I think you'll find that players might fall a little out of love with Southampton FC if we don't qualify for Europe in some capacity in a season or two. That wouldn't bode well for bringing in quality players to make the squad stronger. If you see Europa as a serious progression towards Champions League, then I think it works.
In a nutshell- if a team does not believe that it could ever make CL then it need be concerned about the effect of Europa on its performance. For a club intent on CL football, then Europa is an occupational hazard. No point in worrying about it, we could put a weakened team out if necessary, but it's almost inevertible we will get there sometime. Provided the project is still on...
How does the plan work then Beefy? We are talking about a sport where at any given point, something out of your control can change things (even stuff in your control). Nothing an be planned out on paper and then executed to that plan. When do we want to be in it? I hear people saying when the squad is big enough; well some of the current crop might want to play in it. Morgan might think it would give him the chance if getting in the French team; it might convince Luke to stay a little longer. We can't plan when we get in it, we must deal with it if it comes along. For me it would be ideal to develop our team and is a natural step to seeing if we can make and then compete in the champions league. Yes, our squad today isn't right for that, but we would have to invest and bring more in and I am sure more players would be interested Hey Mr Lukaku, can't offer you Champs league this year but we are in Europe.
We have so many players who would love to play in Europe Lambert Lallana Jrod? I'm not saying we have play them in every game? But this is the next level for them? To start with we can play a youth/reserve line up for Europa league with the odd quality player. Think about how rust corky, maya and victor where when they came back from injury? Europa games would be a great way to rotate our squad and keep them all match fit. On wards and up wards!
Ok I will rephrase my answer. I want Europa, but if we don't strengthen by a hell of a lot I don't want us taking it very seriously. Europa destroys small squads.
Have to support this. You're on very good form today FLT. Mentioning Mr Lukaku reminds me that Everton play in the Europa occasionally. A club run on a very tight budget, with a smallish quality squad, yet they not only manage to do it, but are in the running for a Champions League place every season. If they can do it, surely we can.
Strengthen the squad this summer while permanently shedding some dead wood (Barnard etc) and qualify for the Europa League next season.
Like I said in the first place? Strengthen. But I can not see us bringing in the 6 or 7 players needed for a Europa run and a to finish high in the league.
No reason whatsoever that we can't match Everton. Down to the Borad to back MP and strengthen where necessary.
Yes they do, but we are not in the Europa League ... now. It is about getting in it and it has to be our target and then we march on to the next target. We can't just suddenly jump to the top target. If we qualify, the club would need to build on the squad. If we really can't consider the Europa League and can't consider strengthening the squad over the summer if we qualified, then we may as well forget Champions League and accept we are little old Southampton and we'll stay where we are; a good mid-table team. We need to strengthen the team to progress to top 6 anyway.
If we win the Cup, do we "pull out the Europa League" This weeks match thread could be interesting, as I am expecting a lot of "rest the team" posts, just incase we end up winning the cup I am being facetious obviously, but that is what will happen if we (as I assume several people want) win the cup. We'll be in Europe.
Agreed The OP was "do we want Europa League" and for me the answer has to be a massive "yes" The next questions are: when? and what do we need to do?
As I said even if we do get in it. I can't see us getting the amount of players we would need. The Europa needs to be badly changed, I don't see another cup competition going on for as long as it does.
Of course we want it. Whether we want to take it seriously is another matter, but it can at least be a bit of fun if we play a weakened side or add tons of depth to the squad.
Yes - In a mentality where you try to win every game you play you have to take what that provides and work with it. It is possible we could get into the FA Cup final, not win it and still qualify for Europa. It is not totally in our control and I expect any club who has ambition will make the most of an extra competition by using it as a test bed for youth players or by attracting other players to the club. I agree it is a drain on resources for little reward financially but as supporters I would hope we would enter the competition wanting to win every game we play.
