Still mortified, this was my dream as far as city is concerned, my number 1 ambition, top of the City bucket list and we threw the ****ing towel in, i could accept losing but to go out on away goals when we played a mish mash team in both legs is infuriating. We should be looking forward to the group stages now and with the new signings i'm sure we'd be able to give it a damn good run aswell.
Just imagine all the extra times we'd have got to see Ben Affrey in the amber and black. And the rest of them who don't really matter anymore.
5 million Euros for winning the Final (2.5 million for losing it) is correct based on last season's figures. It does ignore the money you get for the Group Stage, Round of 32, Round of 16, 1/4 Finals, and Semi-Finals though.
I think the performances against Trencin and Lokeren and mostly Aston Villa are the reason we got the players we did. I am glad we are out of it because the second season is always the hardest in the Premier League. I would much rather be out of that and have an impressive season then get relegated or scrape survival. There is every chance now or next season based on our progression that we could qualify via a League or FA Cup Final. I am sure I will get called a **** by a certain head garment.
Because it would have papered over the cracks and the problems we had wouldn't have been so glaringly obvious. There is no excuse for not being able to categorically see of teams like Lokeren and Trencin. Poor performances in 4 matches against them was a real eye opener that if we did not heavily invest in quality attacking players, then we would struggle immensely this season.
Ah OK i thought 5 million was the total. Any idea how much income we would have got if we won the cup. Also saw that the winners qualify for the champions league, so more money from that the following season. How far we could go and how much money would be another debate.
Changing almost the entire team for Lokeren away cost us the tie and in turn, the group stages. It was a mistake, there's no way we should have failed to qualify for the group games. I remain gutted.
I think you are hugely wrong here. Why would the Europa league not be a draw? It's a European competition, one which our club has never competed in before, and will probably never compete in again. It's criminal that we didn't take it seriously. Particularly given the players at our disposal now, post deadline day, which would have afforded us the luxury of mixing up our starting 11s.
We should've qualified, simple as. Lokeren weren't a very good side and we should've panned them over two legs and gone through. HOWEVER, having seen the hangover it caused us in the first half against Villa, I'm a little bit less annoyed now. If that was an indictment of how we were going to play if it kept going Thurs Sun Thurs Sun, then I'd rather be out of it. Until we learn to cope better, we might as well wait. Plus we have two domestic cups to focus on this year.
This. Yes brilliant signings but 'best days in our history' are the ones we won matches on. Signing people is exciting, but its nothing more than that until they play. We won't remember that day in 50 years time over one of the Wembley days or Yeovil, or in fact Lokeren away. We had two chances, and the second time we already knew by then we had a job on to come back from 1-0 away. But still played a piss poor team. This is one of those myths. You hear it so much that playing after an EL game means you'll lose that people start to believe it. We played a reserve team remember. Most of the team who played against Lokeren didn't start against Villa, how can they be linked? People even said the whole point of resting everyone was so we could beat Villa! That worked out well. And funny how no one mentions how we played so well against Stoke straight after the EL game.
Losing the game against Villa has nothing to do with playing in the Europa league, it was almost an entirely different starting 11. We lost against Villa because we simply weren't good enough, which I don't think we have been in ANY of our games so far this season.
What no-one seems to have picked up on throughout this debate, is the fact that Brucey knew exactly what he was doing by fielding a second string 11. In that he was aware that he would be forced to utilise the squad in such a way, throughout the Europa League. Therefore, if they're not good enough to defeat Lokeren, then they've no chance of doing anything further into the competition. Eminently sensible yet again from Bruce.
