How important is the Europa league?

[Rish Sawhney]

It's 4 more games as there's a second leg against LASK. But it's more about extending the season by another 3 weeks rather than number of games. The players will have to keep training to stay fit. This is what people aren't grasping.

We will be going from one season that's been dragged out to another 55 to 60 game season and likes of Liverpool n Chelsea will get time off. Its definitely a disadvantage for likes of us n City.

Again. Not really that much. We won't be playing the first team against LASK. This is gonna be a short off season and the players just got a 3 month break. They'll probably get another extended one in January - which should even out the fatigue for the second half of the season. I reckon whats gonna impact next season is match sharpness in the beginning as opposed to rest. And the confidence boost of winning a trophy might just carry into the next season. All of this more than makes up for playing 3 games of football. And it gives us an easier CL group on top of it. Its a no brainer for me.

 

[MrEleson]

Agree with you when it comes to the big clubs. It's not something United or Barcelona fans are particularly going to bring up when talking about their club's history. Not now at least, suppose there's a chance should either face many years in the wilderness and not winning much of anything then a Europa League would become very exciting and a fantastic thing to cheer for again.

We're nowhere near at that stage and are unlikely to be. It would probably have to take some sort of financial collapse for us to ever get there as our monetary power means we should be looking to compete against the very best and as long as we have this kind of money the Europa League will always be viewed as a bit second-rate or an underachievement. It's just the way the game has gone. Pre-money UEFA Cups or Cup Winners' Cups are a bit different.

Would disagree on Sevilla to an extent, I certainly know what they did and think most keen followers of the game do. I'd imagine most who come to a site like this regularly do but If "most people" includes casual observers then possibly not. It didn't make them a fantastic superclub in my eyes and it's not going to but it was a great achievement for them and for their fans it must have been amazing. It put them more on the map than they previously were. If it was Real Madrid doing the same then no, definitely not, it wouldn't have done the same. I liked Fulham's and Middlesbrough's runs to the final of this competition in the past.

Fair points.

I agree with @adexkola , and the United fan would also be laughed at for ignoring the UEFA Cup Winners Cup (of which Barcelona won more than United).

Idiots didn't care.

Yes, knowledgeable people know about Sevilla's successes in the Europa League.

I think my comment was misplaced. I guess most people I know are EPL fanatics so even though they watch plenty of football, it usually rarely involves teams of other leagues so despite Sevilla's phenomenal Europa league record, la liga is still labelled a 2 team league and people I meet that argue this rarely acknowledge Sevilla's successes or genuinely remember they achieved it (they've had to look it up when I've used it in arguments in support of la liga). In comparison, a team like Atletico who were probably around Sevilla's level 10+ years ago are better remembered because of their deep runs in the CL & multiple appearances in the final despite not winning it.