The Europa League - it's fackin boring!

[90sSpursBook]

There have been thousands of arguments about the worth of the Europa league and how important it should be but the fact of the matter is that it produces the most tedious of matches and I will never pay to watch another qualifying or group game ever again.

When was the last time anyone actually enjoyed watching a group game? Home or away whether we win or not the excitement factor is zero and the away matches are even worse.

I defy anybody to name a Europa group game they found enjoyable....

 

[Nigeyman]

I thought that was a really good game tbh.

It would be easy to rectify, knockout tournament and no champs league dropouts.

 

[scaramanga]

There have been thousands of arguments about the worth of the Europa league and how important it should be but the fact of the matter is that it produces the most tedious of matches and I will never pay to watch another qualifying or group game ever again.

When was the last time anyone actually enjoyed watching a group game? Home or away whether we win or not the excitement factor is zero and the away matches are even worse.

I defy anybody to name a Europa group game they found enjoyable....

Yep, I'm about as enthusiastic about the matches as our players clearly are.

Even if we were to magic up a decent game from somewhere, the ref would just ruin it.

 

[lurker of old]

If you were neutral, that was a cracking game. Problem is i'm not and spent the evening swearing at the TV. Chiriches, Townsend - horrid horrid horrid. Can't believe i liked the look of Chiriches when we bought him....ouch! Guy is a horror show. Townsend actually did a couple of decent things tonight, but how many daft ones? And Bentaleb went backwards massively. We should have scored 3 at least, and they should have scored 3 as well.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I love it.

Really intriguing cerebral football and proper glory glory night atmospheres at the Lane.

 

[Jordinho]

There have been thousands of arguments about the worth of the Europa league and how important it should be but the fact of the matter is that it produces the most tedious of matches and I will never pay to watch another qualifying or group game ever again.

When was the last time anyone actually enjoyed watching a group game? Home or away whether we win or not the excitement factor is zero and the away matches are even worse.

I defy anybody to name a Europa group game they found enjoyable....

Besiktas 0-2 Tottenham in 2006 just off the top of my head for no particular reason :-"


If you don't like it, don't watch it, but I think it makes a nuce change from watching us get beat by the same PL dross time and again.

 

[LCLC]

It's not the competition, it's just that as a team we are dull as dishwater now. Taken pace and basic footballing Ability out of the side and replaced it with athleticsm.... Well supposedly so anyway.

Come up against a decent team and we look like we could get done by 3 or 4

 

[Rorschach]

It might not be beautiful but it's far from boring.

 

[glasgowspur]

It was a good game, frustrating yes and watch through your fingers sometimes yes but good none the less


Sitting on my porcelain throne using Fapatalk

 

[jimmyb]

I love it.

Really intriguing cerebral football and proper glory glory night atmospheres at the Lane.

I was busy so couldn't go to tonight's game or watch on TV.

Was there a decent atmosphere? Or was it horribly one sided, with Besiktas making all the noise while our lot were embarrassingly quiet?

Also, for anyone who was there, were there many Besiktas in among the Spurs fans? Any trouble?

 

[the dza]

I like it. I'd love us to win it (I don't think we are good enough, but we should try).

 

[Gutter Boy]

I was busy so couldn't go to tonight's game or watch on TV.

Was there a decent atmosphere? Or was it horribly one sided, with Besiktas making all the noise while our lot were embarrassingly quiet?

Also, for anyone who was there, were there many Besiktas in among the Spurs fans? Any trouble?

I wasn't there tonight, but the home support for UEFA games are almost always 10 times the atmosphere of league games.

1882 tend to get in Park Lane lower and the general sale brings in people who are actually pleased to be there.

I can't imagine there was much trouble. Besiktas are quite a civilised club and a lot of their fans will be locals anyway.

 

[Gutter Boy]

It would be easy to rectify, knockout tournament and no champs league dropouts.

Definitely this.

I still much prefer it to CL though. It's just old-fashioned decent contests, without all the hollow hype.

Besiktas 0-2 Tottenham in 2006 just off the top of my head for no particular reason :-"

Was that the one where they applauded us off at the end? That was the night it felt like we were properly back in Europe, for the first time since the 1991-2 run.

 

[Didn'tMindGraham]

I was busy so couldn't go to tonight's game or watch on TV.

Was there a decent atmosphere? Or was it horribly one sided, with Besiktas making all the noise while our lot were embarrassingly quiet?

Also, for anyone who was there, were there many Besiktas in among the Spurs fans? Any trouble?

It certainly wasn't a great European atmosphere from out pov. Besiktas fans did their best tbf, but our fans seem utterly fed up already.

There was a smattering of Besiktas fans in the Spurs fans; bold - or stupid - enough to identify themselves when they scored but no trouble at all that I saw.

To be frank, I don't think anyone cared enough to start kicking off :-/

 

[Yiddo]

It's only boring because you are watching Spurs play. We are a very boring side 80% of the time.

 

[billyiddo]

Really need to make it an unseeded knockout competition from the beginning. I don't think the monetry reward for taking part atm is even big enough for teams to oppose such a revamp

 

[milo]

Really need to make it an unseeded knockout competition from the beginning. I don't think the monetry reward for taking part atm is even big enough for teams to oppose such a revamp

I agree. They either need to do this or merge it with the Champions League and be done with it.

 

[Sandman]

Its boring at the moment because we are putting out our B team against Europes not so elite teams. When it gets to the knockout rounds and you get some good ties its good. I thought last years games against Benfica and the round before where good. The thing I will always hate is the Champions league dropout coming in. It just should not happen. They get all the money from the CL and then get to carry on in the EL once they dont make it. Its just all kinds of wrong.

 

[braineclipse]

Its boring at the moment because we are putting out our B team against Europes not so elite teams. When it gets to the knockout rounds and you get some good ties its good. I thought last years games against Benfica and the round before where good. The thing I will always hate is the Champions league dropout coming in. It just should not happen. They get all the money from the CL and then get to carry on in the EL once they dont make it. Its just all kinds of wrong.

Agreed about the group stages. It's essentially about getting through with as little impact on our league form as possible.

Good chance to see some of our younger and less established players if nothing else.

 

[harr1984]

You cant ever expect us to play well if Poch is going to play a completely different XI each time to the first team. It looks like the first team are only just beginning to find their feet with each other now, so you can't ever expect some random XI to function well together.

As for the competition itself like others have alluded to the knockout stages are good. Look at the Benfica tie, that was far from boring....