Having a better squad of players get us there, rather than just luck and easy draws would suggest we'd struggle in the latter stages?
Chelsea and Aston Villa ....... some teams handle the pressure-cooker of knock-out better than others ... promotees from the play-offs are invariably not the highest placed team involved..... another analogy would be educational ... some people will do better if the qualification is based on coursework rather than time pressured exams .. Cup competitions are great levellers (particularly in terms of financial clout) but success in one is no less laudible than a league position for me.. it reflects that you have 'performed' in a pressured environment rather than being able to rely on the luxury of 'putting it right' over the next few games ...... If cup competitions are one way to help spread the wealth of football beyond the few then all to the better for me .. realise that others will think differently but for me this would be a step in the right direction in regard to that particular aim ...
Agreed - you can argue that a particular set of circumstances (i.e 'luck') could equally apply to final league position e.g injuries, suspensions, refereeing decisions - if every team was able to play its first XI fully fit, with nobody getting injured or sent-off and every game was reffed by a robot - then the outcome ough to be very predictable - but also very dull.
I'd say it matters. If your performances this season earn you a place in the PL next season wouldn't you rather go into next season with a squad that you thought could do well than one that you knew had no chance of staying up?
Now I see the point, but as a PL club I would expect us to have signed players used to playing in higher pressure situations than the players we're going to get in the Championship. Bradford this season are actually benefitting from the lack of pressure on them taking some of the nerves away so I suppose it could work either way. The playoff winners thing isn't actually as true as you'd think. It's just whenever a team that didn't finish highest wins a lot is made of the 'unfairness', but 5 of the last 7 Championship P/O winners have finished in 3rd.
Did that with Brian Little . remember as we were celebrating having beaten the Sheep Worriers at Wembley turning to my cousin and saying .. "we'll come straight back down" .. he agreed - only Joachim, Walsh and Simon Grayson of that side were really good enough for that step-up at that time ......
Not really. QPR went up with a strong squad and their f**ked now. Blackpool had a weak squad and were a game (half an hour even) from pulling away the impossible. I know one is still there and won went down, but just get up and then sort it. I doubt someone like Barnsley would rather not go up.
I did say "go into next season with" meaning after summer transfers, because you'd said it doesn't matter what your chances are so long as you've got there in the first place. If Bradford win the League Cup, as a L2 club they aren't going to be able to sign the quality of players needed to go into the Europa League thinking they've got a good chance of doing well even in the first round group stage. Likewise we as Championship clubs won't be able to. If we've been promoted to the PL and qualified by league position then we'll have had 3 transfer windows to strengthen the squad to the required standard. So I'd rather focus on trying to qualify for the Europa League the second way, even if it takes longer than trying to go through the Cup now does. If we played our reserves in the Cup and they somehow fluked the win then fair enough, but I wouldn't risk league performance to go for a cup.
I wonder if Bradford would even be allowed into Europe. Aren't there condition regarding ground sizes and infrastructure? As an ex-Prem club, I'm sure they would be OK though.
Why? Millwall didn't. Fulham didn't. We played at venues in the early rounds of the UEFA cup which were nowhere near the size of Valley Parade. How many did Filbert Street hold when you played in it?
Right thats Bristol City smashed earlier Palace and Middlesbrough lost. So lets so what all the fuss is about at Hull
