As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
This Is The Daybreak wrote:Wish it was just the champions of the domestic leagues in the Champions League, 2nd and 3rd place in the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup/Domestic Cup winners in the Cup Winners Cup.
Straight two leg knock outs for the UEFA and Cup Winners Cup and a less bloated version of the Champions League in its current state. No seeded teams, if it's Real Madrid in the first knock out phase then so be it. Also scrap the League Cup and make it a regional competition with more derbies and more chance of smaller teams getting big pay days. So simple but I feel would work perfectly fine.
Going back to the question I would like to just see what it's like. Will be a novelty if nothing else and beats playing Olympiakos for the 1,000th time.
Great post.
Will never happen though; the cash-cow Genie is out of the bottle.
after last night, not going to win either CL, nor Europa, so play the kids in the next two, go out and concentrate on the league. Don't have enough players to play the Thursday/Sunday, so just go out
i was planning on going to the Zagreb game at home but really cant face it now.
I endured the 3-3 home draw with Anderlecht last season which i thought was as bad as it gets.
I then endured the 3-2 home defeat to Olympiakos and I am just not prepared to waste my money any more.
I keep thinking back to Ivan Gazidis comments in October 2014 when he said
"Where we are currently is off the shoulder of the world's top teams. I think the best teams in the world are in Europe and you think about the great names in world football like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich - I don't think we're at that level yet but that's where we're aiming to get to"
The reality is we will either be in the CL or the Europa.
I HATE the Europa, it risks a serious indent on our league campaign.
BUT - say we lose to City at home, then the league campaign falters out with all this injuries.........eventually its possible we will have everyone back n the new year and only a faltering league campaign to enjoy.......so maybe it is worth being in it.
Tough one, id say we are 70% Europa, 30% CL as it stands.
If we do play in the Europa, it will be an ongoing reminder of our failure in the CL; whereas if we exit Europe completely, AW will be able to sweep it under the carpet and wash his hands of the situation entirely.
So Europa League would do me, to draw out AW's embarrassment for as long as possible.
i wouldn't want to play in the Europa League on Spursdays but would the ignominy of it startle Arsenal PLC into some sort of action. Would it end the comfort zone of Champions League qualification followed by last 16 qualification being an entitlement for Stan and Co. Would the reality of 30,000 at the glass bowl on Spursday nights wake them up and realise that Arsenal are coasting rather than competing. ?
Bradywasking wrote:i wouldn't want to play in the Europa League on Spursdays but would the ignominy of it startle Arsenal PLC into some sort of action. Would it end the comfort zone of Champions League qualification followed by last 16 qualification being an entitlement for Stan and Co. Would the reality of 30,000 at the glass bowl on Spursday nights wake them up and realise that Arsenal are coasting rather than competing. ?
it will be interesting what they price Europa League games at - category B or C?
I have no doubt it will sell out though - all our Carling Cup games do so there is no reason why Europa league matches won't.
to be honest if we reach the QFs I will be more interested in that than any CL group stage game - wouldnt be surprised if later stage games were category A prices.
If I thought we had a serious chance of winning the Premier League I would say I'd rather finish 4th without a doubt.
As it is we all know we will come up short anyway so I'm all for humbling the club a bit. There is so much snobbery in our fanbase about being in the CL equalling the be all and end all. Let's not kid ourselves, we are not too good for the Europa League. Only three English clubs have actually won anything in Europe in the last two decades and we hardly have a glittering array of European trophies.
northbank123 wrote:If I thought we had a serious chance of winning the Premier League I would say I'd rather finish 4th without a doubt.
As it is we all know we will come up short anyway so I'm all for humbling the club a bit. There is so much snobbery in our fanbase about being in the CL equalling the be all and end all. Let's not kid ourselves, we are not too good for the Europa League. Only three English clubs have actually won anything in Europe in the last two decades and we hardly have a glittering array of European trophies.
Sums it up for me too
We really should have a great shot at winning the league this season (cos it is utter shit), but because we know that we will fcuk it up I would like the club (and in particular the money men and wenker) get a proverbial kick in the bollox
Although I'm not one to look down on the Europa League, we don't have the squad size to cope with it. If we could get through a season with 3 or 4 injured at once then maybe, but when it's 7 or 8 then no, plus our better yoof are all tied up too.
Better to finish 4th than 3rd, although we're definitely taking it to the last day and then failing to beat Olimpiacos I predict.
Really don't need the extra fixture congestion ( assuming we managed to progress through to semis or so ) and can't see Wenker giving it any priority anyway so why bother.
Could see the Wenker lovers still filling the Emirates as we manage to get circa 60,000 2 days on the trot in the summer for the Emirates cup
If we don't scrape through in 2nd then I'd rather we were bottom of the group ( maximum shame / embarrassment)
