With the FA Cup draw putting the two Manchesters together it means that to get into the Europa League we would have to finish 5th. We are 10 pts off 5th and played one game more sio that is not going to happen. That leaves the question of what we do for the rest of the season. Do we play as if we are going for a top 5 finish or do we look forward to next season and give more game time to the young lads? I think I might be influanced if we were going for a place in the inter toto cup, but I am not certain what you have to do to qualify, any body know?
Play to win every game still, the higher you finish the more prize money we get and it will be an incentive for Muntari to stay and attract other big name players.
I don't want Europe this season, I've been saying it all year. A high place in the Prem is great, we get more money, more notoriety, etc. But if we enter the Europa league now, our squad simply isn't large enough, our league form would go to pot, and it would be the end of our hopes of staying constantly with the likes of Everton. Leave it a couple of years till we can build up a squad large enough to sustain both a successful Premiership and european campaign. Until then, I'm more than happy with 7th-10th.
You can't pick and choose when to get into Europe. You say leave it for a couple of years, but I can't see Liverpool, Villa, Everton etc having such bad seasons. We'll never have such a good chance as we've got now. If our squad isn't big enough....so be it...we get knocked out, and life goes on
Cracking answer Davros, im 100% with your thoughts, if we do manage it we can attract more big names in the summer
I've every respect for a fellow sunderland fan but for you to come out and say "i don't want Europe now" is staggering, even if we get better players in a year or 2, so will everyone else. Very dissappointing f a cup draw, the only thing we can hope for now is mass crowd trouble at the manchester semi( without any serious injuries of course) and they both get banned from Europe
But look what happened with Pompey, they got into Europe, overspent as a result, and now have severe financial difficulties and middle of the Championship. I would rather the club build slowly and finish in the top 10 consistently so that we can confidently sustain Europe and the Premiership. That said, tbh the Europa league isn't really sucha massive competition. I would love for my club to be in it, but not for the price of the future of the club. am prepared to wait for greater happiness.
so do the fa cup runners up get into europe still? they really shouldnt, possible stoke and birmingham representing the premier league, how embarrasing and they could both be doing it from the championship.
The UEFA regulations are pretty clear about what happens in your scenario (when the FA Cup winners have qualified for the Europa League): The domestic cup runners-up qualify for the Europa League ONLY IF the domestic cup winners have already qualified for the Champions League. In England, this means that the FA Cup winners must finish 1st-4th in order for the FA Cup runners-up to qualify for the Europa League. So even if the FA Cup winners finish 5th (or win the Carling Cup), they are considered to have qualified for the Europa League via the domestic cup winner slot, and the "extra" Europa League slot goes to the next highest finishing team in the league (6th place).
Forget the pipedream Europe, consolidate Premier league, we have had too many injuries this season to sustain a prolonged effort in Europe, little by little, just look at Leeds United, they followed the dream, the rest they say is history.
Question then Bill, a win against West Ham on the last day of the season gives us the last place in Europe…… what do we do, lose the game intentionally? Perhaps playing in Europe is not a target this season but surely neither is not playing in Europe. Seems like a nice problem to have should we find ourselves in that position. I take your point about Leeds along with the young Jerseys point about pompy but I think that our set up could cope with the issue of buying “professionally’’ to prepare for Europe.
Didn't think we'd get to Europe anyway, there was a slight chance when we were 6th 2 points behind Chelsea but have fallen away of late and recent performances don't instil much hope. Agree about Liverpool and Everton coming back stronger next year not sure Villa will though.
