Article by David CoatesFollow e-Spurs on Twitter!
As the final game of the season against Villa at the Lane approaches, I’ve read various comments from our supporters on what they wish the outcome of the game to be. There is a mix of fans who want Spurs to win and finish the season on a high but there are a large number of fans who would accept a loss on Sunday so that we don’t obtain European football and entry into the Europa League.
I’ve always found the view of the supporters on the Europa League quite a strange one. I spent numerous years at the Lane during the 80’s and 90’s wishing for Spurs to get the place necessary to qualify for a season of European football. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, in the 80’s there were 3 seasons when we were deprived of European football at the Lane due to the European football ban of English clubs. Secondly, in the 90’s our teams were so poor, a European place was something of a mirage. When we did finally win a League Cup under George Graham and with that receive a UEFA Cup place it felt like Spurs were back on the bigger stage of European football. I’ve always appreciated Spurs being in Europe and those glory nights of our history.
Since then qualifying for the Europa League for Spurs has become a normal event. But has this become a hindrance to the team? My view is no but this isn’t shared by the majority of my fellow fans. The Europa League has become an easy excuse for us and the players to blame poor league results on the Europa League games. The statistics can back this view up as our league results on a Sunday after a Thursday game are indifferent but I don’t blame the European tournament for that I blame our squad management.
With a new manager likely to be coming and the new manager likely to be a foreign manager, the Europa League will be a focus. Around Europe the Europa League is seen as a serious tournament and you will not find any of the snobbery around Europe in regards to the Europa League which is common place in England. There have been problems with the competition layout but UEFA have now used the carrot of the Champions League place to truly reward the winners. It still takes 19 games to win it, but we need to use this as a development opportunity as a club.
When AVB came into the club he did take the Europa League seriously and used the first team squad in most games. While I appreciated the principal around this and his view that players should be able to and need to cope with playing regular football week in week out if you want to be successful, this did come at a cost. We did loose key players to injury and we did look stale and tired during some matches under his tenure.
Next season, providing we get over the line for sixth place, we have a great opportunity to blood some of our youngsters in this competition. We have some good youngsters coming through and we need to see some of them in action. The likes of Harry Kane, Jordan Archer, Alex Pritchard, Milos Veljkovic and Ryan Fredericks to name a few, could and should form the nucleus of our Europa League squad. Put them together with some of the other first team players who are not getting a regular starting place, or those coming back from any injuries and we can use this competition to give our under 21 player’s valuable experience and keep the first team squad happy. We haven’t done this yet and have still used the likes of Dembele, Vertoghen and Soldado when we haven’t needed to. This has resulted in injuries to some players when better squad management may have reduced this.
The Europa League has other benefits. Last year we made 4 million from our run in the competition. While this is small fry compared to the Champions League it's not to be sniffed at. The games are also reasonably priced so it gives fans who wouldn’t normally attend the Lane the chance to purchase tickets. A lot of these fans bring their children so it’s important the next generation of supporters are coming through the turnstiles.
This view, I know, won’t sit well with a lot of fans especially those who have tasted the Champions League and want more. But while we don’t have that option the Europa League shouldn’t be seen in the negative. If we manage our squad correctly we can enjoy ourselves in Europe once again to keep our European traditions going.
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I read somewhere that when we have to play away games on a thursday they spend monday to wednesday preparing for that game, travel home on the friday, do a halfday prep for sunday game.... if thats true thats the biggest problem of playing in the europa. liverpool have had whole week before each league game to prep... its made a huge difference to their season. so as much as i love to see spurs win, today id happily take a villa win and hope united get 6th
ReplyDeleteIt's a tricky one - as the other anonymous poster said above we have less prep. time after EL games and I believe that something like eight of our eleven PL losses this season have come directly after EL games? Which can't be a coincidence. Turn just three of those into wins and we're in the ECL next season. So my initial reaction is "No - look at Liverpool," but the more I think about it the more I want to get into the EL if we can. Agree with the article that it's valued more highly in Europe. Additionally it means we get to watch Spurs more, we can give experience to squad players, we get an additional route to potentially getting an ECL spot, we get an additional chance to win a cup, and also getting to the Quarter finals apparently made us £11m last season. If true, then that's not bad considering we made an operating profit of £4m. That covers the wages for two high-earning first team players for the season. So personally I'd say if we can get it - great. If we can't cope with EL Thurs/Sun, why would we cope with ECL Weds/Sat any better?
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