The Champions League can often be dominated by the same sides slugging it out against each other year after year, exchanging the trophy between themselves and not allowing anyone else into their elite group.

This isn’t always the case though. From time to time, teams with fantastic talent and brilliant coaching staff come together and upset the odds, pushing late into the tournament. The story is always unfortunately the same; one run deep into the Champions League before players and coaches alike move on to pastures new. Money talks.

In 2000, Valencia made it all the way to the final with a squad chock-full of talented players. Gaizka Mendieta, Claudio López, Gerard López and Francisco Farinós were all crucial to their miraculous run but left the club shortly afterwards to join Lazio, Barcelona and Inter.

2004’s surprise package was Porto. Managed by José Mourinho, the Portuguese outfit went all the way and won the tournament with a squad including Deco, Costinha, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira. Mourinho went on to leave for Chelsea, taking Carvalho and Ferreira with him, while others left for Spain and Russia.

Monaco’s run to the semi-final in 2017 left all the big clubs circling like vultures. Mendy, Bernardo, Mbappé, Bakayoko, Lemar and Fabinho all left afterwards for assorted big clubs around Europe.

And in this season’s Champions League, Ajax have stunned many and exceeded even the highest of expectations. Their ridiculously talented squad, which has helped to regenerate Dutch football, will go into a quarter-final second leg in Turin brimming with confidence. Whether they’ll be able to knock Juventus out is another question but what is undoubtedly true is that de Jong, de Ligt, Neres, Ziyech, Tagliafico, Onana and quite a few others probably won’t be hanging around in Amsterdam for much longer.

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