The fact a cup winner qualifies for EL muddies the stats. I'd like to know how the teams that qualified through the league placing did. Wigan et al who fluke a cup then go down are of course going to do worse then the previous season.
This is the best point made on this thread, IMO.
I think the main reason our clubs don't do well in the EL is that most of the teams entering it from England are ill equipped for European football. They have no business playing in Europe.
In the old days the team finishing second and third went in the UEFA Cup.
Plus the League Cup winner.
The F.A. Cup winners went into their own specialist competition.
Nowadays the teams entering the EL are, by definition, the best of the rest.
They are not the top teams.....or even nearly our top teams.
In the old days, the UEFA Cup was arguably harder to win than the European Cup as it had more strength in depth.
But now even the highest place English entry through league position will have only finished fifth in the league.
And the FA Cup winners, which could be Wigan and was nearly Palace last season are going into the same competition as teams which finished fifth.
Because United won the Cup last season, Hammers went into the EL on foot of finishing a remote seventh in the league.
And we all know how crap a team they are and that even their seventh place was a freak based on the form of one player
West Ham would not have been anywhere near Europe under those circumstances not so long ago.
And Saints went into it because they finished sixth......another moderate team which was ill equipped to mount a challenge in Europe.
(to pick up on your other point, Layne, two of the English teams quaiifying through league position last season did poorly in the EL....Hammers eliminated in the preliminary round and Saints didn't come out of their group)
That is the way I see it.
That said, an up and coming team should be aspiring to finish high enough up the table to take the EL place as a stepping stone to the CL.
And I think that is exactly what we are at this moment in time.
We are on the move and by the time August comes I fully expect us to be capable of mounting a sustained top four challenge as well as campaign admirably in Europe.
So I will be holding my nose and rooting for United in the League Cup and hope all five of those teams above us still in the other Cup win next weekend and that all but two of them avoid each other in the 6th Round.
Everton need European football.....I love my Thursday nights at Goodison.......so make it happen please, God
