Europa League 2013/14

[Snarfalicious]

Just use it as a way to bring in the youth and the underutilized senior members. We should have enough quality to do something decent and it will form as a great opportunity to get the young guys some experience on a bigger stage. It could also equate to more desire to win as the young fellas and guys itching for a starting spot in the Starting XI will fight their asses off.

 

[double0]

If the players can't handle playing the likes of the Cypriot cup winners on a Thursday and maintaining a league campaign, how are they supposed to adjust to playing CL midweek matches if we achieve our aims of getting in there again?

What AVB was trying to do this year was get away from the culture of "it's only a Mickey Mouse cup" that Harry had ingrained, that every match is important, and that we want to compete in every trophy we are in. Ultimately the squad was not deep enough this year, but with a few additions and promoting a few more of our talented youth players, we should be able to make it work.

Also, success breeds success, Europa League trophy would be a great springboard for the club as a whole.

I totally agree.

 

[vegassd]

A cup run can always be fluked (Wigan, Portsmouth, Birmingham etc.) so trying to claim that fans of those teams are somehow happier than us is far too short-sighted.

We are going to inevitably lose games, and the problem with the Europa league is that you can bust a gut getting through the groups etc. just to come up against a CL heavyweight or simply have a bad night and go out. It's a hell of a gamble in terms of player fatigue and injury. Think what we might have achieved in the league had we avoided injuries to Bale, Lennon and Dembele that were picked up in the Europa league.

I still want us to compete for both domestic cups because they are far more manageable, but I would not personally be upset if we don't get past the group stages if we are in the Europa league. If we can give some of our fringe/younger players that experience of travelling around Europe together that's brilliant. But I think we need to be smarter with our senior players and prioritise league games over everything else.

Something I would definitely like to see is Lloris play every game (cup and league) so that our defensive unit can focus on playing one style with one keeper.

 

[double0]

As we all know now Football is a global game we have Middle Eastern Russian American billionaires taking over our clubs. The Europa Cup is an important competition much more now than the domestic cups and we have to take the competition seriously.

Suppose we beat Sunderland, Arsenal lose to Newcastle, we then go on to qualify for CL playing Wednesday and Saturday do we compromise on team selection? ie play the kids. Personally the kids/youth development players should be used for the domestic cups, the Europa Cup should be address as if were preparing for CL we need to get used to handling the schedule all the big successful clubs do.

 

[nightgoat]

As always, the Europa League detractors who insist we should all but withdraw from the competition forget (or deliberately ignore) that in several ways a strong Europa League campaign has benefits for future Champions League campaigns.

For a start, if we can't manage a league campaign alongside a prolonged run in the EL, how on earth are we going to do so in the CL where we would be playing on average a higher standard of teams? Again, those who insist we shouldn't bother with the EL because it supposedly makes us lose games in subsequent weekends wouldn't advocate not bothering in the CL to ensure repeated qualification.

Secondly, a good EL run boosts our coefficient ranking which will help us when it comes to CL group draws/qualifying rounds. At the moment we're 24th in the UEFA rankings and if we have a similarly long run in whichever European competition we're in next season we can move up quite a few places, not least as two teams within our reach (Liverpool and Sporting) won't be in Europe next season. If that makes the difference between being in pot three or pot two of the CL group stage draw and avoiding a draw like Shitty got this season, then it seems entirely worth it.

 

[parklane1]

You may take the piss, but may I politely suggest that as a Spurs fan who's club has done the square root of sweet fuck all over the past christ knows how many years, you may want to reflect on the logic of ridiculing Arsenal fans.

So you have not seen the threads on here and elsewere that ridicule the Arse for nor winning anything. Blimey where have you been.

 

[parklane1]

If the players can't handle playing the likes of the Cypriot cup winners on a Thursday and maintaining a league campaign, how are they supposed to adjust to playing CL midweek matches if we achieve our aims of getting in there again?

What AVB was trying to do this year was get away from the culture of "it's only a Mickey Mouse cup" that Harry had ingrained, that every match is important, and that we want to compete in every trophy we are in. Ultimately the squad was not deep enough this year, but with a few additions and promoting a few more of our talented youth players, we should be able to make it work.

Also, success breeds success, Europa League trophy would be a great springboard for the club as a whole.

Indeed.

 

[Marcus_spur]

A cup run can always be fluked (Wigan, Portsmouth, Birmingham etc.) .

Chavs

 

[parklane1]

We already do the same (without the CL football)

So why do some supporters want to follow what Redknapp did and throw a Europeon trophy.

 

[parklane1]

We should be looking to win every competition we take part in. Imagine if it was us taking on Benfica in the final tonight, the atmosphere on here would be electric and i'd have been stupidly excited about watching us in a European cup final. The money might not be as much but that's not the be all and end all.

Indeed the game is about glory not finishing among the runners up.

 

[SteveH]

So you have not seen the threads on here and elsewere that ridicule the Arse for nor winning anything. Blimey where have you been.

Yes I've seen it but I dont agree or see what is wrong with Arsenals record. I would swap with their record in a heartbeat.

 

[SteveH]

Indeed the game is about glory not finishing among the runners up.

Glory can be all too fleeting ask Wigan fans today!

 

[mil1lion]

I think it's vital that we play to win every game. That is the mentality of the very best clubs. No matter who we put out we need to play with the same style and go for it.

 

[King of Otters]

I want to win something. How shit is it watching Swansea, Wigan and probably Chelsea winning trophies this year and is being no where near and still not finishing top 4. We need to win things before we have an arsenal like stat. I want an FA cup or Europa at least.

Spot on. Arsenal's drought has taken the spotlight of us somewhat but our trophy haul from the Prem years is shocking and embarrassing quite frankly.

 

[Shea]

So why do some supporters want to follow what Redknapp did and throw a Europeon trophy.

because we have little chance of actually winning the Europa league yet and fourth and CL football/money is seen as the most viable route to building a team capable of winning major honours

 

[parklane1]

because we have little chance of actually winning the Europa league yet and fourth and CL football/money is seen as the most viable route to building a team capable of winning major honours

Its not helped the Arse much over the last 6/7 years.

 

[parklane1]

Glory can be all too fleeting ask Wigan fans today!

Bad example to be honest.

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

We all know it will be same as the year with AVB.

 

[Shea]

Its not helped the Arse much over the last 6/7 years.

no and it's certainly no guarantee of future success - I never said it was - I simply said it is seen as the most viable route of gaining future success

The fact of the matter is whatever we do there will be pros and cons because we're simply not strong enough to compete on all fronts currently

 

[vegassd]

Its not helped the Arse much over the last 6/7 years.

I think that Arsenal have had the money but not spent it. We simply don't have the money to spend in the first place. They also lost players to the money from Man City where we didn't have any players that they wanted.

It's certainly not about "throwing" the competition either - not from my perspective anyway. Just make the league the absolute top priority, and if that means not playing some of the big names in the Europa league then so be it. The Europa league certainly has it's advantages, but the CL offers those same advantages ten fold so I think it's worth partly sacrificing one to achieve the other.

We are much closer to achieving CL qualification than we are to winning the Europa league, particularly when you consider the luck element involved in a knock-out tournament, so why focus lots of extra effort on the Europa when we could focus a smaller amount of effort on CL qualification for greater gains?