Just been thinking of what I hope we do well in this season, with me personally hoping we go far in Europa. Of all the competitions English clubs can enter, obviously might not be in all at the same time (Europa and Champions). Anyway here is my take on things: 1. Champions League - Pretty standard, best teams in the world. Massive competition. 2. Premier League - Very hard to win, but is 2nd to Champions League. 3. Europa League - Easily the 3rd hardest to win and with clubs like Liverpool, Inter, Tottenham, Necastle, Chelsea, Atletico, Napoli and more, it is bigger than some make it to be. 4. FA Cup - Pretty standard that this fits in next, just play 6 games and win it. Still tough competition obviously. 5. Capital One Cup - Same as above, but bit easier. 6. Super Cup - Down to the one off matches. Super cup is a tough game for two big teams in Europe and we all watched the chavs get ripped apart. 7. Community Shield - Usually a big game that managers try to write off as something different. City, Chelsea, utd and so on making it a tough game. 8. World Club Cup - I consider this the biggest waste of time in football. Winning the John paints trophy is probably tougher! Turn up at the semi finals, whilst other teams battle it out previously. Then just win 2 games against some teams in Japan or somewhere equally distracting for squads involved. Anyone else rank differently?
Yes. Premier League for me. I'd happily not win the Champs League for 10 years if we managed to win the League for bloody once. Although I was alive when we won the League last, I didn't start supporting until around 1994. For me its: 1. Premier League 2. Champions League 3. FA Cup 4. Europa League 5. Carling or whatever it is now. 6. Not fussed about the rest other than I hope we win them.
I'd have the FA Cup ahead of the EL, as it's a competition that even some club managers can't be arsed with. Playing Thursday nights, meaning league games on a Sunday used to piss me right off as well. Putting the Charity Shield ahead of the World Club championship is just plain bitter btw
1 match against city, utd, chelsea etc as the first match of the season >>>>>>>>>>> 2 matches against either auckland city fc/Al-Ahly sc/Ulsan Hyundai/Corinthians/Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Don't get this. 6 games against possibly useless teams from the lower league or non league. Or to compare, should we reach Europa final.... 19 games against some big European teams, going away to them all as well.
1. Premier League 2. Champions League 3. Europa League 4. FA Cup 5. European Super Cup (It means you've won a european cup the season before!) 6. League Cup 7. (shared) Community Shield, World Club Cup & Liverpool Senior Cup
FA Cup is fun to win and has a proper history. Its fun playing teams all over the land which in the end often ends up in the big teams anyway. Vs A competition for the teams not good enough to get in the Champions League. A series of low interest, low quality games that nobody really cares for, which is a distraction from where clubs really want to be.
Behave mate, the Charity shield is a pre-season fitness run out. However you look to discredit the opposition in the World Club Championship it's still a piece of silverware that you'd want in your cabinet ahead of the ****ing charity shield lid. Oh & btw if it's such a piece of piss to win it, why didn't you bring it home in 2005?
1. EPL 2. CL 3. FA=Europa. FA has history ( still worth it for me) but Europa has higher profile these days. 5. COC or whatever disguise it's wearing. The rest are just money-spinning show-pieces and are pretty worthless imo.
A dubious Mexican ref and Canadian lino's ruling out 3 goals, one of which should have definitely stood. Why didn't you bring it back home in.... oh wait.... nope, you've never qualified for it
Interesting reasoning. Yes, some manager don't give a flying toss for EL, and will put more effort into FA Cup, but then again, the FA Cup is one leg and over 90 minutes, the form book can be torn up. Over 180 (plus extra time possibly), there is time to rectify errors, but not so much as the money-go-round group stage of the CL, which is pretty much excitement-lite these days (EL group stage too!) So EL is harder to win than FA Cup, so of course most managers would expend more resources to win the FA Cup. Of course, you need to be in it to win it...
1. Premier League - All English clubs all playing each other, winner is the best team in England 2. Champions League - Hardest one to win, but is more of a bonus. PL is always the main focus imo 3. FA Cup - The prestige and history make this a big competition, behind the top two, but way ahead of the rest imo 4. Europa League - Devalued by the CL losers imo, a decent competition, but vastly overshadowed by the CL, and no club values it as much as the FA Cup 5. World Club Cup / European Super Cup - Both not particularly important, but they are international trophies, and add to the gloss of being CL winners 6. Capital One Cup - Basically a distraction for the bigger clubs, and generally one for the youth teams. Suffers from being overshadowed by the FA Cup like the EL suffers from the CL 7. Community Shield - A fairly glorified friendly, with no real bearing on the league. Good to put down a marker, but results matter little in the big scheme of things.
Not sure I follow the reasoning there? Surely if there's more time to rectify errors then it's easier to win the EL, as you can have a **** game and still go through. And as you say the group stage format in the EL effectively gives you a bye to the last 32, whereas the last 64 in the FA Cup can be a big banana skin. Personally I think the FA Cup and EL are both about as easy to win, and ultimately both will often depend on the draw you get. But the FA Cup has more prestige due to its history and the lack of a superior domestic cup competition to overshadow it.
For me, the World Club Cup ranks just behind the Premier League and Champions League. You may think this is strange however, I am thinking logical. If you are competing for the World Club Cup then it mans you are the current European champions
1. Champions League 2. Premier League 3. FA Cup 4. Europa League 5. League Cup 6. European Super Cup 7. World Club Cup 8. Community Shield
Yes, a bad game and you're out of the FA Cup, but the extra depth of squad you need for the 19 games in the EL mean you need depth too, and coming back from a bad first leg can be almost as hard as coming back from a bad first half in the FA cup. I suppose there isn't much between them, but the quality of team in the EL later stages would be higher than in most FA cup games.
I'd rank world cup cup over community shield.. i mean the community shield is liek the emirates cup! Basically go by prize money..... I agree with you 1-6 its not standard of play its prize money awarded, champions league is huge pay per match, the prem is very big and even the europa will deleiver 7-10mil in prize money, then it sthe domestic cups which are a couple million
PL CL EL FA LC Not evening including the two others as they are like glorified testimonials. PL because you have to be consistently good over a year. Not downgrading our win but we won the CL, yes, by beating some very good teams but while we were not even close to being the best in our league. The reasonings given on here for devaluing the EL are typically English. PL teams might not take it seriously (due to the simple fact they largely don't have the squad to compete in it AND the physical & very long PL) but a large number of the quite decent European teams in it do. So unless you are somehow impossibly drawn against every other participating English team (the ones not taking it seriously) on your route to winning it then its hardly been an easy ride has it ? Its more the fact that we've been using it as fans to beat each other as "not quite good enough for CL" that's has tarnished it. I hate personally the format but where you might not meet Europes best in a one or two match situation I believe as a competition it is more gruelling strategically & logistically than the champions league to win. Obviously because you don't meet a Barcelona or Bayern Munich along the way & the prize money is so poor it is rightly classed below the other two. So to say its somehow easier to win than the FA cup seems a little strange. Yes it's not the strongest teams in Europe but some will be there & you are playing more matches against what you could equate as low end of the PL/high end Championship over 19 games? As opposed to matches over 6 that will probably include a couple of high end PL teams?
That's true, and the travelling for the EL will make it tougher on the squad, but then that will apply to whoever your EL opponents are as well. The average quality of team will be higher in the EL, but you will have more chance of coming up against a really good team in the FA Cup - clubs of the quality of Utd, Chelsea, City and Arsenal are rarely in the EL (until recently anyway!), but one or two of them are almost always in the semis and final of the FA Cup. I think they will both be about the same difficulty on average (obviously varies from year to year depending on the draw), but the travelling and extra gaes will make it harder to do well in the EL and the league than in league and FA Cup. Same way it's easier to win PL and FA Cup or CL and FA Cup rather than PL and CL.
