European Football

[SoccerHQ]

I'd give this a pass for the moment.

What I want next season is a comfortable season with no relegation danger whatsoever. Something like Stoke and Swansea have had, floating around 8-10th for most of the season although with goals and exciting games to make it more interesting.

Obviously I want to win the FA cup but I wouldn't give a moments thought if we went out in the play offs as we did under O'Neill or exited at the group stages as I just think our squad isn't ready and it would just be a hindrance to our league form and I don't want any relegation battle next season.

[Dave]

I'd give this a pass for the moment.

What I want next season is a comfortable season with no relegation danger whatsoever. Something like Stoke and Swansea have had

Haven't both Stoke and Swansea played in the Europa league in the last couple of seasons?

[cdbearsfan]

Yep. In fact, I'm struggling to think of a team who has played a large number of European games and gone down. Even Small Heath combined a top six place (admittedly in a lower division) with a reasonable go at Europe.

[SoccerHQ]

I meant the seasons Swansea and Stoke have had this year. Both have floated around 8-12th for most of this season, never in any relegation danger whatsoever. I want us to have that sort of season next year.

If you remember Swansea were near the relegation zone for a bit of last season, imo that was down to them being in the europa league as they had a lot of poor results on the following Sunday after games and their form picked up after going out and they stayed up comfortably in the end.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'd give this a pass for the moment.

What I want next season is a comfortable season with no relegation danger whatsoever. Something like Stoke and Swansea have had

Haven't both Stoke and Swansea played in the Europa league in the last couple of seasons?

And both had their lowest finishes since getting promoted. In the season they played in Europe I mean.

[passitsideways]

Well, looking at Stoke's point tally, that wasn't really affected all that much. Went from 46 down to 45 in the season they played in Europe, and then they placed higher the next season despite having 42. The placings are really all about the rest of the teams in the league I'd say.

Meanwhile, with Swansea, you could say that there were other factors - I'm pretty sure by that point Laudrup had worn out his welcome by talking himself up about a bigger job; and also, looking at Wikipedia, he appeared to have been sacked by Swansea because of a poor stretch of two months or so from February 4 backwards, which probably stretches back only to their final group stage game.

I don't think there's anything too conclusive you can gain from those two cases.