home and the prem sides in Europe - and to pay Messi's obscene wages.
I think I said that barring some kind of paradigm shift - eg Jeff Bezos buying Juventus and throwing his entire fortune into winning the champions league - the only sides which might be able to prevent this premiership hegemony were gonna be a) the billionaires at PSG, if they could sort themselves out and somehow switch from being a collection of superstars into an actual superstar team and b) Real Madrid cos they somehow always have money and they just know how to win, by hook or by crook, especially in Europe.
Anyway, shortly after I said that Real Madrid won the thing scraping past PSG and then City and Chelsea in extraordinary fashion after they looked dead and buried, then beating Liverpool in the final with a sucker punch despite being second best for most of the game thanks to an extraordinary performance from Courtois.
That wasn't what I'd expected although I guess it was broadly in line with what I was saying. Anyhow this time City have finally broken their duck in the CL and are clearly by far the best side in the world just now. Considering that West Ham won the Europa League too it's looking like the predicted premiership domination is now starting. I wouldn't bet against it being an all prem final in the CL next time. Real really need to rebuild - which, fair enough, they normally do pretty well - and PSG are showing no signs of the required development, so who is gonna stop that happening?