Qualifying for the CL is the most important trophy.

You win the trophy and you get top 4. Nonsensical approach for any top team.

His point is probably that Arsenal's objective this year was top 4 and they've done it with ease.
 
I guess the best way to ensure that you can compete for trophies is to consistently finish in the Top 4 and qualify for the champions league to attract / keep a full squad of talented players.
 
I don't speak his language, but Google translate has the output as "Bring back the Super-league"
 
horsechoker said:
Perhaps finishing in the top 4 for the first time or for the first time in a long time can be special but it's not the same as a trophy.

Unfortunately money has turned it into some sort of achievement.

The Champions League should either be smaller or winning The FA cup should give you a place and fewer places offered for league finishes
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I've always thought the FA cup winners should get a CL place, there's a case for the EFL winners as well, that way only the top 2 qualify through the league and it incentivizes winning a trophy, the reality is the CL is never getting smaller
 
Red in STL said:
You get prestige by winning trophies, not finishing in the top 4, money on the scale it's at now has ruined football and is unsustainable IMO
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Maybe prestige isnt the right word but you club becomes more attractive for better players when the club is participating in the CL. Players really do care about playing in the CL. Take Ajax as an example. The reason they were able to sign players like Antony and Martinez was because Ajax is participating in the CL and some players prefer that over siging for a mid table team in a better league.

UnrelatedPsuedo said:
That’s just not true though. It once was, but it’s not now. The Champions League has been broken for a long time now. It’s revenue generating but what’s the point in just floating through a season, getting to the Round of 16 and then signing slightly better players to do exactly the same thing the year after?

Only 8 teams have won it in the last 20 years, and 13 in the last 30. It’s a closed shop. There are no real surprises. The last being Porto, and they needed the worlds best manager (at the time) and an accidental and large collection of players that went on to be world class.

Qualifying for it doesn’t really improve your chances to actually win it. You’ve got to be insanely rich, or slightly less rich and be an Historic huge club with a huge pull to be in with a chance.

It’s a far worse competition year on year. It’s been managed into a space that rewards and maintains the status quo.
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Well if you keep signing better players than eventually you should be able to perform better. Round of 16 first, sign better players and get an extra round the year after. In theory that is, you just need to prevent your best players from being poached from your club. If you play in the CL the chances of your best players staying also increases.

But you are right, the winner is likely one of the clubs you think that will win it before the CL actually starts. This year there will be a Milan team in the final, Ajax and Monaco had some good runs and Spurs even made a final. There are still some suprises.. No suprise winner though. I doubt the new format will help with getting a suprise winner either...

Floating through the season might be pointless to you but many clubs do it. You should ask their supporters what the point of supporting their mid table club is. I think its also about the enjoyment of watching your favorite team play football and maybe even causing an upset from time to time.
 
Stadjer said:
Well if you keep signing better players then eventually you should be able to perform better.
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This only happens at the top clubs. CL qualification hasn’t helped Spurs. Not Leicester. It didn’t help Arsenal for years. Dortmund, Lille, Lyon, PSV, Atalanta, Ajax, and so on… you may get a freak bit of fun, but power has been consolidated.

We need to transition out of the headspace that sees representation as success. ‘Smaller’ teams have a brief shot, lose, then disappear. The money from appearing doesn’t help as everyone around them also gets it.
 
I know it won't happen or be popular, and it would probably feck United over if it happened, but I'd personally prefer the 4th CL place goes to the FA Cup Winner
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
The last being Porto, and they needed the worlds best manager (at the time) and an accidental and large collection of players that went on to be world class.
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Who went on to become world class from that Porto side? I'll give you Deco and Ricardo Carvalho but that's it.

I agree about the CL being a closed shop and its role in maintaining the status quo though.
 
Siorac said:
Who went on to become world class from that Porto side? I'll give you Deco and Ricardo Carvalho but that's it.

I agree about the CL being a closed shop and its role in maintaining the status quo though.
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Nah. More than that. Albeit many are tenuous and I should have said that some peaked in that side rather than ‘went on to’. World Class was a little heavy.

Vitor Baia was exceptional, Ferreira had a solid 5 year run of brilliant, Costinha & Maniche were great. McCarthy too.

My point was: It wasn’t some plucky underdog story. It was a very talented team that was incredibly well coached. I probably overegged it a little though.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
I know it won't happen or be popular, and it would probably feck United over if it happened, but I'd personally prefer the 4th CL place goes to the FA Cup Winner
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If the winner has already qualified then the runner-up would get in
 
Red in STL said:
You only have to read the relevant threads in the CAF to know a large percentage of United fans think the same way, winning things are much more important to me than finishing top 4 to qualify for the CL and always will be
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100%. This explains why so many people are sucking Arsenal off just for finishing 2nd. I never understand why so many fans define their season by achieving top 4 then moaning for the whole of the following season about midweek games, rotation, resting players and the best kicker of all....having the best chance of the PL title by getting booted out of Europe.

I guarantee you, they'll be talking about the likes of Chelsea having the best chance of a league title next season because they aren't in Europe! Just doesn't make any sense.

The player rhetoric of "I only want Champions League football" doesn't really help either.
 
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