So was Bill Nick wrong or has the Champions League devalued the second tier tournament that is the Europa?
I’ve been pondering this issue as I firmly believe that a good few Yids have not only been angered by the whole ‘IdiotGate I & II’ business, but the shortchanged feeling that the absence of Champions League football has filled their hearts.
One minute they were trading bragging rights blows with the big boys, the next they’re back in their box and facing the wrong end of an 18 game tournament usually haunted by the likes of Fulham and now the illustrious Blackpools and Brums of the world.
Let’s not fill another page with Arry’s a ****. Maybe he is, I don’t know the man. But what I do now is we’re in deep, maybe far deeper than those merely on a salary. Europe is something to be cherished and a platform to exploit.
It needs to be managed right or it’ll deteriorate into a The Three Stooges sketch with lots of charging around, bumping into each other and cartoon violence as we implode. The teams fielded need to be comprised of teams that are capable of wearing the shirt, but not at the expense of the Premiership campaign.
I rather snidely referred to this approach as incorporating the scraps a week or so ago, but if you look at our squad there is enough depth there. Sure, hopefully we’ll sell a few that have been loaned in the last term, but with those that we don’t surely they’d revel in tackling the Europa? I’m sure Levy & Co wouldn’t be against these ‘grey men’ raising their profiles and perhaps the value of their stock?
Some supporters need to examine just where they stand. Missing out on Champions League is a crying shame, but we reached the quarter finals with our first go at it. There is no Easy Street here and it’s down to everyone from the bloke listening on half naffed radio in Kuala Lumpur to the seen it all season ticket holder to the men on the pitch to rise to the naffin’ challenge.
Wanting us to finish 6th was the equivalent of a spoiled child wanting nothing at all if it can’t have another ice cream.
To paraphrase Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday, “What I’m looking for is someone who can contribute to what Tottenham has given to the world: culture, sophistication, genius. A little bit more than crying over spilled milk , know what I mean?”
Every Single Goal This Season In One Mighty Video
For me two things did for the UEFA cup. The amalgamation with the Cup winner’s cup and the new wealth in football.
In tut olden days, being in Europe was key to your development as a club and as a player. Although players and clubs may still chant that mantra what they mean is the better the cup/league I’m in the more cash I get!
The joining of the two minor European trophies meant that there is now two tier class system in European football. It is much harder to show progress in a two tier system and highly improbable to progress upwards from the second tier. However it is very easy to progress downwards from either tier due to overreaching, a trait almost encouraged by a two tier class system. Notable mentions in this category are Valencia, Leeds and Portsmouth.
I’ve had to stop myself here as I can feel this may get long and boring…if it hasn’t already!
The last line isnt a dig at LosLorenzo, you hadnt posted while i was writting!
suuuure it isn’t :angry:
As an infrequent contributor to this generally excellent blog, I have to say that the general knicker twisting about the “Wafer Cup” perplexes me somewhat.
We know it’s badly conceived, we know it puts extra pressure on our drive for top four status,we know it doesn’t give us the opportunity to be anally violated by the likes of Barcelona in a “REAL” competition. However-as many have said-it does give us the chance to blood our young(and promising)players. It gives as a reasonable chance of silverware, and it gives us a chance to explore parts of Europe that were, previously, only known to members of the Third Reich.
However, this whole, “Mummy, I don’t want to play with those boys from Poznan, they smell” attitude, strikes me as wrong for two reasons. The first, is that we don’t think we’re strong enough to compete on several fronts: if this be true, we must accept small club status. The second, is that we don’t think it’s good enough for us. This, to me, is a posh frock and no drawers mindset. Liverpool- who have an eminently superior pedigree than ours- wanted it. We would only have been too good for the sodding thing if we had qualified for the Champions league, and we didn’t. Can we PLEASE stop crying over spilled milk?
This brings me to Harry; yes he’s a nasty little guttersnipe with no control over his mouth. However, he’s been our most successful manager for years, and the best we’ll get with our spending power and wage cap.
Finally – unlike Martin Luther King – I have a nightmare. It is that, next season, we win all three cups available to us and the Premiership. The following season, we win both domestic cups, the Premiership, and the CL. If that happens: firstly, this site will be inundated with plastic supporters but, most frighteningly,we’ll have nothing more to moan about. Though, knowing us, we’ll think of something. Keep up the good work HH
I think the Europa does have positives. Players like Kranjcar and Bassong would get more games in (of course that assumes they haven’t left!) and out of form strikers have more opportunities to get back on track.
Were we to win it everyone would think it was worthwhile, I seem to remember Liverpool fans very happy with their victory a few years back and it can be a springboard towards greater stuff.
The downside is the Thursday Sunday scenario and the extra 19 games.
Sorry Mr Hotspur sir but I think you’ll find it would take 19 games for us to win it unless UEFA cancel the final and decide the winner on goal difference in the semis
I have inside info it will be a decided by a game of sudden death ping pong… to be held in a secret location whats whereabouts are unknown other than to those what are privy to such matters.
[KO 7pm prompt, two days after the semis @The Lamb & Flag, Cheam]
I’d love to see our young lions romping their way to the final to be honest… And I think they’re more than capable of it. The likes of Modders & VDV can make fleeting cameos along with whatever relegation cast-away we pick up in the fire sales. A bit of experience etc.
Watching Tevez playing in it this year was like watching him working his way through a large pile or ironing, so a bit of enthusiasm could carry the day.
In terms of did we or didn’t we want it? I think DL might have mentioned to Harry that one less cup would mean that Investec would either want some of their money back or expect us to win both of the domestic pots… Which could a damn sight more damage to our EPL hopes than the Europey. So, self-preservation might have won the day.
If we get to the final, I’ll hopefully be there and it’ll be a lovely day I’m sure. A memory to sit alongside Sir Tony Parks & a penalty shoot-out.
Agree as well that we signed great players without any Euro football. There’s something about this club that attracts the right kind of player… And that will carry on being the case.
What will change hopefully is that we’ll keep them once we get them.
COYS.