• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

The glorious march to CL qualification

Hootnow said:
:D Jesus christ, I've never heard a bunch of fans moan and complain about a competition (especially one that while slightly changed, is a huge part of our history) as much as Spurs fans do about the UEFA/Europa league.

It has one extra round. You play a few more teams in the East and South of Europe. You make less money. At the end, you have a trophy and now direct entry into the CL (and actually, if you win, you still make a very sizeable amount).

The odds aren't really stacked against you, Man Utd and Chelsea have both won it in the last 6 years, Liverpool reached the final and both Arsenal and Chelsea in the semis currently and looking very good bets to both get into the final, while both still competing for top 4.
Click to expand...

Amen to that. Sadly so many of our fans think its below us to try and win the trophy.
 
I had earlier stated my preference for both Chelsea and Arsenal to miss CL, leaving Spurs as the only London club - again - in it.

But it might better serve our purposes if Chelsea got in with ManU and Arsenal out. Chelsea will definitely struggle to remain competitive during the transfer ban, especially if Hazard leaves, and as others mention, their whole existence is becoming wobbly with Abramovich in exile and their stadium project on shaky ground. That would leave us as the most attractive option in London - and lookin' purtier all the time - while Arsenal have their misery compounded with yet another season of Thursday night glamour.
 
Hootnow said:
:D Jesus christ, I've never heard a bunch of fans moan and complain about a competition (especially one that while slightly changed, is a huge part of our history) as much as Spurs fans do about the UEFA/Europa league.

It has one extra round. You play a few more teams in the East and South of Europe. You make less money. At the end, you have a trophy and now direct entry into the CL (and actually, if you win, you still make a very sizeable amount).

The odds aren't really stacked against you, Man Utd and Chelsea have both won it in the last 6 years, Liverpool reached the final and both Arsenal and Chelsea in the semis currently and looking very good bets to both get into the final, while both still competing for top 4.
Click to expand...

Games in the arctic circle.
Games nearer China than home.
Games on artifical pitches, farmers fields and quagmires.
Games against teams that will simply kick you off the pitch rather than play football.
A bricky schedule with which the league offers not help.
And then after Christmas when you are already exhausted by it all, you get much better teams drop in from the CL honey pot.

Its a terrible competition, that offers nothing to 99% of the teams that compete other than a thankless marathon that will impact upon domestic form.

For the winner, yes - great (although immediately forgotten), for everyone else? Its a burden.

Its a perfect format for holding teams down.
 
milo said:
I'm quite disparaging of the competition structure but if we were in it, I would want us to win it, as I do all competitions. I wouldn't want us to prioritise it over the Premier League though.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but i have met a lot of fans on my travels who have said that the do not want to be in it and have said when we were in it that we should throw it. I will never understand that view.
 
I must be in the minority, but I'd rather we won the Europa than the League Cup. For a team at our level, the early round should be a formality, or at least a chance to blood some kids and new signings (!). That said, I agree that it's a nightmare in terms of PL success. Playing Thursday-Sunday with those long away trips is far from ideal.

The thing is, there's a reason for it all. Thursday games? Well, CL has Tuesday and Wednesday sewn up and the TV money has to come from _somewhere_. 3rd placed CL teams parachuting in? A huge annoyance if you're trying to finish top 4 in the Prem, but what if you're FC Goatfarmer from Azerbaijan, all but guaranteed to win your league again, so reaching the latter stages of the Europa becomes the best showcase you can hope for.

Whatever. I still think that reaching the SFs of the CL sprinkles far more stardust on Spurs than winning the Europa. The QFs too...maybe.
 
Some interesting points about what's happening with the Top 6 at the moment. There's a HUGE gap between 6th and 7th, in so many ways. So there isn't a club trying to muscle in on the Top 6. Is it likely to become a Top 5 if Chelsea or Arsenal start to drift? Perhaps one or both of them will form a little mini-league with Everton, much like we did for so long.

I'd rather see ManU finish 4th, as they aren't going anywhere. Chelsea or Arsenal could look like a sinking ship in just a year or two, but I can't see that happening with ManU for a few seasons. All three teams need serious rebuilding and it'll be a while before players stop looking at ManU as a glamour club. The other two, not so much.
 
FatBloke said:
I must be in the minority, but I'd rather we won the Europa than the League Cup. For a team at our level, the early round should be a formality, or at least a chance to blood some kids and new signings (!). That said, I agree that it's a nightmare in terms of PL success. Playing Thursday-Sunday with those long away trips is far from ideal.

The thing is, there's a reason for it all. Thursday games? Well, CL has Tuesday and Wednesday sewn up and the TV money has to come from _somewhere_. 3rd placed CL teams parachuting in? A huge annoyance if you're trying to finish top 4 in the Prem, but what if you're FC Goatfarmer from Azerbaijan, all but guaranteed to win your league again, so reaching the latter stages of the Europa becomes the best showcase you can hope for.

Whatever. I still think that reaching the SFs of the CL sprinkles far more stardust on Spurs than winning the Europa. The QFs too...maybe.
Click to expand...

I'd rather win the Europa than either domestic cup, both of those have been devalued massively.
 
milo said:
I'd rather win the Europa than either domestic cup, both of those have been devalued massively.
Click to expand...
I almost wrote that, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. We've just got too much history with the FA Cup.

I really hope Watford can manage an upset, but it looks like being just another part of Emirates Marketing Project's domestic treble. And if they don't win the league, it'll be looked upon as a consolation prize.
 
scaramanga said:
I'm no fan of the competition but I'd still want us to win it if UEFA structured it properly.

Much like we don't play in ploughed fields against a bunch of manual labourers in the first round of the FA Cup, we should start the UEFA seeded into the quarter finals. Then I'd be behind it.
Click to expand...
Playing devil's advocate, isn't that what they do already with the CL dropouts? IIRC it's 24 teams from the Europa group stage plus 8 CL 3rd placers. 48 teams are in the group stage.

So say the top 8 seeded teams go through to the last 32 -- realistically they'd be from the English, German and Spanish leagues, plus whichever Italian giant's having an off season. With the CL dropouts, that's 16 teams from the group stage -- which, with 8 groups of 4, means a total of 40 teams involved (32 group stage + 8 seeds). Or it could be 14 groups of 3 (50 teams total) with 12 winners and the best 4 runners up.

Or something like that. Whatever happens, it's feasible.

However you look at it though, it means that the lesser league teams (FC Goatfarmer, I'm looking at you) get fewer "big European matches" against teams they might actually have heard of. Those teams want to play against Inter, or Chelsea, or Valencia. It's them and their fans who'd lose out if FA Cup style seeding was introduced. Which would be sad.
 
FatBloke said:
Playing devil's advocate, isn't that what they do already with the CL dropouts? IIRC it's 24 teams from the Europa group stage plus 8 CL 3rd placers. 48 teams are in the group stage.

So say the top 8 seeded teams go through to the last 32 -- realistically they'd be from the English, German and Spanish leagues, plus whichever Italian giant's having an off season. With the CL dropouts, that's 16 teams from the group stage -- which, with 8 groups of 4, means a total of 40 teams involved (32 group stage + 8 seeds). Or it could be 14 groups of 3 (50 teams total) with 12 winners and the best 4 runners up.

Or something like that. Whatever happens, it's feasible.

However you look at it though, it means that the lesser league teams (FC Goatfarmer, I'm looking at you) get fewer "big European matches" against teams they might actually have heard of. Those teams want to play against Inter, or Chelsea, or Valencia. It's them and their fans who'd lose out if FA Cup style seeding was introduced. Which would be sad.
Click to expand...

It's weighted against them getting out of the group stages though. A straight knock out competition, with no CL dropouts, would be a big improvement on the current format.
 
milo said:
I'd rather win the Europa than either domestic cup, both of those have been devalued massively.
Click to expand...
I’m too young to remember us winning the UEFA Cup in ‘84 and wasn’t alive when we picked up our previous European trophies but I assume that even back then they were considered more glorious an achievement than the FA Cup?

Nowadays there’s absolutely no comparison, as you say, though and I hope that Pochettino seals his place in our hall of fame alongside Nicholson and Burkinshaw as the only Tottenham managers to lead us to European silverware...

265E2FDC-1948-499D-A791-D001268F7021.jpeg 0ED200FA-33D8-49BB-BE25-AB028E3B3AA1.jpeg 2C76BC10-98C9-40CC-B5AF-69397A06E0F8.jpeg
 
SteveAWOL said:
I’m too young to remember us winning the UEFA Cup in ‘84 and wasn’t alive when we picked up our previous European trophies but I assume that even back then they were considered more glorious an achievement than the FA Cup?

Nowadays there’s absolutely no comparison, as you say, though and I hope that Pochettino seals his place in our hall of fame alongside Nicholson and Burkinshaw as the only Tottenham managers to lead us to European silverware...

View attachment 6520 View attachment 6521 View attachment 6522
Click to expand...

The UEFA Cup/Europa League is a massively devalued competition since we last won it too. Multiple teams from the major leagues qualifying for the CL has made it a competition for the also-rans.
 
SteveAWOL said:
I’m too young to remember us winning the UEFA Cup in ‘84 and wasn’t alive when we picked up our previous European trophies but I assume that even back then they were considered more glorious an achievement than the FA Cup?

Nowadays there’s absolutely no comparison, as you say, though and I hope that Pochettino seals his place in our hall of fame alongside Nicholson and Burkinshaw as the only Tottenham managers to lead us to European silverware...

View attachment 6520 View attachment 6521 View attachment 6522
Click to expand...

Best sporting night of my life, 15 and home alone for the night with spurs on the TV (was a rarity back then) was absolutely buzzing for days after it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back