Popular Post Captain_Townsend Posted March 2 Popular Post Share Posted March 2 (edited) The Conference League would be a big win for us. For a start, to qualify, you have to have been a top 7 side the season before. And, winning trophies can become a habit (a habit we have lost, losing 4 finals in a row since 2000). And it is a European trophy. I Don't get the disrespect for the competition? I get it. The FA Cup and the League Cup have more history and prestige.We almost fluked our way to an FA Cup in 2015 with one if the worst squads of our PL era, we scraped 37 league points in 14-15! I think we should be going to win the Conference league and finish top 4 and we can do both, no question. Edited March 2 by Captain_Townsend 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulberto21 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 On 25/02/2024 at 14:38, Tomaszk said: John McGinn will dump him on his arse. I now have visions of McGinn doing a Rikishi style stink face on him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattVillaPortsmouth Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Best thing about next week is both spurs can’t go ahead of us and we have been generally V good at putting it right next game if it goes wrong - So if we lose I don’t think all is lost, but if we win I really wouldn’t bet against us, don’t see them having the same resilience. A draw maintains the status quou. On the field it’s a great time (not the best yet) time to be a Villa fan. Success breeds success and momentum is everything, so yeah a ECL win for me and 4th go hand in hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulberto21 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 15 minutes ago, DJBOB said: The magic number turns to 5 wins now. Can’t shake the feeling that it might go all the way down to Palace away on the last day. The more games Pau plays the higher the probability that we win those imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyjavfc Posted March 2 VT Supporter Share Posted March 2 7 minutes ago, viivvaa66 said: Yes, that is obvious based on the league position for the teams that qualify compared to CL and EL. If we win the Conference League, fans will party, there will be an open double decker bus parade in Birmingham, we get a trophy, everybody will be happy. If we qualify for CL, we get more money and can attract better players, but there will be no party, because it is pathetic to celebrate being 4th. But I would take CL over winning Conference League, because most likely we would keep our players and can get some even better ones. To what end though? We are not winning the league or Champions leagues anytime soon. We can win the Conference League THIS SEASON so we should probably jump on that. Ask Newcastle fans if they would swap their disaster CL ‘run’ for a ECL final and trophy - I think most would. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted March 2 VT Supporter Share Posted March 2 (edited) 47 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I’m probably in the minority but I’m struggling to get excited by the Ajax games because I’m so nervous about the spurs and West Ham games. I want to see us in the Champions League just once in my life time. I understand, but I'm determined to enjoy the whole meal, even the Dutch bits, every last crumb. This has been such a great experience this year on so many levels. What a win today, too. Just taking it all in. Edited March 2 by Marka Ragnos 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Last season, we finished 7th with a points total of 61 points. With 11 games remaining this season, we're already on 55 points. Incredible effort. You'd imagine 6 more wins get us CL football next season. Not easy - and we have some tough games left - but very doable. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 3 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said: I understand, but I'm determined to enjoy the whole meal, even the Dutch bits, every last crumb. This has been such a great experience this year on so many levels. May as well enjoy more than a meal If we’re going Dutch! It’s gonna be a tough one to get this balance right for Spurs game. I’m expecting wholesale changes and then typical back lash if we lose the first leg. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Bear Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 43 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: It does kind of feel like a competition mainly for teams that would never have a chance of making Europe without it or have struggled in recent years. I didn’t think for a second we could get top 4 so was all for winning this. Now it feels like a distraction. Let’s see what team Emery goes with. Maybe I'm crazy but I'd rather win a trophy than get top 4. Winning the CL is something we will remember forever. We could exit the CL group stage with a whimper like Newcastle did this season and then be stuck down in 8th with no chance of requalifying. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post R.Bear Posted March 2 Popular Post Share Posted March 2 51 minutes ago, Pinebro said: It's at third rate competition though Well if you're Man City then yes. We're Aston Villa. For a lot of the last 20 years, we've been a third rate Premier League side and even a third rate Championship side. We havent won anything for 28 years. We've only won two League Cups in the last 42 years. You're either trolling, incredibly arrogant or are one of those Premier League fans from far away lands who "support" us in name only or when we're doing well. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 7 minutes ago, R.Bear said: Maybe I'm crazy but I'd rather win a trophy than get top 4. Winning the CL is something we will remember forever. We could exit the CL group stage with a whimper like Newcastle did this season and then be stuck down in 8th with no chance of requalifying. I don’t think you’re crazy at all mate and I reckon a lot of fans will agree with you. Totally understand why. I just feel it’s a lot harder to get top 4 than win conference league so who knows when we get this close again. Plus the financial rewards could really help us push on and establish us as one of the top clubs again. Conference league will be amazing for the moment but champions league could make us stronger for years. Its a tricky one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 4 minutes ago, R.Bear said: Well if you're Man City then yes. We're Aston Villa. For a lot of the last 20 years, we've been a third rate Premier League side and even a third rate Championship side. We havent won anything for 28 years. We've only won two League Cups in the last 42 years. You're either trolling, incredibly arrogant or are one of those Premier League fans from far away lands who "support" us in name only or when we're doing well. Or it’s someone who is really really old and can only remember the days when Villa were apparently one of the biggest teams in the world. Of course 90% of Villa fans have never seen that Villa so for us a cup, any cup, even a Carabao cup would be the biggest thing we’ll have ever seen. A ‘third-rate’ European trophy is like dream-land for most of us. Even just being in Europe is something a lot of Villa fans have barely experienced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, Xela said: Of course it would. Winning the play-off final meant the world to the players/fans a few years back. It was critical for what we needed but there was no trophy parade was there.....Would've been very small time. Personally in what is realistic to win nowadays I'd rank these in order: 1. FA cup....simply the ultimate and would be a huge achievement for any squad and manager given how abysmal our record in that competition has been for decades. Any Villa fan coming up to 70 now has seen us win the lot apart from the FA cup. 2. Europa League. Unai's speciality and we'd have to beat some pretty good teams to win it. Also has direct CL entry so would be very useful in coming seasons when we're not in contention in the league. 3. Historically a very important competition for us. Winners only get Europa Conference spot now so probably knocked a little. 4. Europa Conference. The one we're currently in. Would be lovely to win of course but one we continue improving that would be forgotten reasonably quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, holteend1982 said: Completely agree. I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago and one of the comments was about we shouldn't have a parade if we did win the conference league, couldn't belive what I was hearing, we've not won anything in nearly 30 years I don't understand why we wouldn't want to enjoy that achievement. Which one? I need to add it to my banned list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrchnry Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: It was critical for what we needed but there was no trophy parade was there.....Would've been very small time. Personally in what is realistic to win nowadays I'd rank these in order: 1. FA cup....simply the ultimate and would be a huge achievement for any squad and manager given how abysmal our record in that competition has been for decades. Any Villa fan coming up to 70 now has seen us win the lot apart from the FA cup. 2. Europa League. Unai's speciality and we'd have to beat some pretty good teams to win it. Also has direct CL entry so would be very useful in coming seasons when we're not in contention in the league. 3. Historically a very important competition for us. Winners only get Europa Conference spot now so probably knocked a little. 4. Europa Conference. The one we're currently in. Would be lovely to win of course but one we continue improving that would be forgotten reasonably quickly. I can't imagine there would be a trophy parade now tbh. Can't see the council forking out a single penny to make it happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Just now, mrchnry said: I can't imagine there would be a trophy parade now tbh. Can't see the council forking out a single penny to make it happen. Just hold it at VP. Mind you Heck would probably charge about 40 quid for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 If we beat Spurs next week we will be very strong favourites for 4th or higher, and we should have buried Manure with that. If we lose or draw, it will be a very squeaky bum run in, but we should still get 4th / 5th = probably CL next season. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 27 minutes ago, KentVillan said: If we beat Spurs next week we will be very strong favourites for 4th or higher, and we should have buried Manure with that. If we lose or draw, it will be a very squeaky bum run in, but we should still get 4th / 5th = probably CL next season. A draw would be fine. Obviously won't be as comfortable as a win but it will still leave us in a very good position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 (edited) 48 minutes ago, Mantis said: A draw would be fine. Obviously won't be as comfortable as a win but it will still leave us in a very good position. Probably yes, although that would leave us 5 pts ahead (with an extra game played) with the run ins looking like this: Villa: West Ham (A), Wolves (H), Man City (A), Brentford (H), Arsenal (A), Bournemouth (H), Chelsea (H), Brighton (A), Liverpool (H), Palace (A) Spurs: Fulham (A), Luton (H), West Ham (A), Forest (H), Newcastle (A), Man City (H), Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A), Burnley (H), Shef Utd (A), Chelsea (A) Have highlighted the "Sky 7" (inc Newcastle) in red. I think Spurs have easier fixtures from the other games - Luton H, Forest H, Burnley H, Shef Utd A are the 4 relegation battlers. We could really do with Spurs dropping points against Fulham or West Ham, who should be well up for it in London derbies. IMO it'll go right down to the wire. Main thing is we both need to keep Man Utd out of the mix. Edit: added in the postponed Chelsea A game for Spurs, thanks @WHY Edited March 3 by KentVillan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 2 minutes ago, KentVillan said: Probably yes, although that would leave us 2 pts ahead with the run ins looking like this: Villa: West Ham (A), Wolves (H), Man City (A), Brentford (H), Arsenal (A), Bournemouth (H), Chelsea (H), Brighton (A), Liverpool (H), Palace (A) Spurs: Fulham (A), Luton (H), West Ham (A), Forest (H), Newcastle (A), Man City (H), Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A), Burnley (H), Shef Utd (A) Have highlighted the "Sky 7" (inc Newcastle) in red. Both of us have 4 fixtures against the Sky sides, although I think our Chelsea home game is a better bet than Spurs' Newcastle away game. I think Spurs have easier fixtures from the other games - Luton H, Forest H, Burnley H, Shef Utd A are the 4 relegation battlers. We could really do with Spurs dropping points against Fulham or West Ham, who should be well up for it in London derbies. IMO it'll go right down to the wire. Main thing is we both need to keep Man Utd out of the mix. We need to put Wolves away. If we can do that, expected wins against BOU and Brentford, we have to cobble 6 points in 7 other matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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