HanoiVillan

There's no desire to get rid of the League Cup because it offers a safety valve for top PL managers. A way to avoid the 'you never won a trophy' jibe.

I would suggest it's quite likely that *some* of them will feel that way, and extremely unlikely that *all* of them will.

I agree that the changes of plan have been really disappointing, and that the way the decision not to go ahead with the North Stand was communicated was atrocious. No argument from me on that at all. That being said, if we're saying 'straightforward clear comms' is what we want, then it doesn't really get a lot more straightforward than the club's written response to the FAB, but seemingly quite a lot of fans are refusing to accept it. So yes, let's have clear comms, but also let's comprehend when 'no' is the answer.

You should, but if this thread is anything to go by neither you nor the club should expect to be believed whatever they say.

Agree, somehow the only Lille player to come out of those two ties with his reputation diminished rather than enhanced.

I'm sure we did, and I have no problem opposing how the club vote in PL meetings.

This seems like a topic where no-one can even agree on what they're comparing. Is it the overall wealth of the league? Is it the European performances of its teams? If so, over this season, or over several seasons? Is it a general sense of footballing ability, not measure by European performance? Is it comparing the on-paper footballing strength of sides? Are people comparing Man City and Real Madrid, Brighton and Osasuna, or Sheff Utd and Almeria? Is a league stronger if it's more even, or weaker? What's any of this *for*, really?

Yes. I mean there's two points really, first that 75% is not 100% (as you say), but then also secondly that people were acting and talking as if the number mattered more than the reality of the fixtures. I don't know what the number of games is where looking at a statistical average of a dataset would be more useful to just predicting who would win a group of matches, but it's far more than the 5 ties that happened.

The Guardian's match report says it as well, I assume it's been confirmed by UEFA.

Remembering when people were treating a Twitter account saying England had a 75% chance of getting the 5th spot as if that somehow meant something . . . oh, all of about ten days ago now.

It's one thing to lose - to be honest, I expected to lose tonight - but to go out with such a damp squib having hardly had a shot is pretty pathetic. They've been really good and they do deserve the victory but I feel we've let ourselves down very badly.

Have to agree. We haven't even turned up, but they also haven't let us.

One logical idea I've seen floated would be to have scrapped replays for all-PL ties, but kept them for others. I don't understand why 1st and 2nd round replays have been scrapped.

I would go so far as to say it's unlikely, given Newcastle's fixtures.

Was it ever clear to what extent that was his idea, versus the club hierarchy's? Anyway, it was **** stupid for the reasons you identify.