Europa League as our best chance of Champions League place next season

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OffTheBench

OffTheBench

I've been reading a lot of comments suggesting that winning Europa League is our easiest, most simple or best chance of getting to the Champions League next season.
I'm genuinely curious why so many people think this.
Aside from the fact that anything but a win on Thursday puts us out, we have not got past the quarter finals of the Uefa Cup or EL since, I believe, the 80s. The knock out, no room for error nature of the competition makes it very hard to win, despite its undeserved poor reputation.

In contrast, we've come fourth in the league twice in the last five seasons.

I'm pretty sure the bookies strongly agree- will seek out the odds when I get a chance.

Anyway, I think this is worthy of its own debate.
 
1 bad night & u are out of the EL. So hard to win. & i feel u need a lot of luck along the way too
 
I guess it should be easier on paper to win the EL. But i think the "if we win, good for us. if we lose, whatever" attitude often brings us down. And it's probably not as easy as we think, as many others have pointed out, you need lots of luck.
 
... but if we somehow would manage to get to the final, or even a semi-final of the EL, damn i would be excited. Much more than by a league cup final to be honest.
 
I think the best way to compare is to check the odds.

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/europa-league/winner

typical price, 20/1 to win the EL

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish

typical price,11/2 to finish top 4

No comparison really. According to punters/bookies we've got a far better chance of finishing top 4, and I agree with that assessment.

For me, we should send the reserves to Florence and concentrate on the domestic front.

From what I read, Poch is taking the 'full Monty' to Italy, and I think it's a major mistake.

To me, as I've said time and again since our scandalous January inactivity we've gonna fuck it up on all fronts, and it's gonna be an ultimately disappointing season.

We'll probably get EL again, and guess what, it will be probably be 'rinse and repeat' as ENIC fail to back us again, and leave us 'best of the rest', but hopelessly behind the 'big 5'.

We'll doubtless lose Lloris and Eriksen in the next couple of years, etc, etc, e fucking cetera.:)
 
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I think what the OP is implying is 'we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket' which is very sensible and realistic.

As much as annoying it is the truth is Utd, Woolwich and Dippers have a little bit more quality than us and seem mentally/psychologically stronger. Majority of our 1st teamers are still gaining experience and maturing and Pochettino is building one of the greatest Spurs side in history, he deserves at least two season to build a proper team that is likely to challenge major honors in near future.

A cup win and top 6 will do for me, Champions league football will be a bonus. Key word is 'we are in transition'.
 
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MindBlown said:
I think what the OP is implying is 'we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket' which is very sensible and realistic.

As much as it's annoying the truth is Utd, Woolwich and Dippers have a little bit more quality than us and seem mentally/psychologically stronger. Majority of our 1st teamers are still gaining experience and maturing and Pochettino is building one of the greatest Spurs side in history, he deserves at least two season to build a proper team that is likely to challenge major honors in near future.

A cup win and top 6 will do for me, Champions league football will be a bonus. Key word is 'we are in transition'.
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I very much think we should put all our eggs in one basket this week, and go for the Wembley game.

If our reserves can beat Fiorentina then great, we challenge on two fronts, otherwise we may have a cup and we can still go for top 4 which we are more likely to get than winning the EL.

By spreading our eggs over two baskets this week, we're going end up with a load of splattered yolks, as we drop both baskets, and we're left with just chasing top 4, but without the boost of that all important trophy, that could transform our decade.
 
Greaves357_bestever said:
I very much think we should put all our eggs in one basket this week, and go for the Wembley game.

If our reserves can beat Fiorentina then great, we challenge on two fronts, otherwise we may have a cup and we can still go for top 4 which we are more likely to get than winning the EL.

By spreading our eggs over two baskets this week, we're going end up with a load of splattered yolks, as we drop both baskets, and we're left with just chasing top 4, but without the boost of that all important trophy, that could transform our decade.
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I disagree, I think we should put more effort in winning EL as much as we do in fighting for top 4. I 'd love us to take EL serious even more than top 4 finish.
 
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I
Greaves357_bestever said:
I think the best way to compare is to check the odds.

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/europa-league/winner

typical price, 20/1 to win the EL

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish

typical price,11/2 to finish top 4

No comparison really. According to punters/bookies we've got a far better chance of finishing top 4, and I agree with that assessment.

For me, we should send the reserves to Florence and concentrate on the domestic front.

From what I read, Poch is taking the 'full Monty' to Italy, and I think it's a major mistake.

To me, as I've said time and again since our scandalous January inactivity we've gonna fuck it up on all fronts, and it's gonna be an ultimately disappointing season.

We'll probably get EL again, and guess what, it will be probably be 'rinse and repeat' as ENIC fail to back us again, and leave us 'best of the rest', but hopelessly behind the 'big 5'.

We'll doubtless lose Lloris and Eriksen in the next couple of years, etc, etc, e fucking cetera.:)
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I agree with the top half- those were the odds I was talking about.
 
MindBlown said:
I disagree, I think we should put more effort in winning EL as much as we do in fighting for top 4. I 'd love us to take EL serious even more than top 4 finish.
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Fair enough, all about opinions. I think the EL has helped to kill our top 4 chances, and by going for it, it'll almost certainly kill both our domestic challenges, and we still won't win it. We'll be fucked over by some ref, for sure.
HAD ENIC backed us in January I might have a different view, but they didn't, so I don't.
 
FightingIllini said:
Right, but that's only after our draw in the home leg with Fiorentina.

I'm actually surprised we're not longer odds for Top 4 though.

Give me United 5/6 all day long.
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Well exactly, they are the current odds, that's where we're at and IMO we're going out on Thursday, eggs in one basket, two baskets or a whole farm full of baskets.

We blew it in January, and Poch's just a manager not a miracle worker.
 
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