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Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 10:43 am
by bigmanbob
Nothing to do with the disharmony caused by him openly criticising the club for selling all his best players?

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 11:09 am
by 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 :whistle:

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 11:16 am
by TheRam
bigmanbob wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 10:43 am 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.

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:10 pm
by Bluedylan1
Toddacelli wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 7:43 am 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.

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 5:38 pm
by Toddacelli
I don’t think I’ve recovered from Shrewsbury.

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2026 6:47 pm
by NickNack
How many signings do we think we need to be able to compete in European competition and the PL?

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2026 9:17 pm
by Cereal Killer
NickNack wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 6:47 pm 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

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 7:41 am
by 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.

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 9:22 am
by Evertonfc15
TheRam wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:04 am 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

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 11:21 am
by 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

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 1:14 pm
by AjaxAndy
superpull wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2026 11:21 am 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.

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 1:15 pm
by 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!

Re: The race for... Europe?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2026 1:44 pm
by 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