Koeman rules out UCL / Tells fans to be realistic, SFC "need" to make Europa League

Everton.

 

Money is of course a factor, but is far from everything. On that basis, Fulham, Norwich and Sunderland would be better than us and they are plainly not. Will concede that although our best players can compete with most, our backups probably can't. That will always be so, because we would find it harder to convince top players to sit on our bench (even if well paid) than the top clubs do.

 

Yeah cos we're a similar sized club to Everton

Funny thing is, I was actually going to add my post that don't even to try say Everton, but decided against it as I thought you wouldn't be someone who believes it.

 

For me its down to squad size and luck with injuries. We cant afford to lose more than a couple of players at a time and the big 4 can. We've seen that in the last three games. Look how strong Uniteds bench was compared to ours.

 

Can you name me a season where so many of the big clubs have been so ****e?

 

For me it's down to FFP maintaining the status quo, so the chances are that while that is in place, we will never be able to break to top clubs, as they're just going to get richer and richer and richer... as Archers mentioned earlier in the thread, cups are our best chance of success

 

We are now. We're ahead of them in the league, finished close to them last season. Who else would you compare us to in the league? Stoke? West Ham?

 

Giving up on the earlier question then ?

And not off the top of my head no, but I bet there has been plenty of seasons where the poor teams have started **** and class has shone in the end. I mean do you really see Arsenal getting less than 60points?

Also the other thing with saying the big sides are poor this year. Even if that was to carry on, who's to say we would be good enough to take advantage? It's not like we are miles ahead in terms of squad size / quality of the rest is it? EG. Hammers n Swans.


Oh and 2012 the top teams were pretty poor I think. Didn't Chelsea and Liverpool finish 6th n 7th that year?

 

Jesus Christ, we're really really not.


And yes, they would be better examples, though Hammers would probably argue (and have a fair point) that they are a bigger club than us.

 

You're looking at history. That is completely irrelevant for this debate. It doesn't matter who's the bigger club off the pitch - it's the bigger club ON the pitch THIS SEASON that counts for the debate.

 

It's not irrelevant though really is it? I'm saying it's unrealistic to think we can finish above certain clubs this year due to the difference in resources, which are such because of the difference of the size of the clubs, no? More success, bigger fanbase etc. See where I'm going with this?

 

But Everton had a significantly lower fanbase than the clubs around them when they finished 4th. And certainly much less resources.

 

Uh oh! The "bigger club" debate<Doh>

Quick, round up some Pompey fans and I will reserve 200 pages

 

But it's still significantly higher than ours and the gap was no where near as big as now, as I said earlier on, FFP is just going to make that gap get bigger and bigger.

 

If you're going to do that Chilco you may as well start a new thread and call it 'Trophies vs Attendances'

 

It's completely irrelevant as to who finishes higher in the league this season. That's down to who plays better football over the season, not down to the amount of fans or respective history.

 

When did Everton finish 4th? I'm pretty sure it was before City had loads of cash so there was at least one less team to contend with.

I think we have a very very long shot of finishing 4th, and mainly because of of the usual "top 7" only 2 are performing anywhere near to their capabilities atm, which is why I think we need to strengthen pretty heavily in January because this season has basically been a perfect storm for a smaller team to break the top 4/6 so far.

 

I'm not saying purely on that though am I? I'm saying that they have a lot bigger resources (which is due to that).

 

Meltdown!

 

?? Care to explain? I thought me and Tom were just having a debate?