rubberman Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Don't understand the hate with the Europa League. Would love to be playing in it regularly. Teams in the Europa league finish on average 2.3 places lower than the season they qualified. For 'bigger' teams dropping into it, there isn't that effect as the squads are already in place to compete midweek and weekend. For the 'smaller' clubs (which sadly includes us these days) the impact is greater. We need to consolidate a position in the top 1/3 of the league before taking Europe seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 If we win the FA cup we have to go in the Europa handicap league. So no (unless they deliberately sack it off) We should have been in the europa league the last 3 years.If our last two managers have not been a handicap then what is ?! Finances? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 European football is a luxury that we can't afford right now, unfortunately. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 'best of the rest' is what they're aiming for, which is around 7th at this rate. top 4 are set in stone for some time. liverpool and spurs will battle it out for 5th/6th. leaving everyone else playing for ... er... a bigger slice of the pie. if that doesn't inspire you to buy season tickets, i don't know what will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ED Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I hate thread titles like the above. Why not just put the question instead, ie "Can we finish top 6 or 7?" Well it lured me in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoncb Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) 'best of the rest' is what they're aiming for, which is around 7th at this rate. top 4 are set in stone for some time. liverpool and spurs will battle it out for 5th/6th. leaving everyone else playing for ... er... a bigger slice of the pie. if that doesn't inspire you to buy season tickets, i don't know what will. Wouldn't trust Liverpool or Spurs to hold 5th/6th at the moment, their squads are looking shaky and if they lose players like Lloris/Eriksen, Countinho/Sterling/Sturridge and not replace them properly they will both struggle. Edited May 14, 2015 by jasoncb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 We don't have anything like the squad necessary for the Europa League That's a fallacy. If we win the FA Cup (big if), to get to the final we'd have: 6 group games + 8 knockout games + 1 final = 15 games if the final is reached In the FA Cup you've got: 5 knockout rounds + (potentially) 5 replays + 1 final = Minimum 6, maximum 11 games if the final is reached In the League Cup you've got: 4 one-leg knockouts (3 if in Europe) with no replays + 1 two-leg semis + 1 final = Minimum 6 games, maximum 7 games if the final is reached If you were to foresake both domestic cups, you're cutting out a potential 15 games (since you'd be in Europe and enter the League Cup later), as you'd have to play 1 in each to get knocked out, and replacing it with another 15 games. I never see anyone saying "we don't have the squad necessary for domestic cups so shouldn't take them seriously" when the fact is that it's a like for like replacement if you go out in the first round of the FA Cup and League Cup. Yes, there's the travel thing, and the placement of games, but by forsaking the domestic cups, you'd have rest time later in the season when others are competing. It's entirely much of a muchness. I agree we don't have the squad for the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League, but there's little reason why the Europa shouldn't be viewed as the main focal point in terms of cups, given that it carries Champions League qualification 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 If we get into Europe, then Sherwood could do with keeping a lot of our fringe players around to act as the B-Team/ Europa team. Given, Bennett, Baker, Senderos, Lowton, Sylla, Gardner, Gil, Robinson, Helenius & Kozak - doesn't look like a bad cup team! I hate thread titles like the above. Why not just put the question instead, ie "Can we finish top 6 or 7?"The problem with that is that there would simply be 4 pages of people posting 'No'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 B-Team/ Europa team. Again, since the Europa is our best chance at making the Champions League for the foreseeable future, it should absolutely be our strongest XI every single game of the competition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 But history shows that league form generally suffers. If we got past the group stages then I'd be more interested in us taking it seriously, but we've been in a relegation battle for five seasons, so I'd rather our best eleven was used to make sure we're not in another one (for now, at least). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Then we forego the domestic cups and it all balances out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicho Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 One of the reasons I like this forum is because we dont have threads open for every single thought and question of posters. Makes them a mess, just look at RAWK or the Sunderland forums. Can we keep it that way please..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I'd love to see us have a proper go in the Europa League, I'll never see us winning the league nor qualifying for the CL, let alone winning it. Therefore, after we've won the FA Cup () the next thing on my list would be the Europa League. However, I don't think our squad is anywhere near ready for the demands and it could really be detrimental to us next season. I certainly don't agree with some of the scathing hatred for the competition that gets posted on here, to be regularly competing (and competitive) in the EL would be brilliant for the club, and should be the aim for the next few years. Next season is probably just a wee bit soon for us, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I would love us to be in the Europa League.I've really miseed European competition in the past few seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ_Villain Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 B-Team/ Europa team. Again, since the Europa is our best chance at making the Champions League for the foreseeable future, it should absolutely be our strongest XI every single game of the competition This! Remember the stick MON got for fielding a B-team in Russia... Created a rod for his own back in that instance... Wouldn't be surprised if that was the occasion where a lot of fans lost faith with him Obviously not counting THAT Stoke game and signing Heskey.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 B-Team/ Europa team. Again, since the Europa is our best chance at making the Champions League for the foreseeable future, it should absolutely be our strongest XI every single game of the competition This! Remember the stick MON got for fielding a B-team in Russia... Created a rod for his own back in that instance... Wouldn't be surprised if that was the occasion where a lot of fans lost faith with him Obviously not counting THAT Stoke game and signing Heskey.... If you've read the full post that was part-quoted, you'll see that I was saying that we've got a decent 'B Team' (Kozak, Helenius, Sylla, Gardner, Bennett, Given etc). Incomparable the to team of 17/18 year olds that O'Neill fielded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 What is this thread about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysAVFC Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Then we forego the domestic cups and it all balances out It doesn't really work like that does it though? It's not so much just the extra games, it's the Thursday-sunday games which are the main impact on league form. I'm in favour of giving the Europa a go but purely because I love away trips abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gillz Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 League form may dip but for me you can't put a price on European Football. Away trips around Europe and midweek home fixtures under the lights. There's nothing better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 the dip in form after a europa league game is bollocks IMO ready made excuse that everyone happily buys in to, its only us that dont see the europa league as a good competition, the portuguese, russian, italians, spanish all take it seriously, sevilla are 5th in the league, napoli 4th, fiorentina 5th, dnipro 3rd, so its not impacting them agree with gillz, sat here now id aim to do all 3 of the group away games or 1 if it was in eastern europe bandit country, it would be great for the fans then you add in that it would be great for keeping the current squad together, and then great for attracting new players, and then as others have mentioned its the best chance we'll get of CL football Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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