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Cann we?

Well, that's 5th place done and dusted. City and Pool really fudged our coefficient. United and Saudi Sportswashing Machine not even managing to drop into the EL didn't help either.

Mathematically there's still a chance, but that would require Villa to win both games of their SF tie and the final and for Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen to all lose both their SF games (a draw in any of their games seals 5th for them). In other words, fat chance.

EDIT: I missed one point from the German teams in my original calculation, so it is actually mathematically impossible to finish 2nd in the coefficient. Germany gets the 5th CL spot after today's games.
 
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It looks like will can get a max of 18.250..with Villa winning all their games and the tournament.

If that happens, German teams need 2 wins or 1win and 2 draws to remain above us.

So slim.
 
alekaras said:
I'm not excited about playing in a B competition, but it would help with developing the youth and giving game time to some of the more fringe players. From a practical point of view, that is the only reason why I would be fine with EL.

That being said, it is very important for us to finish the season as strongly as we started it, even if it doesn't result in CL, because that will give any potential transfer target the warm and fuzzies that we are going in the right direction.
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Most important is to get European football next year.
If Ange is to rebuild and reshape the squad and the team's mentality, then having a first European season in Europa rather than CL is a good on-ramp to cope with the extra fixtures and allow more distribution of fixtures around the squad.
With this new Swiss League system and no CL teams dropping down part-way through, we would surely be in with a very high chance of winning the thing if focus is maintained.
In the last ten years, the final of the Europa has almost always featured at least one side that dropped down from the CL.
 
JerusalemMan said:
Most important is to get European football next year.
If Ange is to rebuild and reshape the squad and the team's mentality, then having a first European season in Europa rather than CL is a good on-ramp to cope with the extra fixtures and allow more distribution of fixtures around the squad.
With this new Swiss League system and no CL teams dropping down part-way through, we would surely be in with a very high chance of winning the thing if focus is maintained.
In the last ten years, the final of the Europa has almost always featured at least one side that dropped down from the CL.
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And a lot of English teams; Arsenal, Chelsea, United twice, Liverpool.
 
JerusalemMan said:
Most important is to get European football next year.
If Ange is to rebuild and reshape the squad and the team's mentality, then having a first European season in Europa rather than CL is a good on-ramp to cope with the extra fixtures and allow more distribution of fixtures around the squad.
With this new Swiss League system and no CL teams dropping down part-way through, we would surely be in with a very high chance of winning the thing if focus is maintained.
In the last ten years, the final of the Europa has almost always featured at least one side that dropped down from the CL.
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One win guaranteed is European football I believe because some of the teams below play each other
 
Lilbaz said:
People just trying to make excuses and reasons for not being in it. To protect themselves from the hurt of not being in it.

Not being in the cl should hurt. It should be a tragedy. Doesn't mean we should lash out at the players/manager/owner. But it's not where we want to be. We want to be in the top competitions challenging. Then winning them.

No we're not there yet. But we can get there.

If we don't get cl. Villa does. That gives them a huge financial boost that they'll use to strengthen. Basically we'd be losing £100m in revenue (matchday included) and giving it to them. How can that be a good thing?
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The top end of the PL (CL places) is really competitive atm and will be so for the foreseeable, only City are likely to avoid the yearly merry-go-round of teams dropping in and out so missing out and 'only' qualifying for the EL shouldn't really carry the stigma of past years where, say, only 4 or 5 clubs in with a shout of top 4
 
billyiddo said:
The top end of the PL (CL places) is really competitive atm and will be so for the foreseeable, only City are likely to avoid the yearly merry-go-round of teams dropping in and out so missing out and 'only' qualifying for the EL shouldn't really carry the stigma of past years where, say, only 4 or 5 clubs in with a shout of top 4
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I'm not talking about stigma or being angry.

Do you remember when crouch scored against city to get us in the cl, the feeling you had at that time? I do. It was amazing.

Now we don't get cl it's meh?

Nah sorry. Getting in cl is huge. Trophies are aswell. Not disputing that. But we can't win a trophy now. So all out for a cl place.
 
Getting in for the first time is different though, isn't it? It was also the target we had and were building towards for a good few years beforehand and at that point breaking in to an established top 4 as an outsider was a genuine achievement. At this point CL is a fair target for any one of 6 or 7 teams and so the significance of achieving it naturally lessens
 
billyiddo said:
Getting in for the first time is different though, isn't it? It was also the target we had and were building towards for a good few years beforehand and at that point breaking in to an established top 4 as an outsider was a genuine achievement. At this point CL is a fair target for any one of 6 or 7 teams and so the significance of achieving it naturally lessens
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Not for me. I want more sure. But it's an achievement still.

Others may disagree. That's fine. We have different opinions. I love being in the cl.
 
tommysvr said:
I don't think anyone doesn't love or at least very much enjoy being in the CL, but recognises that where the club is at the moment it's not the be-all-end-all that it was even 2 years ago when we beat Arsenal.
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Exactly, not seen anyone complain if we were to get CL. But all this worrying about does 5th place get CL, if you're coming 5th when you've had literally no other cup competitions to focus on all year then you really aren't CL ready anyway.

Have seen some fantastic ties and atmospheres in the Europa League knockout stages, and after a season of having no Europe at all I would certainly embrace it....
 
Lilbaz said:
Not for me. I want more sure. But it's an achievement still.

Others may disagree. That's fine. We have different opinions. I love being in the cl.
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I’d rather be in it than not, it’s just not the same as when we have qualified for it before. We’ve done it multiple times so it’s not unknown territory for us. I’ll be pleased if we are in it but it won’t give me the same joy it did when we first qualified for it when it genuinely felt like we had won something. I’d swap CL for a trophy tbh.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I’d rather be in it than not, it’s just not the same as when we have qualified for it before. We’ve done it multiple times so it’s not unknown territory for us. I’ll be pleased if we are in it but it won’t give me the same joy it did when we first qualified for it when it genuinely felt like we had won something. I’d swap CL for a trophy tbh.
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Win el and it's the trophy we crave and CL qualification for the next season.
 
Lilbaz said:
Not for me. I want more sure. But it's an achievement still.

Others may disagree. That's fine. We have different opinions. I love being in the cl.
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Strange how winning a second or third rate trophy like the League Cup or the Conference Tin Pot is somehow celebrated more than achieving qualification for the CL.

How many games does it take to win the LC, five? And whilst the Conference Tin Pot may require more games, you only qualify by finishing 7th in the PL, so it's not even open to the top 30 or 40 teams in Europe. It's just a joke.
 
Spur of the moment said:
Strange how winning a second or third rate trophy like the League Cup or the Conference Tin Pot is somehow celebrated more than achieving qualification for the CL.

How many games does it take to win the LC, five? And whilst the Conference Tin Pot may require more games, you only qualify by finishing 7th in the PL, so it's not even open to the top 30 or 40 teams in Europe. It's just a joke.
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I’m convinced this kind of attitude (I’ve dismissed tournaments like the EL and ECL in the past too) has contributed to our lack of silverware in the last 15 years. I can’t think of any other English club whether they’re bigger than us or smaller that look down on every competition that isn’t the PL or CL like we do. Every other team plays to win when they are in Europe and are delighted when they do. And it’s a bit rich for us to look down our nose at tournaments we have failed to win. Would be somewhat more understandable coming from a Emirates Marketing Project fan as they expect to be in the CL every season so being in anything other than that would represent failure. I wonder if our fans had a similar view on the cup winners cup and the old version of the UEFA cup back in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Just qualifying for the CL really isn’t anything to crow about anymore. I totally got it when we did it in 2010 as it was unknown territory for the club back then, the modern iteration of the European cup/CL anyway.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I’m convinced this kind of attitude (I’ve dismissed tournaments like the EL and ECL in the past too) has contributed to our lack of silverware in the last 15 years. I can’t think of any other English club whether they’re bigger than us or smaller that look down on every competition that isn’t the PL or CL like we do. Every other team plays to win when they are in Europe and are delighted when they do. And it’s a bit rich for us to look down our nose at tournaments we have failed to win. Would be somewhat more understandable coming from a Emirates Marketing Project fan as they expect to be in the CL every season so being in anything other than that would represent failure. I wonder if our fans had a similar view on the cup winners cup and the old version of the UEFA cup back in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Just qualifying for the CL really isn’t anything to crow about anymore. I totally got it when we did it in 2010 as it was unknown territory for the club back then, the modern iteration of the European cup/CL anyway.
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Problem is the term silverware elevates tin-pot trophies like the LC and the ECL with winning the CL and PL. There needs to be some acceptance along the line that these are comparatively second or third rate trophies, in the same way as we all acknowledge that winning the Championship is not on a par with winning the PL.

The over-valuation of second-rate trophies is laughable. You cannot win the ECL by finishing as runner-up in the PL but you can if you finish seventh. It's nonsensical.
 
Spur of the moment said:
Problem is the term silverware elevates tin-pot trophies like the LC and the ECL with winning the CL and PL. There needs to be some acceptance along the line that these are comparatively second or third rate trophies, in the same way as we all acknowledge that winning the Championship is not on a par with winning the PL.

The over-valuation of second-rate trophies is laughable. You cannot win the ECL by finishing as runner-up in the PL but you can if you finish seventh. It's nonsensical.
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To be pedantic you could (although not from next season). Finish 3rd in your cl group and drop down. Although that is a bit cringe. Glad it will change.
 
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