Long way to go of course but had a few bets on Watford to do ok. Avoid relegation, top promoted side, buying their spread etc. Bit risky because it could fail spectacularly but it seems to be the typical English theory of not knowing your manager/players so they must be not as good, which anyone who has done a little reading around the Pozzos and your team last year would know isn't likely to be true.
Yes we seem to have bought well but, as you say, early days yet. It was just nice to actually enjoy watching us in the premier League on Saturday as it was a decent game - I thought I'd either be leaving the pub after 10 minutes or watching from behind a table!
I don't get this. West Ham didn't want to be in the Europa League, supposedly, so that they could concentrate on the league. They're not going to finish in the top 4, so what's the purpose? To scrape into the European places and get into... the Europa League? It's got to be either that or this article's an admission that the fans are as scared as the owners appear to be of the prospect of relegation. They're happy to sit on the Premier League gravy train and that's the extent of their ambitions. That can't be a good thing for the supporters, surely? Considering West Ham's recent lack of European football, you'd have thought that the fans would want to see their side progress. Look at Fulham's run in 2010. Made it to the final and played clubs like Roma, Juventus, Wolfsburg, Hamburg and Atletico Madrid in that run. The last time that West Ham did anything vaguely comparable to that was in 1975/76 and they've barely won a European game since. Pretty shabby, really.
Is European qualification the only reason you want to finish high in the league then? If you win the FA cup, is your first thought; "Brilliant now we'll be in the Europa League"? Of course not. The high league finish or a cup win is a glory in itself. European qualification is often an unwanted bonus. If Southampton want to jeopardize their league season for a poor quality European tournament that they have no chance of winning then that's their business.
There's glory in winning a cup. What glory is there in finishing seventh, really? Surely there would be more glory in going far in the Europa League. Belittle it if you want but we are the only country that does.
Yes I suppose there is much more glory in "going far" in the Europa League Everyone loves a quarter finalist.
No reason they can't win it. Obviously very few teams can win the league. Why not do your best to win cups rather than doing what you can to finish tenth rather than thirteenth?
Because higher league finishes = more prize money + increased status & profile. It's easier to attract quality players as a 7th/8th placed team than it is to a 12th/13th placed team. More quality players = even higher league finishes in the future and one day maybe, just maybe, we will be in a position to actually challenge for trophies. Planning for the long term is more important than attempting to win a tournament that no one cares about, and one that we'd only have a very slim chance of winning (as do Southampton).
Each to their own but I for one am proud that we seem to be taking it seriously compared to a lot of other English teams in recent years, European football doesn't happen for clubs like Saints (and West Ham!) very often and I don't understand why you would be happy to throw that away. I know everyone needs to survive in the PL due to the tv money etc. But I don't think relegation is a real worry for either of us so just seems a waste of a spot, also ruins our coeffecient. Did you go to Romania? I would of been fuming if I had spent all that money travelling all that way to watch the kids. It's nice to watch a manager with real European pedigree to want to have a go at it.
I was definitely celebrating being in Europe for the first time in 12 years over being the 7th best team in the country.
A lot of people do care about it. Pretty much every European country except England. You're in a position now to challenge in the cups as all the Prem sides are. Is a foreign player really going to care if a club finished eighth or twelfth last season? Would Swansea be that much more an attractive proposition than West Ham (last season's eight and twelfth)?
We are still in a fragile situation with regards to debt left by the previous owners of the club. We can't all be lucky enough to cheat our creditors and write our debt off like some clubs have done. If we could, perhaps we would be better equipped for a European season. This season, the priority is making sure we go to our new stadium with our debts paid off and as a premier league club. I'm happy that we are not putting that at risk by stretching our squad by having a crack at a two bob European trophy. We've already lost Enner Valencia long term after he got injured against Astra. That's when the management probably decided to bail out and I don't blame them one bit.
Nah at least you're getting that shiny new stadium for **** all though Our owner paid our debts off in full when he bought the club in 2009.
