Premier League riches mean English sides no longer have the obsession to win the Champions League... but Peter Kenyon was right, it is the fixation for big clubs

Turns out Peter Kenyon was right all along, as was Roman Abramovich.

But who would have thought that Kenyon, that the ultimate nouveau Chelsea fanboy, originally a Manchester City fan, then Manchester United's chief executive, would actually nail the truth about football's soul?

Back in 2007, just as the club were busy sacking Jose Mourinho for the first time, Kenyon was saying how Chelsea wanted to 'paint the world blue' and added: 'Over a ten-year period you need to win two European Cups to be a world club.'

Former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon (pictured in 2008) wanted to win two European Cups

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was fixated on winning the Champions League and did so in 2012

How we mocked and scoffed at the audacity of that claim. It seemed to ignore the likes of Juventus, who have still only won the trophy twice in their history, as had Barcelona at that stage and Manchester United. Kenyon's goal seemed not only unrealistic but to represent the worst arrogance associated with Chelsea at the time. But he was much closer to the truth than we realised because, for all its brashness, that is, at least, a proper football vision.

And the message had clearly come direct from the owner, because everyone at the club was aware that the Champions League was the trophy Chelsea were required to win. You don't have to believe all that hokey nonsense about Roman falling in love with the game at that swashbuckling Manchester United-Real Madrid game back in 2003 to accept that, once he had secured a bit of security from one of the world's most-volatile presidents by buying Chelsea, Abramovich was indeed fixated on winning the Champions League.

When Chelsea did finally achieve their goal in 2012, Didier Drogba placed the famous old trophy in the centre of the Munich dressing room. 'Why have you been hiding from me for so long?' demanded Drogba, like a suitor finally having wooed his love.

That's a proper obsession, speaking to an inanimate object. And whilst obsession is not the only thing required to win the Champions League - good players, clever coaches, a proper infrastructure help - it is the starting point for all European Cup wins.

You need to need it; to desire it; almost be infatuated by it. Patrick Vieira used to talk wistfully and lovingly about 'the trophy with the big ears'. It was the one he longed for and never won.

And one of the reasons why Premier League clubs don't match up these days is that there are precious few owners with that vision engraved into their psyche. Chelsea still have it, though it will take some time to reach the heights of Munich again.

Of the others, it remains unclear whether winning the Champions League is an essential part of the business plan. Qualifying is; don't miss out on the extra global exposure for sponsors and the TV money on top. But winning it?

Chelsea forward Didier Drogba celebrates with the famous Champions League trophy in 2012

Drogba placed the trophy in the centre of the away dressing room after this match and said: 'Why have you been hiding from me for so long?'

The Premier League was described as the NBA of football by Slaven Bilic recently. And the phenomenon of Leicester and Tottenham outperforming the big five while West Ham and Southampton match them stride for stride makes it by far the most-watchable league in the world.

But within that observation is also an inherent insularity which nudges us ever closer towards an north American model of sport, where baseball styles its final as a world series on the basis that there are a couple of franchises in Canada.

Football doesn't work like that. It's a truly global game. The mark of genuine excellence has always been your capacity to beat teams from different cultures and tactical styles. Sir Matt Busby knew that; Bill Shankly knew it; Don Revie, Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson understood it. As do Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. Even Peter Kenyon and Roman Abramovich have got their heads around it. You don't have to be an iconic 20th-century football manager steeped in the history of the game to understand it.

But it's hard to imagine Stan Kroenke lying in bed at night fretting about the fact that while Arsenal are now consistently the four or fifth richest club in Europe they are usually the 15th or 16th best in the Champions League. Do you think Tom Werner and John W Henry have their sights set on winning the Champions League? Or do you suspect that qualification might be enough, given the upswing it brings in sponsorship and TV money?

At first glance the record of the Glazer family at Manchester United looks good, as under Sir Alex they won the Champions League and competed in two further finals. Yet who do you think was driving that vision? Ed Woodward and his noodle partners? Or the grumpy, uber-competitive Glaswegian?

Stan Kroenke pictured during the Champions League last 16 tie between Arsenal and Bayern Munich in 2013

Liverpool owner John W Henry looks on before a Europa League match against Rubin Kazan at Anfield

Manchester United co-chairmen Joel Glazer (left) and his brother Avram Glazer (right) in April 2015

Ultimately the top four has become an end in itself in the Premier League. Being seen in the quarter finals of the Champions League is important; getting into the semis would be nice. But that kind of impoverished ambition doesn't win you Champions League; it fosters mediocrity. Only the sheer desperation to prove yourself better than the rest of the world is enough to win it.

Manchester City are the real anamoly in the argument. There is little doubt that the club and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak appreciate the gravitas of the competition and are desperate to win it. It makes no real sense that they have made such a pig's ear of it thus far, notwithstanding this year's run to the quarter final.

It may be that City, unlike Chelsea at the start of the Abramovich era, simply have too much catching up to do in the competition, though that hasn't prevented Paris Saint-Germain making steady progress into the world elite.

It may be that the sheer enormity of winning the Premier Legaue has distracted them from the task and dulled their appetite. The appointment of Pep Guardiola is the surest sign that they take their failures seriously and that, like Abramovich, they will ultimately get it right. Perhaps the fact that the bottom line is never the principal driver for billionaire benefactor owners means that they understand the glory game better.

There is no doubt that the success of the Premier League is turning it in on itself and damaging its Champions League ambitions. Conversely, the competitive weakness of the other major leagues in Europe is sharpening their focus on the Champions League.

Winning the French league can never be enough for PSG; nor for Bayern. For Barcelona, even with Real Madrid and Atletico to compete with, it is only ever viewed as a starting point to the real big trophy.

'Citizens of Catalunya - now you have it here with us!' shouted Pep Guardiola in 1992 when he held Barcelona's first ever European Cup aloft from the balcony of the Catalan Generalitat in Placa de St Jaume in the heart of the city. Fifteen years earlier, following General Franco's death, Catalunya's president Josep Tarradellas, who had spent 23 years in exile, stood at that very balcony on his own return to the city and had said: 'Citizens of Catalunya - I am here.'

Pep Guardiola pictured after winning the Champions League with Barcelona in 2009 in Rome

Soon-to-be Manchester City manager Guardiola knows what it means to win the Champions League

For Barca and Guardiola, winning the trophy represented something so important that they could invoke an event decisive in Catalan history. It held that allure.

No owner in the Premier League feels the same. It's not even clear whether they could even emote over the 'trophy with the big ears' in the way Patrick Vieira could. Give them details of the bottom line on the latest TV deal, and you might see some tears of happiness welling up in their eyes. Winning the Champions League doesn't evoke that same sense of joy for many Premier League owners. Qualifying's the thing. That's the ultimate prize. And if all else fails, we can simply re-brand the Premier League as the World Series. That'll do the trick.