Well @The Huddlefro has a Harry Winks shrine so I’m thinking he never felt we needed too @remembercolinlee threw parties when he heard the Grealish deal fell through so I reckon he was another
I guess we can place money on being in the same group as Juventus, Lyon and Lokomotiv Moscow next season... please log in to view this image
They do - we will get one of Juventus, Barcelona, PSG, Bayern or Zenit from pot 1 - But we can't draw Real, Athletico, Dortmund, Napoli, Ajax, Porto or Shaktar who join us in pot 2.
The real question is whether we'll end up drawing both the Taurine FC sides That may sound implausible, but that's no doubt what Celtic and Rosenborg thought before their Europa League group was drawn...
Zenit go into Pot 1 for winning the Russian League, while Ajax and Porto win their domestic titles and go into qualifiers, then Pot 2. Maybe I'm missing something, but when was the last time a Russian side did anything in Europe? Gazprom don't count.
Benfica won the League in Portugal. I think the Dutch Champions will get into the Group Stages next year. Russia have quite consistent performance over several years.
Benfica are in Pot 3! That's even worse. Zenit and Lokamotiv both go straight into the group, with the former in Pot 1, while Ajax have to qualify. That doesn't sound right, to me. Both Russian sides finished bottom this season and third in the group last season. Rostov were third and CSKA Moscow were fourth in the one before that. CSKA also finished bottom in 15/16, though Zenit did win their group that time, before being eliminated in the next round by Benfica. Zenit dropped down to the Europa in 14/15 and CSKA were bottom once again. That is consistent, though I'm not sure why it's being rewarded.
Understood, but they can't draw the Group stages until they know who is playing in them. 3 or 4 rounds of qualifying?
