Trying to draw meaning from pre-season friendlies is a fool’s errand. But this is the A-League’s silly season, after all - so in that spirit, let’s have a crack. If you’ve thought about club soccer in Australia for longer than a few moments, the following unanswerable question may have crossed your mind: how would our teams fare in Europe? Specifically, England. In an alternate universe in which A-League sides have the opportunity to compete in the English pyramid system … how would they go? Would our best survive in the Premier League? Almost certainly not. So what’s the level? Could champions Melbourne City hold their own in the Championship? Could the Wanderers climb out of League One? Would the likes of last season’s cellar-dwellers Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar sink to the bottom of the League Two table … or lower?