Outside of matches between the teams, there are plenty of connections between us and most of our opponents in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
Thursday’s draw handed us home ties with Borussia Dortmund, Villarreal, Slavia Prague and Copenhagen, along with trips to holders Paris Saint-Germain, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bodo/Glimt and AS Monaco.
While we’ve faced all eight teams in one capacity or another over the years, including six of them competitively, we share a number of links in terms of playing personnel.
Eric Dier’s name immediately comes to mind with Monaco – he’s currently plying his trade for the Ligue 1 side after 18 months at Bayern Munich. Jurgen Klinsmann, Glenn Hoddle, Emmanuel Adebayor, Eidur Gudjohnson, Dimitar Berbatov and Nacer Chadli have also worn their colours.
One of our current first teamers will be reunited with his former employers when we host Slavia Prague – Antonin Kinsky joined us from his hometown club back in January. Our former goalkeeper Radek Cerny coached ‘Toni’ at Slavia for a spell and also represented them during his playing career.