Europa League Yes or No?

[Chris12]

So what if we ended up getting drawn against Fiorentina? Sooner or later we would come up against a good team. If we weren't good enough to beat them in the first knock-out stage, what makes you think we'd do any better against them in the quarter-finals or semi-finals?

Better chance that as a team started playing better and starting to click in later stages than you were earlier in the season.

But that just hasn't happened for us anyways so we would've lost either

 

[JerryGarcia]

The fair play rule is crap. "Hello, you are the least passionate team in the least passionate league, and so we are going to hand you this golden ticket for a chance to win CL participation"

I think the Soggy Spammers are still in line for a place through fair play, I wouldn't be surprised if they were under orders from the Dildo brothers to avoid any risky tackles.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

I think the Soggy Spammers are still in line for a place through fair play, I wouldn't be surprised if they were under orders from the Dildo brothers to avoid any risky tackles.

I believe there is a chance that some Scandinavian association has surpassed the English FA. Last known list was updated as per 31st of December. Anyhow, from 2016, fair play ranking will not provide access to EL.

 

[Blackrat1299]

I think one of the problems is the travelling. We are on the extreme western side of Europe, then think of the distance to say .....Donestk....its 1923miles, To Istanbul is over 2000 miles, a lot of European teams don't have that extreme travelling problem. Further more if we play on a Thursday why can't we play our league match on the Monday?

 

[spursfan77]

I only want us in it if we do not play the first XI in any group games, but this has to be made abundantly clear to everyone that this is how we are going to treat the competition. Play the rest of the squad and try out a couple of under 21s each game but not a single starting eleven player who is going to play at the weekend can play in the Thursday night game.

Use it to get the rest of the squad stronger and give youngsters some experience.

 

[sparx100]

I would rather be in it than not. We have been starved of European football until recently and to turn our noses up at a chance to cut our teeth in a European competition regardless of the absurdity of the format would be silly.

 

[slartibartfast]

I do worry about the level of complacency within SC concerning the perceived weakness of the teams in the group stages of the EL. I fear the "play the youngsters" approach.

Redknapp did that and failed to get out of the group. This year, failure to win the group resulted in us being drawn against Fiorentina, which resulted in .........
If we are in the EL, we should try to win the group. Unless we are very lucky, we won't do this with the youth team.

Yes he did and imo it went some way to helping us get 2 top 4 finishs.
We simply cant fight on both fronts.
End of.
Choose.
I can't believe anyone thinks we can.
Its ridiculous.

 

[Nebby]

We aren't anywhere near good enough to win the title. We are a long way short of being top four. But we could win the Europa league.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

financially, the Europa cup it's worth disproportionately more to the other European clubs than it is to English teams. For us the money from the EPL it's worth far more than anything the Europa can pay, whereas in other European leagues it's proportionally more, which is probably why they take it a lot more seriously.

 

[Romspur 1962]

I voted yes but think its vital that we only play squad players until we get to last 16. Premiership quality squad players should have no problem in getting this far. I wouldn't even take the first team to the away games. After that its 8 additional games for the main players.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

financially, the Europa cup it's worth disproportionately more to the other European clubs than it is to English teams. For us the money from the EPL it's worth far more than anything the Europa can pay, whereas in other European leagues it's proportionally more, which is probably why they take it a lot more seriously.

Prize money alone for reaching the stages we normally do amounts to the salary of one Adebayor. That amount is more than doubled after ticket sales. Adding to that the extra kit sponsorship. The money is more important to clubs from smaller leagues, yes, that doesn't make the income insignificant to us.

 

[piedpiper]

We aren't anywhere near good enough to win the title. We are a long way short of being top four. But we could win the Europa league.

On my last look at the log. We were equal points wise with Liverpool, who are and were fighting for top4. We are 3 wins worse off from Arsenal who i think are second and at this stage and are no more than 8 points ahead of us i think and oh City who we play next are 7 points ahead in 3rd. So we are not along way off from top 4 qualification. We may/will come short but it is within our reach.

I voted no to the EL only on the grounds of its adverse affects after these games. I guess if we played our games on a monday night then it levels the playing fields in terms of rest periods.

 

[Nebby]

On my last look at the log. We were equal points wise with Liverpool, who are and were fighting for top4. We are 3 wins worse off from Arsenal who i think are second and at this stage and are no more than 8 points ahead of us i think and oh City who we play next are 7 points ahead in 3rd. So we are not along way off from top 4 qualification. We may/will come short but it is within our reach.

I voted no to the EL only on the grounds of its adverse affects after these games. I guess if we played our games on a monday night then it levels the playing fields in terms of rest periods.

If you think we are close to Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City, I admire your optimism. Just look at our goal difference compared to any one of them. That tells you how far we are away from being able to mount a serious challenge.

And if we can't manage to compete in the league and the EL, what would be the point of getting into the top four anyway?

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

I don't want to be outside Europa League. Only crap teams are outside Europa League. Even some crap teams are in it, but those not in it are even worse. Spurs is not West Ham or Southampton. Spurs actually make it to Europe, to fight Basel, Benfica & Fiorentina. Sure, sometimes we must also fight Tromsø & Snaskja Slubrustja, but come on, it's a goddamn continental competition!

 

[piedpiper]

If you think we are close to Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City, I admire your optimism. Just look at our goal difference compared to any one of them. That tells you how far we are away from being able to mount a serious challenge.

And if we can't manage to compete in the league and the EL, what would be the point of getting into the top four anyway?

No its not optimism. I too get frustrated that we do not appear to moving forward but when i look atvthe log and it never lies we are closer than many make out. Yes valid point on our goal difference but that is a result of how we are set up at the moment. It is not all doom and gloom as some would make it out.

On EL my gripe is the Thursday game and then having hardly any time to recover before we play on the sunday. It is the single biggest factor keeping us from getting 4th. Cl league playing sides play tuesday/Wednesday and in most instances then play on a sunday.

 

[piedpiper]

If you think we are close to Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City, I admire your optimism. Just look at our goal difference compared to any one of them. That tells you how far we are away from being able to mount a serious challenge.

And if we can't manage to compete in the league and the EL, what would be the point of getting into the top four anyway?

No its not optimism. I too get frustrated that we do not appear to moving forward but when i look atvthe log and it never lies we are closer than many make out. Yes valid point on our goal difference but that is a result of how we are set up at the moment. It is not all doom and gloom as some would make it out.

On EL my gripe is the Thursday game and then having hardly any time to recover before we play on the sunday. It is the single biggest factor keeping us from getting 4th. Cl league playing sides play tuesday/Wednesday and in most instances then play on a sunday.

 

[Sarsipius]

We're going to be MUCH better next season once we've cleared the deadwood and brought in a few extra players who will work under Pochettino's style.

It took us half the season just to work out who was going to perform for Poch and who wasn't.

What with the youth players coming up and the players we'll bring in the extra games shouldn't hurt us and we need to stay familiar with the difference in style between EPL and European football as well as getting used to the demands of travel and midweek games if we're expecting to qualify for CL anytime soon. Plus as the winner you get CL qualification. It's really a no brainer.

If anything it's the domestic cup competitions we should demote in terms of priorities. They're fun but ultimately serve less purpose that the EPL AND EL.

 

[Jimmypearce7]

I want to be in it because i want us to finish 5th- it would probably be hard for us not to qualify- but i dont want any first team players ie who will be in the team for the next PL game to travel to any away fixture. It is ludicrous to keep handicapping ourselves in the race for the top 4.

 

[TheHoddleWaddle]

I tend to think of the EL as the perfect opportunity to develop peripheral players. With a squad the size of ours, the more competitions the better. It just needs man managing better in terms of the squad. There were a few occasions this season that I thought the likes of Verts' / Chadli should have been rested. As mentioned above, there is no point taking first team players to games like Tripolis. Use them later in the competition when there is a good chance of winning it. It is important if the squad have CL ambitions. They need to play against European sides to get used to varying styles, tactics (dirty and otherwise).

 

[bubble07]

I wouldn't be against 1 season without Europa just so I can stop deluding myself that if we wasn't in it we would be challenging for the title