The race for... Europe?

[bigmanbob]

Nothing to do with the disharmony caused by him openly criticising the club for selling all his best players?

[Shogun]

Just looking at our fixtures, the good thing about having a tough run in you face teams still in the cups. Obviously clutching a bit but we might benefit from other teams having a packed fixture list.

Arsenal A - They play Bayer Leverkusen 3 days before (away) and 3 days after (home)

Chelsea H - Play PSG 2nd leg at home 4 days before (home)

Brentford A - No advantage

Liverpool H - Poss CL QF 2nd leg midweek before (home) + Likely rearranged PL fixture midweek after if they make the FA Cup SFs (Quite happy for them to be knocked out of both at this point!)

West Ham A - This match likely rearranged to 3 days before FA Cup SF if they make it that far.

Man City H - This is sandwiched between the CL SF dates

Crystal Palace A - This would be 3 days after a Conference League SF 2nd leg.

Sunderland H - No advantage

Tottenham A - Week before CL Final and they'll already be relegated

[TheRam]

Nothing to do with the disharmony caused by him openly criticising the club for selling all his best players?

Not really.

More to do with him not rotating his squad in Europe and the players being knackered.

[Bluedylan1]

Any and all trophies are there to be won until you’re out. I’d be very happy winning any competition we’re in right now.

Also don’t understand people who think it would be a training exercise for youth team and fringe squad members. Play your strongest eleven and bring it home.

Oh you definitely play your strongest team in the latter stages, but it's a piece of piss to get through the group stages. You should absolutely be rotating and using squad players earlier on.

You either finish in the Top 8 and go straight through, or finish in the Top 24 (out of 32!) to get to a playoff game. It's extremely difficult as a Prem team with the resources we all have to get knocked out early on. It takes real effort.

It's not arrogance (as was said elsewhere). It's an acknowledgement of reality.

[Toddacelli]

I don’t think I’ve recovered from Shrewsbury.

[NickNack]

How many signings do we think we need to be able to compete in European competition and the PL?

[Cereal Killer]

How many signings do we think we need to be able to compete in European competition and the PL?

2 x RB
1 x LB
1 x CB
1 x CM
2 x CF
1 x Jack Grealish

[AjaxAndy]

2x RB
1x LB
1x winger *
1x CF

* Depending on if we sign Grealish. If we do we still need a young pace merchant for off the bench or rotation. If we don't we need to be looking at someone of the profile we did last summer like Fofana, Conceicao etc

We don't need a CB or CM, we have enough of those already, unless one leaves beyond Gana. Won't be a popular opinion but if we buy RBs and renew Keane we're well stacked with JOB moving to 3rd choice CB.

[Evertonfc15]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/eu ... s-fixtures

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/eu ... s-fixtures

It’s weak europa league this year but it’s still miles ahead of the conference league.

I’d feel a bit shit I waited 30 years to see us lift a trophy and it was the conference league tbh

i get your sentiment here but am still ok with a chance to win a european conf cup
its not the biggest or best but i would gladly take it and move up a level to the europa the following season
the european cup winners cup was maybe on the same level as the europa league with the quality of teams in it
deffo a step up from the european conf league cup tho

[superpull]

Let's face it, we'd celebrate the league cup. Just bizarre, anybody thinking the conference League is something we should turn our noses up at

[AjaxAndy]

Let's face it, we'd celebrate the league cup. Just bizarre, anybody thinking the conference League is something we should turn our noses up at

1000% this, we've not won anything for 3 decades, imagine people thinking winning the conference league would be beneath us. Absolutely bizarre.

[Shogun]

I don't think many people are saying that tbf. It would be nice to break our duct with the FA Cup though.

Maybe an FA Cup/Confy League double!

[TheRam]

I’m not saying we’re above it.

Just being realistic as to where winning the conference league would sit as an achievement.

We’ll see the appetite for it when we’re playing the 4th placed team from Poland at home on a Thursday night

[AjaxAndy]

I’m not saying we’re above it.

Just being realistic as to where winning the conference league would sit as an achievement.

We’ll see the appetite for it when we’re playing the 4th placed team from Poland at home on a Thursday night

No idea of the age demographic on here, but I bet there's a few who were too young to remember us lifting our last trophy, and when it's been that long I think any 'major' trophy, i.e. something not weird like an inter toto cup.or what have you, then it's a big achievement and something that should be celebrated.

I vividly remember the FA cup win, it was wonderful, but it was also 30 years ago. I'd celebrate winning the Conference League every bit as much.

I'm not saying it's not ok to rank competitions, they are obviously set in a hierarchy of what's best to worst, but they're all still important competitions.

I think winning what's seen as the weakest European one is still massive for the club and it's fanbase. If we were perennial winners of competitions then I think we could afford to be a bit snotty about certain ones, but we are the polar opposite of that.

Embrace it, enjoy it... I don't see the point in doing anything else.

[TheRam]

No idea of the age demographic on here, but I bet there's a few who were too young to remember us lifting our last trophy, and when it's been that long I think any 'major' trophy, i.e. something not weird like an inter toto cup.or what have you, then it's a big achievement and something that should be celebrated.

I vividly remember the FA cup win, it was wonderful, but it was also 30 years ago. I'd celebrate winning the Conference League every bit as much.

I'm not saying it's not ok to rank competitions, they are obviously set in a hierarchy of what's best to worst, but they're all still important competitions.

I think winning what's seen as the weakest European one is still massive for the club and it's fanbase. If we were perennial winners of competitions then I think we could afford to be a bit snotty about certain ones, but we are the polar opposite of that.

Embrace it, enjoy it... I don't see the point in doing anything else.

I also don’t see the point in not being honest about the competition though.

I’d still enjoy us being in it, but when we look back and see the likes of Fulham, Brighton and Brentford winning it it won’t be considered that great of an achievement.

We’ll see how much the fanbase embraces it next season if we’re in it.

I suspect they’ll be a lot of empty seats for the majority of the games and they’ll feel like pre season friendlies.