The very idea that whichever outfit wins it this year are guaranteed but two games in next season’s edition would be laughed out of every boardroom across Europe.

But there was something in the jeopardy of such a draw that made the European Cup such a compelling concept, an attraction that has long since been lost in ever expanding group stages designed solely to bolster the bottom line.

Maybe the problem we hopeless nostalgists have is in its name. After all, as titles go, the Champions League does offer the suggestion that this is a place where you can only find the champion club of each participating country.

That, though, was a ship that sailed long ago. Since the mid nineties, when the competition expanded to cater to the financial demands of the big clubs, such a concept was greedily dispensed with.

United and Spurs are not the first to benefit. For a decade Arsène Wenger was lauded for getting Arsenal up to the fourth place to ensure qualification, indeed Liverpool have twice lifted the trophy since the turn of the century without having previously won their domestic league.