Fourth or win Europa League?

White Heart Loon

Well, seems to be split down the middle so I'm adding a poll. Personally I'd like to win it as I believe fourth is beyond us at this stage. It is a farce of a competition though, it makes you travel midweek to the arseend of nowhere and play on very poor quality pitches. We lose players through it and always suffer the Sunday after.

DubPerryman

Europa League

Absolute no-brainer in my opinion. It has to be 4th.

Everyone knows how much I hate the Europa League, I can't do another season in it next year. Plus Champions League is where the money is and bigger/better signings.

ninebeanrows

Europa League

100% 4th. No contest.

ziedth

Europa League

It's a sad truth but it's 4th all day long.

I remember a day and I'm only turning 30 that winning the FA cup was as nearly as big as winning the champions league and the Eufa cup was glamorous and winning it was unthinkable.

I'd take a chance at 4th over a guaranteed final TBH.

Can't deny which is better for the club.

Having said all that if we finished 5th or even 6th and won it I'd call it a success of a season.

White Heart Loon

Lads, I'm more concerned with the present situation. What I mean is, if you could only concentrate on one, would you sacrifice the EL for an attempt at fourth or vice versa. My own opinion is that fourth is gone, at this stage we need to give EL priority as it could yield something. That doesn't mean forget about fourth, it means field full strength teams for the remaining EL games in an attempt to win it and accept the outcome it can have on our season

Glebee

Honestly im sick to death of this trying
for fourth spot every season. If we can't compete in the Europa league how are we supposed to manage in the champions league. Also I'd love to win a European trophy again and it's never going to be the Champions league unless some crazy moneybags Arab takes over and for this I would take Europa League over 4th every time. Am I mad????

yiddo59

No brianer for me a trophy every day of the week.

irishmover

Europa League

The only reason why I picked fourth is because winning the EL this season I don't believe is enough to hold onto our better players in the summer.

Ask me this question next season when EL will get you CL football however, and it'll be a different answer for certain.

By the way, ask Chelsea fans whether they think the EL trophy is a mickey mouse trophy. They were just as delighted to win it as they were the CL the year before.

slegs

Glebee wrote: »

Honestly im sick to death of this trying
for fourth spot every season. If we can't compete in the Europa league how are we supposed to manage in the champions league. Also I'd love to win a European trophy again and it's never going to be the Champions league unless some crazy moneybags Arab takes over and for this I would take Europa League over 4th every time. Am I mad????

This is the point!

Getting to ECL is great but what then? If you arent good enough you are out by Christmas anyway.

It may be a hard pill to swallow but maybe Europa League is our level just at the moment and if its our level then we should be balls out to win it.

I don't get this mentality of not trying to win a competition. OK rest a player here and there but there (you can even do that in the Premier League) but we should enjoy every game we play and be 100% committed to winning.

I know when the summer comes around I look forward to friendlies so I don't get this mentality of not enjoying the Europa League and all the negativity that surrounds it.

Kiith

Next year, the EL will be worth a hell of a lot more, and you'll see a much greater push by teams in it.

But this year, as nice as it would be to win it, 4th would be much better for the club.

Ormus

Europa League

Glebee wrote: »

Honestly im sick to death of this trying
for fourth spot every season. If we can't compete in the Europa league how are we supposed to manage in the champions league. Also I'd love to win a European trophy again and it's never going to be the Champions league unless some crazy moneybags Arab takes over and for this I would take Europa League over 4th every time. Am I mad????

I think it's more a case of we don't want to compete in the Europa League. The players can't get really up for a tie with Dnipro or whoever cos they know that league position is what gets them into the Champions League, gets them on the biggest stage, watched by the biggest clubs, the biggest wages etc.

Ormus

Europa League

slegs wrote: »

This is the point!

Getting to ECL is great but what then? If you arent good enough you are out by Christmas anyway.

It may be a hard pill to swallow but maybe Europa League is our level just at the moment and if its our level then we should be balls out to win it.

I don't get this mentality of not trying to win a competition. OK rest a player here and there but there (you can even do that in the Premier League) but we should enjoy every game we play and be 100% committed to winning.

I know when the summer comes around I look forward to friendlies so I don't get this mentality of not enjoying the Europa League and all the negativity that surrounds it.

The mentality is that the players can play as many games as we like and they can be 100% committed, but its been fairly reliably shown that Spurs will have a lull in February/March/April if we're trying to combine Europe and the league.

I don't think it's lack of commitment (at least not for all of them), but they just can't keep up the concentration and fitness needed.

slegs

Ormus wrote: »

The mentality is that the players can play as many games as we like and they can be 100% committed, but its been fairly reliably shown that Spurs will have a lull in February/March/April if we're trying to combine Europe and the league.

I don't think it's lack of commitment (at least not for all of them), but they just can't keep up the concentration and fitness needed.

Well why dont we fix that rather than just giving up on the EL. Its the second biggest competition in Europe. Chelsea seemed pretty happy about winning it last year. Dont get why we turn our nose up at it.

To be fair to Levy I'd imagine the big squad we have assembled was designed primarily to be able to compete in EL and PL at same time.

In all likelihood we will be in it next year also. If we are in it we should figure out how to work doing both.

Leinstersqspur

Europa League

slegs wrote: »

Chelsea seemed pretty happy about winning it last year. Dont get why we turn our nose up at it.

True but Chelsea didn't have to qualify v Tblisi then travel to Tromso, Tiraspol & Anzhi for group games. They got put in the EL for failure to qualify ahead of Juventus and Donestk in the CL. They only had to beat five mainstream* teams to win the trophy.

*do not play on a carpark in the Arctic Circle

Ormus

Europa League

slegs wrote: »

Well why dont we fix that rather than just giving up on the EL. Its the second biggest competition in Europe. Chelsea seemed pretty happy about winning it last year. Dont get why we turn our nose up at it.

To be fair to Levy I'd imagine the big squad we have assembled was designed primarily to be able to compete in EL and PL at same time.

In all likelihood we will be in it next year also. If we are in it we should figure out how to work doing both.

What we have is a very big squad of decent (mostly) players, but what Chelsea have is a second 11 which is nigh on as good as the first 11, so they can rotate almost seamlessly.

We've pretty much never had a manager who was a fan of rotation.

curraghyid

Europa league it's 30 years since a European trophy . In my opinion winning it is better than the promise of tue/wed night football.

jobeenfitz

Europa League

Third be nice, fourth not too shabby, prob not getting there this year again.

If we get offers from some of the big boys for some of our players, they will not be persuaded to stay by europa league. If it was a simple choice "which do we want" then it has to be fourth to hold on to our best players and attract one or two more.

If we drop further away in prem league in the couple of weeks then put everything we got in EL if we still there.

We have to give a go at beating Arsenal and liverpool to have any chance of fourth. After these games things should be a lot clearer for better or worse.

If we don't finish in top four this season I want us to sneak into 7th on our way to winning the Europa league.

tippspur

I only voted now for EL because 4th is gone for us imo.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Europa League

I must be the only man in Britain and Ireland that still thinks we've an outside shot at fourth. Arsenal are 6 points away, and they've us, City and Chelsea to play, whereas we only have to go to Anfield.

How fcukin sweet would it be if we were to pip them....

Unlikely, I know, but a man can hope :pac:

KingdomYid

THFC wrote: »

I must be the only man in Britain and Ireland that still thinks we've an outside shot at fourth. Arsenal are 6 points away, and they've us, City and Chelsea to play, whereas we only have to go to Anfield.

How fcukin sweet would it be if we were to pip them....

Unlikely, I know, but a man can hope :pac:

This Sunday is massive, its a dilemma in as far as I want us to put out a full strength team on Thursday night aswell. I really really want us to win this cup though and of course really want to come 4th aswell, I vote for both :pac:

irishmover

Europa League

Ozil is buggered so won't be playing against us Sunday.

They've the clear advantage having 4 days rest as opposed to our 2. Highly doubt a win.

jobeenfitz

Europa League

THFC wrote: »

I must be the only man in Britain and Ireland that still thinks we've an outside shot at fourth. Arsenal are 6 points away, and they've us, City and Chelsea to play, whereas we only have to go to Anfield.

How fcukin sweet would it be if we were to pip them....

Unlikely, I know, but a man can hope :pac:

I agree that we cant give up til after the Arsenal game, at least. If we do not win this one well then the hope is dim.

On hope, found a nice little quote, hope you don't mind.

"The miserable have no other medicine but only hope." William Shakespeare