Gio had a good game in the home tie against Shamrock - but did he play at all between the two Shamrock games?
I really hope for the sake of all concerned that GDS leaves in January, it will do him good, and it will do us good. I hope Levy and any interested clubs can find a reasonable financial compromise this time round. If not, best we loan him out again I think.
not sure why city andunited are slated because ye failed to qualify from a very weak EL group. Spurs are not above the EL,it is exactly their level, ye've only had one season in the CL, it aint your usual comp so acting all like the EL is beneath ye is the height of pretentiousness regardless of all the excuses and criticizing City and United ye were one goal short last night needing 5. You were short of points also in a group so weak it aint really funny. Even with an understrenght side you played part timers ffs, the excuses for failure was is pathetic. Not much future for Spurs second and thrid squads not being able to get out of this mickey mouse group. I am honestly laughing at the criticism of United and City when ye lot went out in this group, keep it upit is fkn hilarious
This is just semantics isn't it Ensil, Say they called the post Christmas parts the European Cup and the UEFA cup (don't know why I've come up with those names...) and the pre Christmas parts the Champions League and the Europa League. Wouldn't it then be reasonable for the qualifiers for the UEFA cup to come from the 3rd placed teams in the CL and the first two placed teams in the EL? This is exactly what is happening now except they've not been clever enough to chose the names right. The UEFA cup has all been always been about 'rewarding failure' as the very best qualifiers have never been eligible for it.
Are you calling PAOK Salonika and Rubin Kazan part-timers? Because the only part-time team I thought we played were Shamrock, with a record of played 2, won 2, scored 7, conceded 1. By the way, how are Liverpool doing in Europe this season? Same as last season, right?
I don't think that anyone thinks we're above the EL but it is an unnecessary distraction when you consider the money involved compared to the CL or the Premier League. Man Utd were criticised because they played their first team in an easy group and finished 3rd and City were laughed at because lets face it, everyone wants to see them fail. As HBIC said, there was only one team in our group with part time players, the other two were decent teams. I think everyone's a bit disappointed to be out but some of the more experienced players who played will be on their way to other club's in January, our youngsters will likely go out on loan and our first team is largely unaffected by it - that's where the perspective comes in.
Only cup winners who didn't do well enough in the league to get into the CL. Also I'm old enough to remember when the UEFA cup was the third competition (before the Cup-winners Cup was abolished). It's never had the very best teams and that got worse when the CL was extended: but it's still a proper competition and should be taken seriously.
Yeah - I'm old enough to remember that too. And I agree that the new formats have definitely downgraded it further. But the football season is not ONLY about the league. It's a horrible situation we have now where finishing 4th is more important than winning a cup. Yeah the league is no doubt much harder to win than a cup but there are three domestic trophies to win.
No - there is virtually no chance of that being written in English. When I squint and try hard I sort of think he's trying to say something about how Spurs fans are now slating the Manchester clubs or the EL or something. Anyway - he's laughing and finds it all hilarious so he's happy enough. Which is nice.
I seem to have got us talking at cross-purposes. I was trying to illustrate the semantics by describing the competitions in a different way - it was not supposed to be making any other point. You apparently think that coming third in a CL group is 'failing' and should exclude a team from the EL whereas coming fifth in the Premier League is 'success'.. I don't agree. The simplest way of stating my view is the CL starts with the most highly qualified teams and the EL with those less highly qualified. All the way through the qualifying rounds losers drop down into the EL qualifiers. I think this is a good thing as it ensures that the EL gets a better standard of club. There is no reason at all to change this practice after the group stages.
The UEFA at one time was a hard competition to win for the reason that it contained top teams, often teams that in the season they were playing in that comp were also the best team in their country. Because Champions don't always remain Champions the next season, especially in the 70s and 80s when the UEFA Cup was in its peak. We played in those days Milan, Bayern, Real, Liverpool, Ajax, Feyenoord, amongst others. (All multiple CL winners, we also played Barca in the ECWC) In fact if you look at the teams we beat in 72 and 84 they are often more prestigious than the teams that Villa/Forest for example beat to win the EC. It was much easier to win the old EC, IF, you had the luck of the draw, than it is now to win the CL. It's still very hard to win the EL, but that's partly because teams like us don't prioritise it, so play weakened teams. In the 70s and 80s we would have been more likely to rest players in the Lge to save them for important Cup games, very far from todays situ, except the CL of course.
Damn, I appear to have misplaced my 'Webster's Dictionary: Wummish and Chavish to English', must've lost it last time I went to Stamford Bridge. Anyone know what this spanner is attempting to say? I hope no-one missed the irony that basically the only word spelled correctly was "pretentiousness". At no less than 5 syllables I'm sure he had help with that one.
Absolutely - I'm just failing to understand why people want to weaken it still further by excluding the CL third place finishers, who are very likely to be some of the strongest teams in it.
I can translate it, if you like, Ensil. Scouse to English is a little imprecise but it's something like this: Stop finishing above us! Why did you beat us 4-0? History
I agree about the prize - you should qualify for the CL. But don't you think a club like Legia Warsas or Alkmaar would be delighted to draw Man U say - Famous clubs make for excited supporters in much the same way as happens in the FA Cup.
"I laught at Mancs, even though they're playing in two more European competitions than we are this season - and probably won't get English clubs banned from Europe for several years either."
One reason I'm glad we're out of the Europa League is the quality of the referring (So bad that even Foy might just qualify for a game). So many laughable decisions have been made this season it's scary. Piennar getting booked for accidentally running into the back of a player last night and a few strange decisions going against Shamrock for example. It puts the whole competition down to a lottery sometimes. Would have been nice to progress but saves me hurling abuse at the screen every time I watch a match though.
O...SufferingSpur. Don't you have a crate of beer at your feet,mate?Not forgetting the old lady holding the opener at the ready!!!!!!!!?
