Reflections on Conference League

[LeeB]

I hear that a lot but have yet to see any hard evidence of Turkey voting patterns.

[Demitri_C]

I agree with Lee. There is no space in the calendar, as shown by them cancelling FA Cup replays. The PL plays more games than most European leagues as it's a 20 team league but that is not going to change as it would take 14 of the 20 teams to agree to reduce to 18 teams and turkeys don't have a strong history of voting for Christmas.

I would have happily played brighton midweek next week of meant we got a week off to prepare for olympiakos

[Rico]

I'm not saying that the Premier League should cancel fixtures to help teams in Europe. Just stating a fact that both Lille and Olympiacos had no games before each match which I think showed. They looked fitter than us on both occasions. It was massively disappointing because I think the Villa team at Christmas would have destroyed both Lille and Olympiacos (not at the same time though)

[Lsvilla]

I agree with Lee. There is no space in the calendar, as shown by them cancelling FA Cup replays. The PL plays more games than most European leagues as it's a 20 team league but that is not going to change as it would take 14 of the 20 teams to agree to reduce to 18 teams and turkeys don't have a strong history of voting for Christmas.

I would have happily played brighton midweek next week of meant we got a week off to prepare for olympiakos

Trouble is Brighton have a game on Wednesday (rearranged from the latters cup run I imagine without checking). The only way is to reduce the division to 18. Will it happen ? Most unlikely. Personally - and perhaps not for this thread - I would take the top 5 divisions (120 clubs) and with the top 32 create a PL and PL 2 then 4 divisions of 22. There's enough top sides to make 32 attractive for TV so the money keeps rolling in for the teams who sit from 10th down - and fewer games for the elites to allow them to concentrate on Europe as well as the PL.

[Ads]

Reduce the size of the league. We don't need mobs like Sheffield United or Wolves wasting our time.

[Bad English]

I'm not saying that the Premier League should cancel fixtures to help teams in Europe. Just stating a fact that both Lille and Olympiacos had no games before each match which I think showed. They looked fitter than us on both occasions. It was massively disappointing because I think the Villa team at Christmas would have destroyed both Lille and Olympiacos (not at the same time though)

Once again, the French Ligue 1 has 18 teams, and the Greeks 14. So they have more wiggle-room in their calendar.

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't know whether it's a stick or twist issue, really. Once we got to game 33 or whatever it was and we were in pole position to get Champions League, it would have been perfectly understandable for Emery to play a second string in the Conference League. But would we as a fan base have accepted that? As it is, we've done our best to do both, but in hindsight maybe we should have chucked this in.

The co-efficient fucked us. If we could have settled for fifth two or three weeks ago we could have rested players and I think we’d have got to the final.

[AV84]

I'm only really disappointed for the younger villa fans who haven't seen us win anything.
Personally I'm indifferent towards the competition. For me Champions league qualification was always the priority and the conference league was like a ramp up event to better things. Am I gutted we didn't win it? Cant say i am. Will I be gutted if we don't get 4th place? Absolutely.

Depends on what you mean by younger, but people below a certain age have never seen us even be competitive on the level we are now. And they're still fans! This season should have been a brilliant new experience for them too.

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't know whether it's a stick or twist issue, really. Once we got to game 33 or whatever it was and we were in pole position to get Champions League, it would have been perfectly understandable for Emery to play a second string in the Conference League. But would we as a fan base have accepted that? As it is, we've done our best to do both, but in hindsight maybe we should have chucked this in.

The co-efficient fucked us. If we could have settled for fifth two or three weeks ago we could have rested players and I think we’d have got to the final.

I agree. Marginal gains in some of this, and at this end of an insanely busy season, they really count.

[Percy McCarthy]

I'm with Tim on that one, Torres is brilliant with the ball at his feet, and in a confident team with the likes of Kamara fit, he looks world class. The actual defending part of his game is much less strong and when we're up against it, he usually looks ropey as anything.

The first goal is a case in point,
The eventual scorer is behind Pau, frantically waving his arms, to say I am here free give me the ball, Pau is ball watching and moves to close the space, at no point does he even check to see what is behind him, the ball gets played across, the space doesn't score but the bloke who Pau has been oblivious to does. Game over.
School boy stuff.

He did check actually. They highlighted it on the erm… highlights show.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I am just back from Athens and I want to thank our super fans who made it an enjoyable experience. Good natured in town, supporting the Villa all the way through - especially the half time 'Thursday Night' singing and then the class act of applauding the Olympiacus team and fans at the end.

Just reading tonnes of comments from their fans who apart from being shocked as they'd never seen anything like it, now have so much respect for our club but especially our fans. Well done one and all.

[olaftab]

One thing that was great to see was the clapping between the fans villa and the greeks at the end of the season. Alot of mutual repsect from both clubs. Alot of videos showing it. Class

Although we lost i was a proud greek last night to see that.

We clapped Olympiacos when they came over to our corner during their lap of say honour so in return all around their fans clapped us. Lot of scarves and flags were exchanged. That’s how it should be.

[Dave]

One thing that was great to see was the clapping between the fans villa and the greeks at the end of the season. Alot of mutual repsect from both clubs. Alot of videos showing it. Class

Although we lost i was a proud greek last night to see that.

We clapped Olympiacos when they came over to our corner during their lap of say honour so in return all around their fans clapped us. Lot of scarves and flags were exchanged. That’s how it should be.

Yup, very nice to hear.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We clapped Olympiacos when they came over to our corner during their lap of say honour so in return all around their fans clapped us. Lot of scarves, wallets and flags were exchanged. That’s how it should be.

FTFY

[olaftab]

😂😂😂 Love it RCF.