Do you fancy saying that again on Thursday morning, when half of the teams left (maximum possible) in the world’s premier club competition are from the Premier League?

There’s way too many games in the calendar as it is. Players get injured (Rooney) for just playing too much. End of May is also rubbish as every other year there’s an international tournament.

We already have celebrity matches, they suck.

I don’t like either how your initial list of why this is so good mainly centres around finances – this just sums up how the majority of Americans will never appreciate the passion that drives the game here. A Derby fan would much rather spend their weekend cheering on their losing side than watching an all star game, because we derive entertainment here from passion, not commercial over exuberant egoistical “all star” games.