Would finishing 5th be so bad?

[Joker]

There was an interesting article by Goodplaya questioning whether if we do qualify for the Champions League, it will merely paper over the cracks:

http://www.goodplaya.com/blog/a-part...g-in-disguise/

He's right, the club seems to be stagnating at the moment, with little ambition to do anything beyond the stated target at the start of the season. If we do get 3rd, I can see Wenger saying we have done extremely well despite the turbulent start to the season (which was entirely his and Gazidis' fault for failing to properly replace Nasri and Cesc even though they must have known both were going to leave early in the summer) and therefore massive surgery is not required. He's already said there may not be massive movement in the transfer window, which sounds as if he's preparing us for more disappointment in terms of new players coming in.

Perhaps a year where we fail to qualify for the Champions League will force the club to ask deep searching questions about our ambitions. Maybe it will make us realise that when setting your targets low, you'll end up doing the bare minimum to achieve those targets which can eventually result in you failing to make those targets anyway.

Yes, you could argue that it will be financially catastrophic but I'm sure Gazidis said that there are contingencies in place in case we don't qualify for the Champions League, so I doubt it will leave us financially crippled. Others will say we'll fail to bring in top quality players, but when in the recent past have we bought in top quality players even though we were in the Champions League? I wouldn't call Gervinho, Squillaci, Chamakh, Santos, Park, Bischoff, Silvestre etc top quality.

If we do end up in the Europa League, and end up winning it, maybe it'll generate that winning mentality that has been so severely lacking in our team for several years, and which explains our end of season collapses and cup exits. Having said all this though, it's probable that if we do qualify for the Europa, Wenger will simply treat it like the FA Cup/Carling Cup.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I just don't want to finish below Spurs and can't see past that.

But I take a similar view over the same old same old should we qualify for the CL.

[KSE Comedy Club]

From the position we are in now, yes I would be disappointed.

[Marc Overmars]

It would be a giant step back for the club.

[Xhaka Can’t]

And for mankind.

[Ernesto]

I just can't bring myself to "wish" for us to finish outside the top 4, in the small hope that it may bring big change. It seems a little masochistic.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

There was an interesting article by Goodplaya questioning whether if we do qualify for the Champions League, it will merely paper over the cracks:

http://www.goodplaya.com/blog/a-part...g-in-disguise/

He's right, the club seems to be stagnating at the moment, with little ambition to do anything beyond the stated target at the start of the season. If we do get 3rd, I can see Wenger saying we have done extremely well despite the turbulent start to the season (which was entirely his and Gazidis' fault for failing to properly replace Nasri and Cesc even though they must have known both were going to leave early in the summer) and therefore massive surgery is not required. He's already said there may not be massive movement in the transfer window, which sounds as if he's preparing us for more disappointment in terms of new players coming in.

Perhaps a year where we fail to qualify for the Champions League will force the club to ask deep searching questions about our ambitions. Maybe it will make us realise that when setting your targets low, you'll end up doing the bare minimum to achieve those targets which can eventually result in you failing to make those targets anyway.

Yes, you could argue that it will be financially catastrophic but I'm sure Gazidis said that there are contingencies in place in case we don't qualify for the Champions League, so I doubt it will leave us financially crippled. Others will say we'll fail to bring in top quality players, but when in the recent past have we bought in top quality players even though we were in the Champions League? I wouldn't call Gervinho, Squillaci, Chamakh, Santos, Park, Bischoff, Silvestre etc top quality.

If we do end up in the Europa League, and end up winning it, maybe it'll generate that winning mentality that has been so severely lacking in our team for several years, and which explains our end of season collapses and cup exits. Having said all this though, it's probable that if we do qualify for the Europa, Wenger will simply treat it like the FA Cup/Carling Cup.

No it won't change anything, the board will still be the board and the manager will still be the manager.

If we finish 5th from where we are now then it is bad at least we should finish is 3/4th.

their is nothing to say we'd go and win the Europa league even if we'd have a better chance to win it.

Id not be too dissapointed if i knew things would change for the better but i doubt they will.

[Syn]

It is probably a short-sighted view but, from the fans' point of view, we don't really see the financial benefits from CL revenue. If we were attracting top players and making some £20m signings on big names then I could see the impact. But as it is, we tend to go for UEFA Cup standard names; these £10m Gervinho signings can be good...but it's not likely to be a game changer.

Newcastle aren't in the CL and they've managed to attract 2 good strikers. That's what I think we'd continue to do even if we was not in the CL.

I would enjoy watching us the Europa League - even more so if we get far. But the CL is a status that suggests you're a top club. And I even missed our participation in the Quarters this year. Watching the group stage matches next year would be far less exciting for me if we weren't in it. I know we don't have much chance of winning it, but watching us play at the highest level is what it's all about.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

It is probably a short-sighted view but, from the fans' point of view, we don't really see the financial benefits from CL revenue. If we were attracting top players and making some £20m signings on big names then I could see the impact. But as it is, we tend to go for UEFA Cup standard names; these £10m Gervinho signings can be good...but it's not likely to be a game changer.

Newcastle aren't in the CL and they've managed to attract 2 good strikers. That's what I think we'd continue to do even if we was not in the CL.

I would enjoy watching us the Europa League - even more so if we get far. But the CL is a status that suggests you're a top club. And I even missed our participation in the Quarters this year. Watching the group stage matches next year would be far less exciting for me if we weren't in it. I know we don't have much chance of winning it, but watching us play at the highest level is what it's all about.

[Özim]

In terms of revenue obviously it's a bad thing, but as for the rest I don't think it's so bad.

The CL is all very good but I can't say I enjoy us just making up the numbers, which is in effect exactly what we do every year, we do have a hope of winning it, not because we have no chance of competing but because we refuse to sign the quality we'd really need. The players that make all the difference are the top quality players in these big game situations and a sadly we really barely have any.

In a sense the Europa League would be more enjoyable as I think we'd have a much better chance of doing well, my real hope would be that dropping out of the CL would be the shock the club needs, but sadly I feel that's only going to come if the money dries up which seems unlikely.

The sad thing about our situation at the moment is that although we do OK overally by being well placed in the league, we have in reality no chance of success, there are teams further down in the league thta have a greater chance (as has been proven by some clubs cup successes). We've actually had teams that have been placed lower down in the league but that genuinely had a chance of picking up other trophies (like in the Graham days).