If you ask Pogba, or any foreign players, the difference between playing in CL Vs winning FA, the answer is straight forward. Only English fans care FA more than Top 4. In fact, winning Europa is strategically more important than winning FA.
The fact that FA schedules FA Cup in the 2nd half of the season, meant that it will always be 3rd choice, after CL, EPL.
pretty sure if you ask Pogba was playing in the champions league or winning the Italian cup a better feeling he'd go with the cup. It's not the taking part that counts its the winning. Its a football comp like anything else and being in it to lose isn't something you share with the kids.
Not really. Next season if we get CL we may have sancho which will mean far more to our progress than winning the fa Cup. And anyway, we still have the possibility of the europa league which I'd prefer over the fa Cup anyway.
Its called prioritisation.
1) pretty sure Sancho is coming regardless. Chelsea signed their players before they even qualified for the CL (and still haven't qualified)
3) we can get CL and compete for cups like other teams do every year (Rafa came 3rd, won the FA cup and the Europa in one season)
4) Ole is a Man Utd manager and needs to understand we are a club that collects trophies and not just a CL qualifier. Our rich history is the trophy cabinet, fan base and players. We have the 2nd most FA cups in the country. Its a big part of who we are. Ferguson's 1st trophy was the FA cup.
We have two routes into the champions league though. Its in our hand in the premier league and we're in with a shout for the Europa too.
Chelsea have been inconsistent of late and we've had the better of them this season. Arsenal are also pretty poor this season and easily beatable.
You couldnt have asked for an easier route to a trophy.
If your in the semi final and thats your route - anything but winning the competition is a bit of a let down in my opinion.
We were tactically poor and out played man for man. Chelsea outfought and outplayed us and made us look very very ordinary. It wasnt an acceptable performance from any of our players on the pitch.
Will history remember we finished 3rd or 4th or that we won the FA Cup? I get what your saying - champs league is important but so is winning a trophy.
Im amazed more of our fans arent as annoyed as i am. Shambles
Indeed. I get the feeling some of these guys would even rest our best players in an FA cup final so they can be fresh for a game the following week to try and secure CL qualification.
Brilliant post.
I wish our fans would see this, probably the same fans who mocked Spurs are claiming we are doing the right thing now.
We need to aim to win trophies. We wont get much of a better chance than that last night. Shambles of a performance and shambolic comments from some "fans". Mentality is all wrong
well said
As you said, Chelsea get top 4 every season and win trophies, we still haven't consistently got top 4 yet, I'd love to win a trophy but we're not even one of the top 4 sides in England yet so how can we possibly compete with those who are? I'm not saying we shouldn't be not trying to win trophies, we absolutely should be. I'm saying we have a squad that's pretty weak outside of the first 11 and a goalkeeper that shits the bed every time he's under pressure. We need CL football this season for the transfer funds it will bring in from the Adidas deal and TV revenue, in a COVID market also.
So yeah, I'm not that fussed if we win the FA cup this year because the CL and more funds mean a bigger summer transfer window for us, have some perspective on the situation.
Getting established and bringing better players in over the summer will see us compete for honours better and more regularly. Nothing to do with ambition, it's called reality.
why is it that qualifying for the CL and winning cups are mutually exclusive?
come on man. We are one of the top 4 sides. Arsenal are on course to potentially win a trophy. Are they better than us? I don't even think Chelsea are particularly better than us but just showed more ambition on this occasion. They too have been unreliable in qualifying for the CL. They missed it the year they beat us in the FA Cup final in 2018 but still went for the cup, finished 5th but then made it the next year and won the Europa league at the same time.
We can do this too. I just think it wasn't our day and we must always fight for a cup once you get to the Semis. Would you rest your best players in a final, if you are fighting for a CL place?