Greece is an exception not the rule.
And when we won it, we had a better coach than many others and NT football is quite different than club football.
Of course i do not underestimate the mandatory requirement of strength of will, but this is not enough to win it.
If you remember, when we were strong, we were still losing to random weaker teams.
But its there was a different team, because their odds were too small to provide them regular appearance to final stages of competition, but their numbers were great and thats the only advantage the small teams have.
It is not a miracle for smaller teams to win bigger teams, if their number is far greater than the best ones.
Because someone has to win and their collective odds add up to smth concrete, despite their individual insignificance.
As fans of a now small team, we dont care about the odds of all the smaller teams, we only care about our individual chances.
Chances are that one day, one of the many weaker teams, of the current Juve league may win the CL, but it counts for nothing, as far as we are concerned, if it is not us. To increase our chances, we need to be as closer to the top as we can be.
The top clubs have many WC players in their squad and even then, there is no certainty for anything, but the chances they have individually are far greater than most of the other, if they are compared directly.
If Barca buys a new Villa and Fabregas at this x-mas, it doesnt mean that they will automatically win the CL, despite already having the best team in Europe.
We are not going to buy 2 such players in the next decades imagine our odds, comparing our current basis to their current basis.
This is how you see things objectively, not by a collective chance for a random small team to get lucky.
This is why i consider us of being miles ahead of where we should.
I still remember the days we were one of the best and i still remember how even one weakling, just one not WC player was enough to matter in a match against the most competitive teams and lessen our chances, as those teams were systematically exploiting those weakness, (lets say Zebi for ex) because we were roughly equal elsewhere) ATM we have weakness they can exploit, far too many and very few players than can make the difference in a WC clash.
So our chances are minimal, there are always chances of course, but i ve seen us losing far too many times with the odds at 80% on our side, to start hoping with a 8% now...
And the saddest part is that, we should really be there by now, after all those hundred of millions spent those 6 years, but we have no one to blame but our selves. Unfortunately, we are still driving on the same path (as shown with the release of 2 25mil player, at Amauri+Melo, the acquisition of 2 15mil players at Vucinic+Vidal, for the same spot, at the same time we loaned out our only 0.5mil LB option.
This is not how you build a competitive team and being out of CL had nothing to do with it...
PS referring to Pirlo, i dont question his current form, but the form he will have after those 3 years we need to add the 6starters we need, by acquiring 2/year. By that time, some pieces of the current basis will be expiring (like Buffon+Pirlo, so that it might take even more than 3 years, without calculating the time needed for all them to blend and optimize teamwork)