An excellent article which answers the OP's question. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/brian-reade-column-europa-league-3139272
Yes, that's a good article on the appeal of the Europa League. I think, with adjustments, the competition could work well, but big clubs who drop out of the Champions League should be out completely, so that smaller clubs who are trying to build don't have to play them. Having a CL place as part of the prize for winning the Europa would be a real incentive to smaller clubs. It would also mean that a new team would join the fold of CL teams for the next season. Glamour clubs can't keep having a safety net to help maintain their superiority. I still say yes to present Europa qualification though. If the club is properly ambitious then this is a hurdle to jump over in the process to becoming bigger. It certainly isn't ideal.
Should be a knock out competition...I know that meant we only got 2 games the last time we qualified...but better to find out early if you aren't good enough. Qualifying means that we finish the season strongly, but better for us to have a good preseason as we did last summer. I notice in a recent interview that Fonte mentioned how hard preseason was (obviously lives long in the memory) but he credits that with why we don't fade in matches and can play at the same intensity throughout the game. The Europa needs sorting out.
The Europa league has ruined almost every club that's played in it, perhaps with the exception of Chelsea (who had nothing else to look forward to that year). I voted yes but I would play the youth/ reserves exclusively (would be good experience for them) and not take the competition seriously at all. I agree we need to strengthen, but to field a decent side in the Europa League is not the reason to do so.
If we qualify, Mauricio may not play his strongest team. The League is the priority and, unless we somehow stumble to the point where we can sniff the trophy, I can't see that changing.
Would be a novel approach to play a weakened team for the Europa League. Not sure it would go down too well playing the kids with some of the heavyweight European football politicians!
I voted no because of the fear of Newcastle and Swansea's seasons but on reflection I'm not sure that was the reason they had bad seasons - there were a lot of other factors. I'd be very happy to see Saints here in Novi Sad, Serbia and would love to be a guide to Saints fans visiting this fair city. Bring on Vojvodina vs. Saints! (the kids would whoop VFC)
It's a Thursday night in December and Saints, already suffering an injury crises following yet another 2-2 draw with Sunderland, are away to Athletico Kebab. Naah, I'll pass thanks.
Big yes from me. I would absolutely love a european away day, the atmosphere would be amazing. I remember so many people saying they didn't want promotion to the premier league - look how wrong they were. The club progressed and adapted. Everyone saying that the Europa League ruins clubs - well thats true in part, but those clubs don't have Pochettino. Alan Pardew and Laudrup aren't half as good at managing a squad as MP in my opinion. Not to mention extra TV money, increasing our appeal to new, more people tuning in to watch saints, more chances to play Reed/Gallagher et al. Absolute no-brainer for me. I think the Europa League is the highest we are ever likely to achieve, top 4 looks insurmountable.
Whilst I might agree with your decision, the reasoning isn't sound, seeing as at Saints they are planning an assault on the Premier League title within a few years. No, it isn't poppycock, they do have serious ambitions to achieve it. My feeling is that, if the club have that kind of ambition, surely as a supporter you might support it..?
Obviously I massively support it, I would give my left testicle to see saints in the champions league, but realistically is it going to happen. It's deluded to say we are anywhere close to CL when we haven't got an owner throwing hundreds of millions of pounds about. If the choice is between missing out on Europe completely, or Europa League, it's Europa every time.
Don't forget ticket sales though. A full stadium for a game against a good European team could bring in a million quid in ticket sales for just one game.
