Made In Aston Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 4 hours ago, Pongo's Socks said: Kind of agree, I just think the lure of the champions league might attract more of that type of player. But you're right, we already seem to be attracting quality at the moment Attracting quality players isn't the issue. It's about being able to have enough of them in the squad at one time. Unlike the bigger revenue generating clubs, we are more restricted by FFP, so our squad depth suffers in comparison. CL qualification allows us to significantly improve our squad, which wouldn't have been possible without the extra revenue it brings. A stronger squad means more consistency and ultimately challenging for silverware regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 11 hours ago, Dillon66 said: I'll stay short sighted then and hope for the FA Cup........fortunately I'm a football supporter rather than an accountant, so turning down trophies on the vague premise that coming 4th or 5th in the table keeps the number crunchers happy doesnt appeal to me. But would coming 4th and getting to semi finals and finals on a regular basis appeal to you though?! This is the possibility if we can start to get regular CL football. We have a rare opportunity to actually get back amongst the big clubs in the country and Europe, so to throw that away to get an FA cup win and go back to midtable mediocrity seems a waste. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Rather win a cup and the FA cup would be nice. Winning either one gets us into the Europa League next season and winning that gets us a place in the CL the season after if we can't get it through the league. Obviously I'd be delighted if we finish in the CL places this season. It's just that winning stuff is such a fantastic experience. It's euphoria and you can't replace that by anything (legal). I would wager that our promotion through the play-off was more special than it was for whoever finished 2nd in the Championship that season. So rare these days that teams I support win anything. My local ice hockey team won the title 2 seasons ago and it was absolutely epic with the whole town going nuts. I'll take that any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 50 minutes ago, sne said: So rare these days that teams I support win anything. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 1 minute ago, nick76 said: Fan harder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMitch Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 I've been following football and supporting the Villa since 2006 and in that time I've seen nothing but cup final disappointments. The only trophy I've seen us win was the promotion playoff final and while that is one of the highlights of my fandom, it's not something I want to look back upon as the high point of Aston Villa in 20 years. You get the feeling that under NSWE & Emery, Champions League footy will come to the club at some time in the next few seasons by gravity alone and I've seen too many past Villa managers punt our cup runs to "focus on the league" and have it backfire anyway. Give me a cup win any day over Champions League qualification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 A cup win easily. Europa Conference or the FA Cup would both be amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 4 hours ago, villa4europe said: Would we though? Man city still happily took the likes of sagna, clichy and adebayor from Arsenal Very good point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Cup, nobody remembers who finished fourth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomC Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) I'm going to be overly analytical because that's just how I am sometimes. I think that you have to read the question carefully. It doesn't say anything about future years. No trophies are guaranteed in future years no matter which choice you make, no trophies are excluded in future years no matter which choice you make. Therefore, I don't see this as primarily a delayed gratification problem. We're not talking about current gratification vs. bigger future gratification because the future reward is uncertain either way. I see it as gambling question: Would you rather have one certain trophy in hand plus some chance of winning more in the future, vs. CL qualification which might help us attract (or keep) an extra player or two that gives us a somewhat increased chance of winning in the future, but no trophy in hand? We haven't won the FA Cup since 1957. We haven't won anything since 1996. As others have pointed out, plenty of other clubs have qualified for the CL once or twice and failed to win anything; CL qualification only increases our chances in future years slightly. Therefore, I'd take the certain FA Cup over CL qualification. It means something to me. I think I'd take the CL qualification over the conference trophy not because the underlying logic is any different, but because that trophy doesn't mean as much to me...I would like to win it, of course, but it feels a little more like glorified second-rate pre-season competition. Winning the FA Cup where 8 or 9 quality PL teams are playing is a bigger accomplishment than winning the ECL where probably only Fiorentina is even a semi-glamorous name. Edited December 2, 2023 by TomC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khizzy Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Absolutely has to be Champions League qualification for me. We are good enough to win a cup this season but prioritising the Champions League will make us stronger financially and allow us to compete on another level next season. We don't need to be impatient because we are showing signs of progress already. Let's worry about winning a domestic cup next season when we potentially have a better squad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosopher Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 (edited) BTW winning a cup is far from guaranteed. Regardless of our intent. This hypothetical scenario is complete BS really. There are no guarantees. We just have to fight hard in every competition, and Unai has to manage the squad and game load well. Ultimately the leagues gets prioritised simply because where we finish is what we deserve. It's a fair comparison come the end of the season. We could go out the City in the third round of the FA Cup. It's all about the luck of the draw. Edited December 3, 2023 by Philosopher 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post thunderball Posted December 3, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted December 3, 2023 Champions league qualification, by a street mile. Its progress: ensures better income, allows us to grow our squad, top class games the following season and attracts better players. Its a no brainer for me. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 17 hours ago, KMitch said: I've been following football and supporting the Villa since 2006 and in that time I've seen nothing but cup final disappointments. The only trophy I've seen us win was the promotion playoff final and while that is one of the highlights of my fandom, it's not something I want to look back upon as the high point of Aston Villa in 20 years. You get the feeling that under NSWE & Emery, Champions League footy will come to the club at some time in the next few seasons by gravity alone and I've seen too many past Villa managers punt our cup runs to "focus on the league" and have it backfire anyway. Give me a cup win any day over Champions League qualification. I’ve seen Villa win everything EXCEPT the FA Cup, that’s the one I’d like to see before the wooden overcoat arrives. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meregreen Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 (edited) Some Villa fans have never experienced winning a major Cup. Well in my lifetime we’ve won eight, and I was at six of those. No qualification for a tournament we might, or might not go on to win will ever come close to actually seeing our club lifting silverware. Would just love to parade the FA Cup around the City centre. Doubt the noses would be drinking in town that day Edited December 3, 2023 by meregreen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy7211 Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 CL. Not just for FFP reasons, but more because we'll generate more awareness in USA, Asia, and the Middle East. More eyes on the club hopefully translates to higher revenue streams and sustained success. If it still mattered as much as it did 20 years ago then it'd be the FA cup for sure. The cheapening of the cup competitions is such a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_1874 Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 Gotta say Champions League qualification just for the money & potentially better players it would bring in. Would love to win the FA cup & whilst winning the Conference League would guarantee Europa League qualification the following season, it's all about the money & Champions League is where it's at. Get into the Champions League & then Emery / Monchi can build on that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 No reason why we can't lift the Europa League Trophy this season while also qualifying for next season's CL with our final league position. I'd be happy with that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 FA cup close second. But for thus Club to continue progressing we need to get into the champions league. The conference league would be nice and give us qualification for the europa lesgue but it's not got the status as Fa cup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meregreen Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Jonesy7211 said: CL. Not just for FFP reasons, but more because we'll generate more awareness in USA, Asia, and the Middle East. More eyes on the club hopefully translates to higher revenue streams and sustained success. If it still mattered as much as it did 20 years ago then it'd be the FA cup for sure. The cheapening of the cup competitions is such a shame. The FA Cup is broadcast to more than 100 countries. 500,000,000 people watched the Final in 2023. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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