Don't care.
Tin pot cup for losers. Those who couldn't make it at the big boys level.
It's all embarrassing. Which suits Wenger down to the ground because he's the ultimate embarrassment in football.
If we played the kids I'd be interested. But watching 300K a week players beat up on a bunch of Swedish part timers - big wow. Degrading really.
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Guess we’ll go full on second string with the Milk Cup final 3 days later.
I disagree massively.Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
It's not the Champions League and of course I'd rather we were in that but it seems to be a tournament thought of in more diminishing terms over here than anywhere else in Europe. Plus really, if we ever hope to win that tournament when we're eventually sans Wenger I think we as a club need to learn how to win European ties, even though of course the quality would eventually be a lot higher in the Champions League. Perhaps it's a tournament that you have to win to avoid mockery but there are really some quite good teams in it.
Also, are Ostersunds any worse than the filth we've faced in the Champions League group stages recently?
They need to change it back to the UEFA cup. At least that had some prestige.
I’ve always felt it should mirror the CL. 32 teams only. Makes it a little more exclusive.
I don’t think having CL drop outs helps with its reputation as being second rate.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 18-02-2018 at 12:26 PM.
Even the CL is packed with losing teams. So a level below that you have a whole tournament of losers, including the teams that couldn't hack it in the CL. Yes, it's still a European competition and true, it would be useful if we could learn how to win one of those, or even compete. But the point is, Wenger has taken us down a level from the top tier and our presence in this tournament underlines the fact. Chances are we'll be in it next season too - maybe. Maybe, because right now it's far from certain given our form. We're either aspire to be a top club or we don't. If we accept this tournament as in any way prestigious it acknowledges and reinforces our second tier status and makes a mockery of our supposed status in the game. Wenger might be happy to put up with it, the players who haven't already left may be satisfied too, our crappy owner might be chuffed (although I suspect he's not) - but I don't think the fans should be satisfied with this. It's horribly reminiscent of the Top 4 Trophy thing, except at an even lower level.
I'm not saying I don't want to win it. We're in it so we might as well go for it. But I'd hate it to cover over the disgraceful job Wenger has done and it's just too horrible to contemplate him getting another contract on the back of a second tier triumph. It would be so him.
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With teams like Atlético, Lazio, Dortmund, Lyon etc still in it, you truly don’t have to worry about that
We have no chance of winning the Europa league
I think the CL drop outs actually raises the quality and prestige of the thing. Perhaps not entirely by perception, but in reality a lot of the best teams in it are the CL drop outs.
If the reputation is that it is a second tier competition, that is fair enough because that is essentially and precisely what it is, but as Maccy suggests, there isn't quite the contempt for it on the continent that there is here......
As it's second tier, I won't try too hard to convince anybody they should care about it, but it is our level and we are in it, so surely everybody should want us to win it, even if they can't bring themselves to care that strongly about it. My argument was very similar about the league cup before many people cared and before we had reached the final.
The feeling of pulverising a viking village pub team by the north pole is still better than the disgusting feeling of being done 5-1 by Bayern.....even if the quality is sheepishly embarrassing.
Last edited by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice; 19-02-2018 at 11:24 AM.
The ultimate irony of course being that the only way we are going to break the cycle of the Europa league is by finishing 7th (unless I'm mistaken) or winning the thing!
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