What an away day at Metalist on a Thursday evening? Qualifying would be, but I don't think majority of the games would not be memorable.
well i'd be there like a shot. how often do things like this come along for a club of our stature? fact is, i went to all our european games in 93 (apart from vitesse away) and it was the most amazing time for the club and our fans. the opposition could have been anyone for all i cared. we were going on a european adventure and that was it. i was just 12 at the time and i thought it was always going to be like that... how wrong i was. that's why it would be special to experience it again. see if any of middlesbrough, bolton or fulham would go back in time and 'not bother' with the europa league. i bet i know what their answer would be!
you do realise you only played four games more the year you won the competition than we did in the 93 'run'?
Well I suppose it goes back to the stature of the Europa League again, I don't think it's as good as the UEFA Cup. It was the UEFA Cup when Middlesborough got to the final wasn't it? I thought that was a good competition, to me it's different now. I suppose it's an argument of what we think of the competitions and I don't think much of it personally.
but what really is the difference? its a harder competition to win these days - surely that makes it better doesn't it? its devalued because you get champions league teams drop into it, but again, that happened when 'boro got to the final and it also means you play against even better, bigger sides. they've just changed the name of it and made it bigger - its still the same bloody trophy at the end of the day. its an english disease - "we don't like the way it operates so we aren't interested in it". its not the best of the two european competitions but hello! its one of just TWO competitions!! TWO. qualification for these events don't come around very often if you aren't a major club, that's why i cannot comprehend why anyone wouldn't be fascinated if we could get into it.
The fact the teams from Champions League get a free pass into it, and the fact their are more teams in it undermine it, you answered your own question there on why I think it's not what it was. It's not as exclusive, or prestigious. The fact Madrid, Bayern, Inter used to win the UEFA cup, and now it's Zenit, Shakhtar, Athletico. It probably says that's it's dropped in standard.
how on earth has the standard dropped when you look at some of the teams in it? the standard only drops if european football drops its standard across the board. check out who ipswich played when they won it - most of the teams are pub teams - you don't get that these days, at least not in the group stage. my point is, why would anyone who supports norwich city NOT want their team to be a part of it for a season? i'm sorry but it makes no sense to me at all. surely having the chance to play a real madrid or an inter milan - someone who drops out - makes it all the more exciting a prospect for a club like ours!! earlier people were moaning that there are no good teams in it - now people are moaning the teams that are good shouldn't be in it anyway!
I wouldn't want us to be in it until we are established in this league. It will stretch the squad to the point it will probably mean a decline in league results due to the number of games. League has to be our priority. Well it's not a fair way to put them in to the competition is it, I don't mind having good teams at all but just giving them a free pass is disrespectful to the clubs who may have started their season 3 weeks early just to qualify and manage to get through a group and all of a sudden teams who haven't featured yet in the competition are put in the draw. Standard dropped argument is that they've expanded the amount of teams in it, which means letting lesser teams in it, so yes, the overall standard will obviously drop. Don't let Champions League rejects a free pass in, and reduce the number of teams in the competition. That's what I would change about it.
i agree that it might be too early for us to cope well with the demands but my argument is that if a chance to play in it presents itself we should try to get in it, not, as some said, avoid it at all costs for all manner of reasons. i have been playing devils advocate throughout some of this. its far from being an ideal competition in my eyes and it does have major flaws but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to get into it - i disagree strongly with anyone who says that.
They have better squads at the moment, but you'd expect ours to evolve to be able to cope, maybe not by next season, but a season after maybe. Looking at it realistically, we're quite dependent on Tettey, Bassong, Hoolahan and Holt, with nobody to play those roles as well as them. Whether anything changes in January or not, things'll change in the summer. If Bridcutt comes in, we'd expect to have less dependence on Tettey. I'd like to think we'll bring in a stronger centre back than Barney, etc. Last season we had squad rotation because everyone was fairly similar. Now we've got a fairly strong starting XI, but we haven't got as adept replacements. Hopefully next season we'll be closer to the situation last year, where rotation won't damage the starting side significantly, but the quality will be higher than last year. At that point we're going to be closer to being able to cope with a european competition, if we ever qualified. Does that make sense? I don't think I've worded it well.
and this really is the point. our squad would develop quicker with the prospect of european football. as it stands today our squad is not good enough to compete but its amazing how european qualification can attract a better standard of player. we should never, ever make excuses to not progress quickly. if we had done that 18 months ago, would anyone have felt we were ready for the premier league?
