Why are English clubs struggling in Europe? We laud the 'best league in the world'; we say it without a flicker of hesitation. The most competitive, the most lucrative, the most watched, the most unpredictable. Yet we can’t hit a barn door in Europe. The best league in the world is not even close to being amongst the very best on the continent.

So where is it going wrong? Are we lacking the quality? Is it because we don’t have a winter break whereas every other country does? Do we have too many fixtures? Are English clubs failing to motivate themselves for Europe? The answer is yes to all of these. The Premier League is a victim of its own fiscal success. Money means fixtures; more matches and greater competition is draining – physically and mentally. But it’s more than this. Compared to Europe’s finest, the pick of the English bunch does not come close to Europe’s finest crop.

But we’ve had one winner and two semi-finalists in the last five years, so is there even a problem?

Let’s not kid ourselves here. The Premier League era of dominance is undoubtedly on the decline - the facts speak for themselves. In the ten years after Manchester United’s treble winning success in 1999 at least two teams from the Premier League reached the quarter finals 10 times out of a possible twelve, with Liverpool and Manchester United picking up the trophy in this period, and the latter taking on Chelsea in a glorious all English final. Since then however, even though Chelsea did win the trophy, albeit thanks to a stunning display of park-the-bus counter-attacking purist-loving football, only Chelsea have reached the semis in the last four years. Before 2010, there were three English semi-finalists in the previous three seasons. This season has compounded English misery, with no sides from Albion progressing beyond the last 16, just as in the 2012-2013 season.

The Premier League attracts some of this biggest names in world football. Manchester City’s squad during the last five years has undoubtedly been up there with the very best: Sergio Aguero, Yaya Touré, Vincent Kompany and David Silva to name but a few of the stellar names who could walk into most if not all of the biggest sides on the planet. However, the Citizens have underperformed monumentally on the continental stage. The clichéd “inexperienced” tagline does not wash with a side of such vast financial investment and talent. In fact, in 2013, City had the highest annual wage budget in the world. Admittedly, the (ridiculous and void as of next season) co-efficient system has left them with some nightmare group-stage draws, but to have never have made it passed the last sixteen since Sheikh Mansour ploughed his oil-money into the club is nothing less than a scandal. It should not be happening.

Of course Manchester City are not the only side to boast the talent the Premier League has to offer. Arsenal this season boasted a squad containing Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, Chelsea won the title with the strongest squad they’ve had for well over five years, including PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Thibaut Courtois. Our Champions League representatives should be doing better with these squads – especially considering the teams that made the quarter finals this year consisted of the perfectly average AS Monaco, Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Porto. To put this in perspective, Porto’s estimated squad value is £187.35 million, whereas the value of Arsenal’s is £342.10 million. There is little doubt that English clubs should be making it into the latter stages of European competition.

Yet although we can boast all we like about these big names, the reality is that the very best, the crème de la crème, are not to be found in the Premier League. Compared with Europe’s powerhouses, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the gap in talent is vast. There has been a seismic shift in the last five years in terms of where to find the very best in Europe. In Madrid, Florentino Perez’s return as Club President heralded a new era of mega-spending, seeking to recreate another ‘Galacticos’ squad. He’s achieved that and then some. Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Isco, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale have all been recruited under the latest wave of spending at the Bernabeu. Barcelona likewise have responded, with the tiki-taka generation entering its twilight years, the Catalan giants have assembled a South American front three that previously would only have existed in the corners of your dream FIFA Ultimate Team side in Messrs Neymar, Suarez and Messi. Bayern in Germany have ensured total domination in the Bundesliga by taking the league’s best talent to add their already formidable roster, acquiring Robert Lewandowski and Mario Goetze from previous title rivals Borussia Dortmund, for example.

The fact is that the best players in the world do not play in England - you only have to look at FIFA’s (somewhat dubious) 2015 World XI. No Premier League representation whatsoever - although how so-called footballer David Luiz made the side we’ll never know.

But this does not excuse the Premier League’s struggle to make it past the last-sixteen without having to loan a National Express coach and stick it between the goal posts. Juventus this season have made it to a Champions League final with a squad that, in reality, should easily be matched by anything the top four in England have to offer.

So what else is at play here? The answer is, paradoxically, the success of the Premier League itself. Football fans across the country and the continent gawked at the sight of the £5bn-plus TV rights deal recently agreed to broadcast what is marketed as ‘the best league in the world’. Unlike on the Continent, this money is spread far more equally across the top flight’s twenty sides; you only have to see the recently aborted Spanish football strike to see the envy this generated. The result is a far more competitive division, with better quality players and staff across each club, making the games more competitive, more unpredictable, and of course with more money riding on them. These are the reasons neutrals love to watch the Premier League.

Yet all this investment comes at a cost to our European performance. Admittedly, the claim that the ‘average’ club in the Premier League has a stronger squad than on the rest of the Continent is a controversial, though not unfounded, suggestion. The average Premier League squad value is £165.5m. La Liga and the Bundesliga trail in its wake, averaging a squad value of £129m and £105m respectively. TV right investment is having an impact, and the result is more competitive and more difficult weekly fixtures: teams across the league are better and there is a lot more at stake. So whilst you may say, rightly, for example, that the likes of Sevilla and Valencia far surpass their English equivalents of Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, the gap between them and the rest of the league is far greater in Spain than in England, and likewise in Germany. Competitive fixtures are more draining since English teams have to work harder for their three points.

Whilst the debate over whether the quality of football in Spain and Germany is inferior to England’s is perhaps more questionable, the financial repercussions of the investment most certainly are not. The demand to see the Premier League created such enormous financial investment, and those forking out billions want to watch football as often as possible. So, while the rest of the Continent hangs up their boots over Christmas, the Premier League’s finest endure the gruelling test of the infamous Christmas fixture list – in the same 49 day break that Bayern had last season, Manchester City played eight competitive fixtures. Extra competitions, namely the League Cup and the FA Cup, only add to the physical drain on Premier League squads. Demands for a Winter Break will only fall on deaf ears – the extra fixtures are an extra incentive to invest – and this makes the Premier League unique.

Of course, the winter congestion is nothing new. The previous decade of English relative success after 1999 all had to deal with it. The difference now however, is a combination of an increasing financial investment being made by all other squads in the Premier League thanks to the exponentially rising TV rights agreements and also, as aforementioned, trying to compete against European heavyweights in age of supreme foreign squads.

Will this trend continue? There is no reason to believe so. Manchester United’s stunning investment should come to fruition, whilst José Mourinho’s Chelsea, a side that seems to have very few weaknesses anywhere in their squad, can only get stronger and should pose a greater European threat. Manchester City are expected to overhaul their squad (again), whilst Arsenal are beginning to show signs of a consistency clubs need for success on the Continental stage. With the right additions, there is no reason to doubt that Premier League clubs will return to the top table of European football.

For now however, the Premier League well and truly is living in Splendid Isolation. The benefits of such enormous financial investment for the league domestically are clear. The extra barriers it puts on England’s finest to maintain their dominance makes the league more competitive, it makes it more unpredictable, it also makes it more valuable. The consequence however is at the detriment of European performance. The argument that bigger squads cannot work in this new era of financial fair play has hit English clubs harder than anywhere else in Europe – ask any Queens Park Rangers fan. With English squads working harder than the rest of Europe combined with a clear gulf in ‘World Class’ talent by comparison to the very best in especially Spain and Germany, it is no surprise that English clubs are struggling.

So, whilst the Premier League may well be the very best in the world, and whilst we can celebrate that all we like, the consequence is inferior displays abroad. The Premier League is a victim of its own success.