Liverpool have it all to prove in this year’s Champions League and Thursday’s draw means they will get the opportunity to show their true worth early on in the competition.

Without any national protection in place – being bizarrely both holders and qualifiers – it was almost entirely inevitable that they would come up against another English team. And in another twist it just had to be Chelsea, the team they knocked out in the semi-finals last season.

Liverpool will also have to pit their wits against Anderlecht and newcomers Real Betis but, despite their protestations about how tough it all is, I think both the English clubs will come through unscathed.

Elsewhere the draw has thrown up some other rather mouth-watering encounters like Bayern Munich and Juventus in Group A and Inter versus Porto in Group H to name but a couple.

Champions League virgins Thun, the Swiss team with a name that sounds like a holiday maker with a lisp, have the not inconsiderable task of facing Arsenal, Ajax and Sparta Prague. Welthum to the big time, boyth.

Although I don’t really agree with the group stage at all – it’s really just a money spinning mechanism and often throws up dire, pointless encounters – I have to confess to having been glued to the computer as the draw took place.

Let’s hope the actual matches are as riveting.

Everton’s failure

If Everton are still wondering why they have not managed to sign any decent players during the summer, then their exit from the Champions League at the first hurdle should help them begin to understand.

Let’s be brutally honest, their achievements last season were spectacular but they got into Europe’s premier competition on the back of playing a dull, unexciting 4-5-1 formation which meant they strangled games to death rather than genuinely winning them.

And this approach to football will not have gone unnoticed by the big stars who want to move to a club which has a squad capable of playing football, not just winning matches.

I admit it’s a bit of a catch 22 situation. Without better players Everton won’t be able to play better football. Without playing better football the better players won’t want to join the team.

Maybe if Everton can do something spectacular in the UEFA Cup while maintaining a decent challenge for a top four stop again, next summer they won’t have so much of a problem attracting decent players.

But, having seen them play against Bolton last week, I really am beginning to believe there achievements last season were just a blip.

Meanwhile another club which has had trouble signing any decent players during the close season is Wigan with just about anybody who is anybody saying thanks but no thanks.

Not only that, but they have sold their best striker – Nathan Ellington – to West Brom leaving them more than a little short up front.

But, in a move that has surprised everybody, not least Wigan’s desperate fans, Paul Jewell has made a 450,000 pound bid for Dean Windass from Bradford.

Windass has worked with Jewell before. But the striker is now 36-years-old and playing in League One. Not so much a shooting star as a falling one.

Admittedly he has scored seven goals in five games so far this season, but those have come against the likes of Rochdale, Rotherham and Hartlepool. Not exactly Premiership standard opposition.

And, for a twist in the tale, it gets worse for Wigan. Bradford have unbelievably turned down the bid!

If a Premiership club can’t entice a 36-year-old player from a League One team then they know they have problems. Makes Everton’s situation look almost rosy.

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