What I wanna know is why the **** none of you want to play in the Europa league? Sounds like you've all got serious problems with grandiosity - get over it and take part and try and win it for ****s sake. Firstly, It's the second biggest European cup. Secondly, Fergie has never won it so surely it would be great for him to add another cup to his tally. Sounds to me like you're a bunch of egotistical nutters - get out there and win the ****ing cup
Winning the Europa League means **** all. We'll have won it because we ****ed up our Champions League Group. Some achievment.
It's teh old 'We're too good for the lowly EL' I don't think the EL gets such a poor rep in other countries though does it? Just England, grandios indeed.
You sound like a spoilt child. It's a big European cup so get over it and get out there and try and win it. Sounds to me like you're already making excuses incase you fall short and get knocked out early.
I hope we get knocked out. I don't give a **** about the Europa League and I'd rather we concentrate on the League and the FA Cup.
Exactly - most places it's a well respected competition. Just show's us up for what we are, a bunch of grandiose egotistical idiots.
If you think the Champions of Spain or Italy would want to win the Europa League then you are seriously deluded.
For me - anything I enter or do I wanna win. Shame your fans seem to be too grandiose to do that. I'm sure most clubs that enter it will want to win it - **** sake it's the second biggest European cup.
That's because most clubs who enter it qualify by their league position. They are the 4th, 5th etc best side in their respective leagues. The Champions of each country want to play in the Champions League, and if they get knocked out of the Champions League they should be out of Europe all together not in a competition that isn't meant for the Champions and best sides of each Country. Having teams that fail to qualify from their Champions League Group going into the Europa League just devalues if for others. It's like giving Premiership teams who get knocked out of the FA Cup a backup by letting them enter the LDV Vans trophy. Not fair on the teams who the competition should be for.
It won't last, Man City will thump Arsenal's one man band. There's a long way to go at Loftus Road anyway, I'm expecting a tough afternoon.
From the BBC Feed. Are they being serious? Even if we were still in the Champions League we wouldn't have played any more Champions League games since the Group Stages yet
I'm not disputing that. I personally think the champions league should be for the champions only, like it once was. I'm just saying it's a good opportunity to win a trophy this year and it is a big European cup. Even if it's purely so future generations can look back at Fergies great career and see he won everything possible. I just think the attitude a lot of Utd fans have shown towards it is embarrassing, and shows many of them up to be glory hunters (probably the reason they started supporting Utd in the first place). For me I'd say "Oh well we're out the CL, let's try our best to win the EL"
I can understand the logic of that, but surely it would make the competition weaker. We'd only have Barcelona or Real Madrid. Man United or Chelsea or City or Arsenal etc etc. And by that token, you'd have to make up the numbers with champions of weaker leagues such as some Eastern European teams. I'm not saying that there aren't weak teams in the CL now but you'd get that with any competition. But apart from that, I think we will take the Europa League seriously. It's not like we have the arduous group stages and the knockout round before the group stage. It's only 9 games to win it and that shouldn't add a great deal of strain to our squad. We've never had a problem with the CL and Premier League, so why would it be any different now. And in any case, surely it's a case of yet another trophy to add to the likes of Giggs's CV
i'd rather they'd give it to the next best team, but it does make more sense for them to give it to us. If not then the draw will have changed so two teams from the same group play each other. If united get back in it will just be as if we finished second
Exactly. Look at Utd this season - patently not good enough to be in the CL second round, but they would practically be quarter finalists by default if only the champions were allowed in, cos they would be the only English team allowed to compete. Porto and Ajax, who also failed to get to the second round, would also be in as the only representatives of their leagues. There would be no Real, Bayern, Inter, Chelsea, Arsenal or Benfica - of the eight group winners APOEL and Barca would be the only ones in the competition. Likely quarter finalists would be Barca, APOEL, Milan, Basel, Porto (DNQ), Utd (DNQ), Ajax (DNQ), and Dortmund (bottom of their group). Hardly the creme de la creme of Europe this season. Having the Champions League be only for the champions would make the Europa League / UEFA Cup a more respected competition, but the standard of football in the CL would be much, much worse.
I agree. I probably should of clarified my point. Since the new format the competition has improved, no doubt. It's just not a champions league, so there is no longer a European cup that is purely for the champions. Which is a shame, although clearly the new format brings an extra element and a lot more competitiveness to the game. But for me - the Europa League is a decent European cup and I was personally chuffed to bits when we won it.
I can see your point there - the exclusivity has been lost a little bit, and you do get clubs like Arsenal and Valencia who are simply focused on qualifying for the CL every season rather than actually building for a genuine push on the title. But then the champions from one season aren't necessarily the best club from that country in the following season. So if the aim of the competition is to find the best possible team in Europe - the champions of Europe, then I think it makes sense to include as many of the top teams as you can. Errrr...when did you win the Europa League?
