but would you think that if we where 5th and you won the cup?
I certainly don't blame you guys for itching to get a Europa spot through any means possible as I'd probably be the same way.
If I had to choose though, I'd rather get in with a 5th placed finish, also because that means that our PL season would have been remarkably good with plenty of wins to enjoy.
you are having a laugh arn't you?...Surely the proper means is by actually winning something...
No, because I don't think the tournaments can be particularly fair. With the PL, you have over 30 games facing every team to see how you perform against other sides. The tournaments can be a bit flukey and favourable and can be decided in a single game.
Just look at Birmingham's journey in the Carling Cup:
Rochdale > MK Dons > Brentford > Aston Villa > West Ham > Arsenal
Now yeah, there were some superb results there, especially against Arsenal. However, I certainly don't think it's enough of a test to get into the second biggest football tournament in Europe (if not the world) compared to a team which has worked hard all season, facing everyone, to grab 5th.
Then you have to look at teams like Stoke who didn't even bloody win anything.
Cardiff City > Wolves > Brighton > West Ham > Bolton
And that got them Europe! It's a bit backwards. How does a tournament like that fish out the 'best of the rest' teams to represent England in the Europa League compared to something like a 5th placed finish?
In my opinion the powers that be are undermining both of the European competitions by the amount of teams that qualify...Surely the best way forward would be for only teams that actually win something qualify for the Champions league, and for me that would be the league and major cup winners from each country. The Europa League qualifiers could be the league runners up and League Cup winners, or for countries who don't have a secondary cup competition, then 3rd place in the league would qualify for the Europa..
That could simultaneously de-value the CL and EL tournaments though. A full season of performances helps to accurately portray how good a team is (which is why the 4 teams in the CL spots atm happen to also be the 4 top teams in England).
The current setup allows the best England has to offer to head to the Champions League. The 5th spot allows the 'best of the rest' to head to Europa, and then virtually anyone is fair game for the other Europa spots, with a hell of a lot of it coming down to purely being fortunate with the draws, especially in the cases of getting into Europa by being runners-up. Removing that feature would at least increase the value of the EL slightly.


