And what is qualifying the 'proper way' anyway? If you're talking EL its by having the mightiest of all seasons and winning the....5th place ribbon..... When is entry honourable? Take part in the CL only if you're PL champions? Yes a final of two small European teams might not be a draw outside of their countries or more accurately to the point, in this country. You can bet if we were in the final of the EL it would be a big enough TV draw if even just from a bunch of haters waiting for failure in the Mickey Mouse cup. So comparing brands of different scale is misleading. But I can guarantee that the viewing figures worldwide will be a hell of a lot lower for our pre season friendlies.. And its a huge gamble if the reasoning is to focus on CL qualification next year! Because we've to attract players without E football , and improve enough to overtake the following: United City arsenal Chelsea Spurs (Not not including Everton here based purely on their investment inability this summer) All of these teams will have bigger draws for players (European football) and more money to wave at them and what we're doing (if this is true) is absolutely guaranteeing that is still the case if we don't make it next year. Even if we vastly improve from this season its still going to be competitive and can NOT be guaranteed! So its still a possibility that we improve but only to 6 and no matter who the manager is at that point we're not in Europe ....again.
Think it is the decision to not take part in it IF we get the spot. Think it is daft as well to come out with this right now.
I can see both sides of the argument in all honesty. Yes, European football is a welcome bonus and I am one of the seemingly very few people who rate the Europa League as a recognised European tournament. But on the other hand, if i'm not wrong to qualify for the tournament proper would require us to go through 3 qualifying rounds then a playoff round just to get to the group stage. That's a staggering amount of games even before the season has fully kicked off. In my opinion however, I think European football is important and we should go for it. I can see no reason as to why we can't play a mixture of reserves and U18's in the qualifying rounds and still have enough to get through. Would be a good chance to get the likes of Baio, Ibe, Coady etc... into the first team.
Ignoring the fact, that there's no European place anyway........put yourself in Rodgers shoes. He's got away with lowering expectation this season, he won't next & he knows it. Your club needs CL football back, as it's key to it's long term financial sustainability. He'll be under pressure to deliver it from the boardroom to the Kop. So if you were him would you want the distraction of another potential 15 plus European games from July onwards, potentially distracting your focus?
Yes its all pie in the sky. Well then he's in the wrong job (& I'm a supporter of him as you know) if he is making decisions prioritising his chances of keeping employment above actually doing his job which is participating & winning as many competitions as we can. I don't mind prioritisation if its along the lines of we'll field a weakened team this PL game against Wigan because we are in a EL or CL quarter final next week but to start not participating (if actually offered) at all means he either doesn't have the ability to manage or the owners are going to have to come out and say LFC are officially our of the winning business rather than pretending we're still there but not supporting that financially l. Of course your opinion begins with the the position that BR isn't genuine, which of course you have no proof.
Perhpas we can pull out of the FA and Carling cups, too, to make it easier for Brendan to look competent.
i found that the europa at group phase is akin to league 1. I think ok its an experience for the kids but its not all that. one or two decent games and those don't do much for a kid do they unless they come hard and fast. overall.... i'm a meh. i can see the point about it being not a great route in but i can't see how the europa is not some sort of profitbale event.... i can see group matches barely breaking even in terms of gates etc due to low turn outs. If we didn't merit the slot fair play is a kind of embaressing route in.. I also see the point MFG is making in that we are laughing at newcastle on one thread here but rodgers said effectively what was in that joke about the europa.
i found that the europa at group phase is akin to league 1. I think ok its an experience for the kids but its not all that. one or two decent games and those don't do much for a kid do they unless they come hard and fast. overall.... i'm a meh. i can see the point about it being not a great route in but i can't see how the europa is not some sort of profitbale event.... i can see group matches barely breaking even in terms of gates etc due to low turn outs. If we didn't merit the slot fair play is a kind of embaressing route in.. I also see the point MFG is making in that we are laughing at newcastle on one thread here but rodgers said effectively what was in that joke about the europa.
That's the spirit, can we pull out of the league too? Just tour the world playing friendlies instead.
This Anfield did a piece on the fact that by getting to the stages we did this year we made a couple of million and the winners with everything taken into account including sponsorship clauses with our own sponsors that could rise well above 5 million. Now that sounds like pocket money these days but its a top players wage for a year. They also mentioned that there isn't much difference in our win percentage of PL games while in the EL & over all for year so kinda deflates the "distraction" argument. I'll try & find it later.
So, we bust a gut to make CL next season (does anyone think that likely, btw?) and then get stuffed because we've too many players inexperienced at playing in Europe.
this is correct i researched this and found that the only sides to make money i nthe europa are cl sides dropping into it. when i researched it I found that werder bremen got 30mil out of the comp having dropped into it while the other finalist got 7mil..think about that.... bremen got the tv moeny from the cl AND got tv moeny out of the pool moeny for europa. that means effectively as long as you are anyway decent and finsih 3rd in your group chances are you are quids in. europa football has seen villa, tottenham and other english sides play terrible sides to make sure the drop out of this rather than play it... ther eis a reason why... its mercenary and frankly uefa are lucky that spanish clubs kept this competition going.
again this doesn't matter. if you are seeded 2nd or 3rd in your group you have to go some to finish 4th in the group. its NOT ABOUT WINNING its about giving money to euopes elite. if you end up i nthe latter stages of europa anyway you are still quids in.... I suggest you investigate the money on this one. its an eye opener.
I'm not looking at it solely from a financial perspective. I'm thinking of building an experienced squad able to deal with different styles of play and conditions and not whinge if they have to play twice a week.
Exactly this. The money shouldn't come into it, a club like Liverpool should not be turning down the chance of European football no matter how it comes about. If we get a nice wad of cash for the privilege the great but it is about the team, fans and trophies!
My personal opinion of the man has no bearing on this issue. He's said he doesn't want to play in a competition that starts mid July if you enter via that route so that's fact not conjecture. To be fair to him, if he's going to be given the prime objective of finishing in the top 4 (which I think is highly likely) then I don't blame him for not wanting the EL with a mid July start, as you'll need to be totally focused on the PL in order to have any chance of getting back up into the top 4 imo. Just look at Spurs this season, their focus on an ultimately unsuccessful EL campaign has definitely cost them league points due to tiredness / injury, & if they miss out on a CL place by a point or 2, then I'm sure behind closed doors they'll cite that competition as being the reason for their downfall.
need to think about keeping key players as well, and normally the only way they are kept happy is to see progress ie top 4 finish, how long will Spurs keep Bale if they don't get CL football? not long i don't reckon, probably the same for us with Luis, can both clubs afford to lose key players like that. sort of agree we shouldn't turn down any chance to play in Europe, but for the sake of having a more realistic chance of a top 4 finish for next season i agree with it, plus we are unlikely to have got in that way any way.
That's naïve in the extreme. Of course money plays a massive part in it, FSG didn't buy the club in order to look at silver pots in a cabinet, they proved that last season when they sacked Dalglish & Comoli for failing in their prime objective i.e. CL qualification.
