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Your Europa League Experience

Discussion in 'Stoke City' started by ThaiCanary, Mar 13, 2014.

  1. ThaiCanary

    ThaiCanary Well-Known Member

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    Hi guys


    I have a blog which looks at certain aspects of the game and clubs, and one thing I want to try and get something to write on is the feelings of Stoke City fans toward the Europa League, broken down in to a number of categories....


    1. How you felt before the season started about the Europa League competition
    2. How you felt as you progressed until the end of the 'league' stage.
    3. You opinion on the knockout stage, from a Stoke fan perspective.
    4. Do you know if Stoke City made any money out of taking part? If yes, how much?
    5. Your overall opinion of the competition and how it effected the Premier League season.

    You can either post answers here or PM. Thanks in advance to those who make the effort to respond <ok>
     
    #1
  2. nickyb

    nickyb Well-Known Member

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    Morning TC.

    Cannot answer all of those questions, but my abiding memory of our involvement was disappointment.

    One of the many wretched aspects of Pulis's (mis)management was completely 'bottling' it against Valencia, both home and especially and unforgivably away.

    Valencia were there for the taking.

    Ah well, 'better to have loved and lost, then never loved at all'
     
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  3. Smithers

    Smithers Well-Known Member
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    1. Very excited and motivated. Heightened by our slated style and how it would fair in Europe and with the international referees.
    2. Very happy in the initial stages and the home games were a fantastic experience for our city.
    3. Not sure exactly what you mean here? Very frustrated with the result as we appeared to just see the fixture out rather than advance in the competition.
    4. I remember seeing our figures for the season (in which we made a significant loss under the frugule TP) but our income was up (circa) 4.5 million and this was attributed to the competition - unsure of how if was made up?
    5. It's a personal opinion but I felt the further we went the more the manager tried not to lose. It was almost as if he felt we wouldn't get out of our group and didn't seem to know what to do next - but that has been a common criticism on his tenure. The competition has to affect the Prem performances because so many teams struggle to plsy the additional game so late in the week prior to the upcoming weekend. In our defence we did have the furthest travelling to do in the comp and we did seem to always have an away game the following weekend. The counter argument would be that our Prem away performances (both before and after) have been similar and bad - so did if really make a difference?

    The competition is often slated by English clubs and the Premier League do very little to negate the bad press it receives. My two penny worth - if a team plays on the Thursday give them a 4 o'clock Televised Sunday or 8 o'clock Monday match - plenty of time to recover and the additional revenue from televised games.
     
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  4. ThaiCanary

    ThaiCanary Well-Known Member

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    Keep em coming guys.

    2 further questions.....................


    Do you believe the 'failed' Champions League teams should be allowed in to the Europa League knockout stages? and were you knocked out by one of these teams?
     
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  5. Smithers

    Smithers Well-Known Member
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    1. No
    2. Not sure we lost away in the 2nd to Valencia if that helps?
     
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  6. ProudPotter

    ProudPotter Well-Known Member

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    Agree with everything Smithers has written
     
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