Teams make deep CL runs and still finish in the top four, if you are worthy of a CL spot you can handle the fixture list. If you are trying to make the CL playing minimum amount of games while your direct competitor is slogging through a 60+ match campaign you are cheating the system. Fuck those clubs. I'm convinced Arsenal would take Europa seriously just like Chelsea. Liverpool and small mindset clubs like Spurs can fuck right off.
Chelsea did it recently and finished top four the same season so I guess it's more possible than I stated. Their funds are on another level though. Interesting topic for me at least. It's all a giant circle that we will revisit, next Xmas while enjoying Boxing Day and the 3 matches in 8 days, while the rest of Europe has off.
Essentially ever EPL team has the funds to field a squad capable of competing in Europe, I'm fairly certain QPR made more than Sevilla this year.
And the opportunity to automatically qualify to the CL. It's always interesting to see the mindset that people have for the EPL Europa teams playing Thursday and Sunday while at the same time CL teams play either Saturday and Tues or Weds and Sat which is the same amount of days off. I get that travel times and locals in Europa can be shitty with some Eastern Euro teams, but it's not like in the CL you can get matched up against say a Russian or Ukranian team as well.
At the end of the day, it's easier to qualify for UCL via a top 4 domestic finish than it is by winning Europa. Teams like Spurs, Liverpool, etc also don't have the quality depth found in the current top 4, so the travel plus short turnaround takes a larger toll on them than UCL typically does for the other aforementioned squads.
Liverpool and Spurs have more depth than other Europa participants. If they don't, it's mismanagement.
Sure they do, but that still doesn't change the fact that qualification via domestic success is a more likely path to UCL. IMO, if/when England loses their 4th UCL team, that's when Europa will be prioritized. I personally enjoy Europa as it still provides an avenue to see where you stack up against similarly positioned clubs on the continent, but I also can see why B sides are often played during it.
4 of the same 5 teams qualify for the CL every year in England. Spurs are not one of those teams, I don't see how jumping into that group is the easier path than winning Europa.
Seems odd that Spurs or Liverpool will look at their squads compared to the new Big 4 and say "we can crack that", especially after the Mancs go spend nuts again, instead of being able to defeat teams that they are at worst even talent wise. Sevilla has figured this out and that is a club in constant flux.
Spurs and Liverpool were also heavily dependent on a few players, especially Spurs and Kane. Wouldn't say either of them have good depth.
Since 2009-10 we've finished top 4 twice domestically and finished 5th by one point two other times. That's much more success than we've had during the same span in Europa, but we're never going to come to an agreement on this, so I'll drop it.
I think its a combined coaching/quality of players, Liverpool went to the semi's of europa in 09 or 10 but finished awful in the league that year. Since we just have bought shitty players. We have depth, but when its as terrible as we have had, you don't get very far in anything. Tack on I think our coaching choices have been pretty poor with Roy , bringing kenny back, and Rodgers. You can see where we're at. We didn't start shit lineups with youth players this year to get knocked out of the group stage of CL and Europa, we just played like shit. Same line-up we threw out most of the year in the league, we played in the cups too.
Spurs are a Europa quality team so they shouldn't be upset about playing there. EPL teams seem to take the knockout rounds seriously enough but just haven't been good enough recently. Not sure why teams like Swansea/Southampton/etc. get annoyed about playing in Europa since it's a rare occasion to play in an elite European competition. Finishing 8th and then 15th the next year (because of Europa) is better than two seasons of finishing 10th without any Europe.
Didn't Liverpool play Balotelli in both legs vs whoever knocked them out? Can't remember for sure, do remember his horrible display in the return leg. Believe they were in a very good run of form in league too at the time.
Yea we played him. Sturridge started both legs too. Like I said we played a good lineup for what our team is, we just suck.
Don't know about those others, but I know Newcastle(ownership/board) hated it because we almost ended up relegated. But they were at fault for only buying Vurnon fucking Anita that summer
Who fucking cares. The northeast journalists are shit. They never break stories, hell they barely write stories. They tweet cryptic headlines that lead to two line stories that reveal nothing, just to get their page views up. They don't have sources therefore they never have any good information.
Think the worry you have to look at as a Swansea is do you finish 15th or do you finish in the drop zone due to lack of quality depth. Id say that a lot of Swansea fans want to see them in Europa and continue to grow but that does come with a risk that others aren't willing and would rather see two mid table finishes. Id also add that Swansea is certainly continuing to add quality players and depth at every spot but not there yet.
i think the general thought is that we've done it before, with perceived "lesser" managers and talent, so we ought to be able to do it again, with more tv money and more balanced talent in the team. for spurs, i know that lack of managerial consistency is probably the main reason, as well as putting the entire tactical identity behind one player (bale) and having no experienced replacement strategy. the depth is there for the most part, but maybe not the quality depth needed to push for top 4. europa is there for the taking, you're right, but we have yet to see enough of a manager making a decent enough effort. hopefully pochettino takes it a bit more seriously this year.
Next season's fixtures have been released, probably time to start a new thread. http://m.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/article.170615-fixture-list-for-2015-2016-season-released.html
I'm happy with the idea of a new thread because this thread title is bashing my team but I can't help but chuckle to myself every time I read it. I love AD and I definitely read it in GOB's voice.
I understand that tradition is harder to break in England but I think the premier league is missing a golden opportunity to have one or two elite matchups in the first week of the season to build the suspense for weeks for that match like the NFL does.
@MsiDouglas: Remarkable: #nufc will have played ALL of last season's top four home and away by Feb 27.
Best thing about soccer is the short off-season. August 8 is not that far away. We also get some of our tough games around Christmas, which is usually a benefit due to players resting.
Everton got the shaft by getting Bournemouth, Leicester and Norwich for the last three games of the season. They will all be in relegation battle world beater form at that point.
Getting relegation teams in the beginning is much worse, don't know much about them and they come out like it's a cup final.
Manchester United ends with Bournemouth at home. Would be fun clinching the title and relegating a team all at the same time.
You guys just may be fighting for your lives too, offsetting this phenomenon. Your only hope for a successful season depends on you overpaying for Aaron Lennon, so get on it please.
We Deulofeu now. We might still be interested in Lennon but any chance of us overpaying went out the window yesterday.
Is it weird that I enjoy looking through the Twitter accounts of EPL teams in July just to see what they are up to on their USA tours
I get a kick out of seeing EPL players in America for whatever reason too. Seeing pictures of Jonjo in Minnesota last year warmed my heart.