Will we qualify for the CL?

[Meanwood Villa]

Yeah no one complained about it until this season. I know people have been saying the CL teams not dropping down has affected the quality of the comp, which I can understand but I do think it's a bit of a freak occurrence this season that the two finalists have been so dreadful domestically.

[cdbearsfan]

Maybe not that much of a coincidence. I think the Europa League is the worst for domestic football. The Thursday-Sunday turnaround seems to be more problematic than the Tuesday/Wednesday-weekend one you get in the Champions League, but you don't get any Welsh/Irish/Finnish type nonsense like you do in the Conference League allowing you to rest players.

They have done especially dreadfully, but I do think we will struggle more to adapt if we are in the Europa League next season than either of the other two.

[PeterWithesShin]

I much prefer the new format, especially teams not dropping down a competition. It was ridiculous that you had cases of a team playing in all 3 in a single season.

[cdbearsfan]

I much prefer the new format, especially teams not dropping down a competition. It was ridiculous that you had cases of a team playing in all 3 in a single season.

Agree (although the latter circumstance can still happen if you include qualifying rounds).

[Dave]

I don't really care which of those two shit house clubs win unless there is a slant which impacts us, and there is

I'd rather play Man United without them having the boost of having won a European trophy a few days before. Therefore, I hope Spurs win.

With respect, I think that's a bit short-sighted as to which impacts Villa.

As per the above, it's easy to make the argument that a (even more) broken demoralised Man Utd is the better one to play. It's equally valid that a tools-down, slightly-hungover version who don't need to give a toss about turning up on the last day is the better one to play. In truth, we *should* beat either version comfortably anyway.

When they sack Postecoglou, Spurs will be better next season than they have been this. People seem to have completely written them off forever now, much like they decided in the two seasons prior to this one that Chelsea were now an irrelevent joke that we didn't need to worry about any more. I remember last summer there were people on here absolutely losing their minds that various pundits were predicting that Chelsea might finish above us this season.

Spurs finished fifth last season and this will be the first time that they've finished lower than eighth since 2008. Until recently the "Spursy" moniker was due to them not winning the league when Leicester did and not winnning the Champions League final. Give them a slightly better manager than the current one, the Champions League to attract players (exactly the sort of players that we would presumably be interested in) and another £150m to spend and they're competing for the positions that we want to be in, like they have been every season until this one for the last twenty years.

The current Man Utd are far more likely to mess up the additional money and power that the Champions League gives them, just like they did last season. They've got an old, unsuitable squad that they can't sell, and the £50m of Champions League money will probably just go to paying off Amorim and his staff when that Brexit twat sacks him in November because they're only ninth in the league.

Maybe both clubs snap out of it and sort themselves out. They definitely will at some point in the next ten years. But Spurs being in the Champions League next season probably makes a big difference to us. Man Utd being in the Champions League probably doesn't.

[Meanwood Villa]

I also prefer the new format, just acknowledging that there will be an inevitable link made between the perceived weakness of the competition with the abysmal quality of the teams in the final. Personally I doubt something like this will happen again.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Yeah no one complained about it until this season. I know people have been saying the CL teams not dropping down has affected the quality of the comp, which I can understand but I do think it's a bit of a freak occurrence this season that the two finalists have been so dreadful domestically.

I've not watched any of the Europa League, so how bad has it been this season, when the two teams contesting the final have lost 39 games between them in the same domestic league?

[Meanwood Villa]

To Dave, what you say may be true but I prefer to see Man Utd suffer as much as possible

[cdbearsfan]

There's a lot of guesswork, there. No different  to the guesswork by any of those who say they'd rather Man U lost, as below.

By the sounds of it Tottenham will be sacking the manager regardless. It might work, it might not. But they'll effectively be resetting next season either way, whether they're in the Champions League or not.

A Man United win would lift the whole club. They lose and are, as reports indicate, stupid enough to keep Amorim, they'll start next season with a cloud hanging over them, probably sack him in about October when it's difficult to attract top managers, and likely spend much of next season roughly where they are now.

I reckon 🙂

[PeterWithesShin]

We won the European Cup while losing 15 league games and finishing 11th. Do any of us care we were pretty crap in the league that season?

[Dave]

There's a lot of guesswork, there. No different  to the guesswork by any of those who say they'd rather Man U lost, as below.

By the sounds of it Tottenham will be sacking the manager regardless. It might work, it might not. But they'll effectively be resetting next season either way, whether they're in the Champions League or not.

A Man United win would lift the whole club. They lose and are, as reports indicate, stupid enough to keep Amorim, they'll start next season with a cloud hanging over them, probably sack him in about October when it's difficult to attract top managers, and likely spend much of next season roughly where they are now.

I reckon 🙂

Yes, they will do a complete reset when (and it is when) they change manager. And as we've learned, a reset from a demonstrably awful manager to a manager who might not be awful is likely to mean they're better.

A Man Utd win probably would lift the whole club. Just like winning the FA Cup did last year. And winning the League Cup and qualifying for the Champions League did the year before.  And yet they still keep getting worse, not better.

So let's have a world like this one where both are still in crisis, and we're laughing at both of them rather than one in which us and Spurs are both laughing at Man Utd.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's guesswork either way. And unless we travel to different universes to see the outcome of both scenarios that's all it will ever be.

[eamonn]

Yeah, when is AI going to make that possible?

[Meanwood Villa]

In terms of ease/quality of opposition, they played the following teams this season:

Man Utd

Twente (H)
Porto (A)
Fenerbache (A)
PAOK (H)
Bodo/Glimt (H)
Viktoria Plzen (A)
Rangers (H)
FCSB (A)

Knockouts

Real Sociedad
Lyon
Athletic Bilbao

Spurs

Qarabag (H)
Ferencvaros (A)
AZ (H)
Galatasaray (A)
Roma (H)
Rangers (A)
Hoffenheim (A)
Elfsborg (H)

Knockouts

AZ
Eintracht Frankfurt
Bodo/Glimt

My observations are that i think there are a couple of group stage matches that look like opportunities to rest players and, in fairness to Man Utd, their knockout fixtures look quite tough on paper.

[cdbearsfan]

Maybe, but it's still like playing 1960 Real Madrid every game compared to the shite Chelsea have played.