Could our Champions League exit end up being a blessing in disguise?

Dante

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Greck said:
this year's team is really deep. We signed a lot of depth so we could compete on multiple fronts. Top 4 isn't a football goal, it's a financial one, it's not meant to get in the way of aiming for cups
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We never had a realistic chance of winning the CL this season. Your don't get anything for just participating.

The goal for this season had to be maintaining our place in the league. We need to stop being a yo-yo club for the top 4 and cement our place as challengers.

The Premier League currently has 6 teams capable of winning the title. This isn't like the early 2000s where we just had to show up to be in with a shout. Before we start making designs on Europe, we have to be secure at home.
 

Forevergiggs1

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So let me get this right. You think it's a blessing in disguise being knocked out of the CL so we can concentrate on the league this season to qualify for the CL next season? Something doesn't quite add up here.
 

Greck

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Dante said:
We never had a realistic chance of winning the CL this season. Your don't get anything for just participating.

The goal for this season had to be maintaining our place in the league. We need to stop being a yo-yo club for the top 4 and cement our place as challengers.

The Premier League currently has 6 teams capable of winning the title. This isn't like the early 2000s where we just had to show up to be in with a shout. Before we start making designs on Europe, we have to be secure at home.
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A positive CL campaign is also part of not being a yo-yo club. You can't pick and choose competitions you feel like displaying progress. Secondly our goal this season is to maintain or improve our standing in all competitions, not just domestically. Progress isn't selective, it shows all across the board. Not sure who made that criteria that domestic improvement was the only goal. We probably didn't expect to have a realistic chance of winning the league, so would finishing high just be a participation trophy? No, because as you said it displays progress. That same rationale applies in every competition we are a part of
 

Dante

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Forevergiggs1 said:
So let me get this right. You think it's a blessing in disguise being knocked out of the CL so we can concentrate on the league this season to qualify for the CL next season? Something doesn't quite add up here.
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Nobody wins the CL out of nowhere. It's a process of learning from failures and building up experience.

Two seasons in a row of CL experience is better than one season of getting to the quarter finals followed by missing out for a year or two.

Then there's also the massive amount of income that CL qualification brings. And the fact we'll be better able to attract/hold on to players when we can make a case for being CL regulars. The best a yo-yo club can say is that they might be in the CL. We need to be able to say that we will be in the CL. Actual success is more likely to follow from that.
 

Dante

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Greck said:
A positive CL campaign is also part of not being a yo-yo club. You can't pick and choose competitions you feel like displaying progress. Secondly our goal this season is to maintain or improve our standing in all competitions, not just domestically. Progress isn't selective, it shows all across the board. Not sure who made that criteria that domestic improvement was the only goal. We probably didn't expect to have a realistic chance of winning the league, so would finishing high just be a participation trophy? No, because as you said it displays progress. That same rationale applies in every competition we are a part of
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Of course you can. The league is the most important competition. Everything else is gravy.
 

Sayros

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To me, it's not a blessing in disguise, it was an absolute choke job and embarrassing for the club. It's not a good look to attract top level talent to come play here. I do respect the mental gymnastics to turn it into some kind of positive though, it's good to stay optimistic.
 

Green_Red

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It would only be a blessing if we get knocked out of the europa league in our first game too. Thursday night football is worse than tuesday/Wednesday.
 

HowYouDoin

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Yeah just like the last 7 years of failures. What a blessing in disguise.

Heres a life lesson kiddos. Stick to it.

Winning breeds winning. Losing breeds losing. Simple as.


Blessings in disguise and moral victories are rare. Usually when you need to change your path. Had we changed our path after being eliminated and decided to do something different, sure you could maybe argue blessing in disguise but as it is, its just more losing, more loss of status, more of a loss in terms of being taken seriously as a big club etc. Bottom line, lower standards and more losing. Thats what we got from it.
 

Sandikan

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Ah the classic blessing in disguise thread.
Can go to bed happy all is well with the cafe now
 

Sandikan

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Green_Red said:
It would only be a blessing if we get knocked out of the europa league in our first game too. Thursday night football is worse than tuesday/Wednesday.
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We can rotate a lot easier in that mess of a cup though.
 

Nou_Camp99

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The schedule this season is like nothing we have seen before. I'd rest a few vs Everton in the league Cup for sure. Does that make our task harder if we do? Yes. However if we continue to use the same 15 to 16 players till May we won't be winning anything anyway. They will run out of gas way before then.

I think we need to take every game seriously but with also the understanding that Bruno and Maguire etc can't play every single game.

The league this year is bonkers. Nobody looks great. If we can have a good few weeks coming up and maybe add a defender in January you just never know what could happen. We probably won't win it but it would be great if we were in the mix wouldn't it? That was the goal in September after all. We wanted to be in the mix.
 

GiddyUp

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Like Sam Allardyce, fight tooth and nail to finish in the European spots while complaining that playing in Europe is hindering you from qualifying for Europe.
Getting knocked out of any competition is not a bonus. It's a negative mark on your season.
 

cyril C

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If you want to concentrate in domestic, you need to be like Inter, get knock out completely. While Europa 16 might be 2 games for the kids, when it comes to QF or Semi, it will be games for the men. More exhausting I think, particularly when Bruno must play, like he did at the FA Cup last season. What comes next will be the manager complaining about 60 games season, but Bruno can only play 55 games without resting...
 

RedDevil@84

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No it's not. Had we lost first 2 games and went out, at least there would have been an argument that this is not our level yet.
But we won the first 2 games and made a complete clown of ourselves by being unable to get 1 pt from 2 games, leave alone the fact that one of those teams, were beaten by 5 goals previously.

Bottle jobs don't really translate into success in league, unless you are in a league where you are the only top dog.
 

Matthew84!

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We had no chance of winning the champions league but its given our players a taste of it so hopefully that'll give them a kick up the arse to do well in the league or win the europa league, gotta look on the bright side especially now a days when we lose quite a few a season,
 

archiebald

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If the alternative is playing in the Europa league then hell no.

Playing in a top-level European competition, even if we don't win it, is still beneficial for the development of our team. Good exposure to teams that play in a different style from the usual PL clubs.
 

Yagami

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Big Ben Foster said:
So you're saying it's a good thing we got knocked out of the CL because it means we can concentrate on qualifying for next year's CL?
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Sky1981 said:
CL is not important. We should focus on top 4 so that we can get into CL.
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We've all been worried about turning into Liverpool that it's gone unnoticed that we've sunk even further. We're in Arsenal territory now.
 

Water Melon

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GiddyUp said:
Like Sam Allardyce, fight tooth and nail to finish in the European spots while complaining that playing in Europe is hindering you from qualifying for Europe.
Getting knocked out of any competition is not a bonus. It's a negative mark on your season.
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This
Sky1981 said:
CL is not important. We should focus on top 4 so that we can get into CL.
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And this
 

saeed

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But I'm pretty sure ole never rest first team for any competition. Even he doesn't use his subs properly.
 

Greck

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Sky1981 said:
CL is not important. We should focus on top 4 so that we can get into CL.
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This. People talking about making top 4 the priority and in the same breath saying to disregard the CL. Top 4 CL qualification was intended for the PLC side of the club not the FC. Unless you're a shareholder you shouldn't treat it like a trophy we should put above all else
 
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UNITED ACADEMY

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el3mel said:
Haha guess our Arsenal transformation is about done.
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Arsenal never make progress every season, they stayed the same for years under Wenger and slowly going step backward. People don't seem to understand the difference between Arsenal achieved top 4 under Wenger and our current expectation.

What we want is making progress for the sake of winning the league. From top 4 with 66 points to top 4 80 points plus (if we make it) is sign of progress that we are closing the gaps with title winners and then next following season we can start put expectation to win it. Try to win the league first then we can start talking about CL, end of the day the league is much more important than the CL.
 

devilish

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CL is money. The higher we go the more we make. Its also serves as more exposure to our sponsors. How long do you think that sponsors will keep paying premium only to see us being kicked out by some Istanbul side?

Those who are happy we got out of the CL so early would probably expect the club to invest heavily in the transfer market. They probably also believe that our manager cannot beat clubs with 1/4 of our budget and that we are setting him to fail
 

RedBanker

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Wait so getting kicked out of CL was another whoop whoop masterclass?
 

Le Red

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Yeah being out of the knockout stages of the UCL or the whole competition altogether has done us wonders in the recent seasons.
Good Lord...
 

Nicolarra90

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When did the OP talk about top 4?

He's clearly talking about winning the league... even if it's a fluke win.

I think this is our best shot at it since Fergie retired... and yes, I've been in that train for some weeks and won't be coming down until we are over 15 pts from the leader
 

Wilt

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Getting knocked out of Europes top club competition a ‘blessing in disguise‘ ?

Liverpool, City and Chelsea have fecked up big time.

That sly fecker Ole knows what he’s doing.
 

reddev3

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Sometimes I wonder what Utd games people watch on here? You don't win the league just by having extra rest. We have looked crap in virtually every premiere league game we have played this season, In fact our only decent performance came against Everton after the shortest turn around.

We are not winning the league this year no matter what we do.
 

roonster09

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No it's not. Players would love to be part of biggest games, I don't see any positives in getting knocked out of CL.
 

Acheron

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That's a really weird way to react and I think it's small time thinking but at the same time getting past the group stages should be a lot easier than winning the league so I wouldn't had my hopes up after several poor football displays followed by an embarrassing elimination in the group stages.
 

GameOn

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Sigh, the same discussion every single year...

No, there is nothing positive about it.

It significantly hurts our image, we get way less money and we also have to play the EL.

We're not winning the PL, so resting players isn't an argument either.
 

georgipep

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Dante said:
Nobody wins the CL out of nowhere. It's a process of learning from failures and building up experience.

Two seasons in a row of CL experience is better than one season of getting to the quarter finals followed by missing out for a year or two.

Then there's also the massive amount of income that CL qualification brings. And the fact we'll be better able to attract/hold on to players when we can make a case for being CL regulars. The best a yo-yo club can say is that they might be in the CL. We need to be able to say that we will be in the CL. Actual success is more likely to follow from that.
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I agree with everything except the income part. Qualifying for the first qualifying round brings more money than winning the whole Europa League. So from a financial point of view, the further we get into the CL, the better.
 

flappyjay

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No way. With how weak the ucl this season is I would have wanted to stay in it. After Bayern who else seems the business? Juve are meh, same for madrid, Barca, dortmund, psg, city Chelsea etc
 
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