blue_aussie05
Player Valuation: £8m
This may seem like a bizarre question, as obviously it will give us much more money than we probably achieved in the Europa League this season, along with more exposure in Europe, which in turn would lead to the ability to attract better quality players.
However, the context of my question is in relation to the benefits of qualification if this is only achieved once every now and again. Some have argued that they'd rather be in it than not, even if we didn't qualify again for years. But I'm not so sure this really makes a difference, unless we're doing it regularly.
For example, the last time we qualified was 10 years ago, and we haven't really ever had much of a sniff since. And to be fair, we only qualified for the qualifiers last time anyway, but were unsuccessful. The draw of the Champions League (surprisingly) didn't even have a positive effect on our transfer activity that summer, as we didn't attract loads of quality signings.
Look at Spurs, who have also only qualified once but got the the QF stage. Loads more money because of it, but that was about 5 years ago now and they haven't qualified since. So what was the tangible benefit for them?
I'd love to have come 4th last season, but we only made the last 16 of the Europa League, so what chance did we have of progressing to the latter stages of a much superior competition? Also, look what the Europa did to our domestic season this year, what impact would the Champions League have had?
I suppose it's true that I'd much rather have been in the Champions League this season than the Europa League. However, ideally what we need to happen to get a substantial financial benefit, more exposure on the continent and attract better quality players, is to qualify consistently, year after year.
So...although we should make CL qualification our aim every season, is there any real benefit to qualification, if it's only done once every 10 years? Discuss....
However, the context of my question is in relation to the benefits of qualification if this is only achieved once every now and again. Some have argued that they'd rather be in it than not, even if we didn't qualify again for years. But I'm not so sure this really makes a difference, unless we're doing it regularly.
For example, the last time we qualified was 10 years ago, and we haven't really ever had much of a sniff since. And to be fair, we only qualified for the qualifiers last time anyway, but were unsuccessful. The draw of the Champions League (surprisingly) didn't even have a positive effect on our transfer activity that summer, as we didn't attract loads of quality signings.
Look at Spurs, who have also only qualified once but got the the QF stage. Loads more money because of it, but that was about 5 years ago now and they haven't qualified since. So what was the tangible benefit for them?
I'd love to have come 4th last season, but we only made the last 16 of the Europa League, so what chance did we have of progressing to the latter stages of a much superior competition? Also, look what the Europa did to our domestic season this year, what impact would the Champions League have had?
I suppose it's true that I'd much rather have been in the Champions League this season than the Europa League. However, ideally what we need to happen to get a substantial financial benefit, more exposure on the continent and attract better quality players, is to qualify consistently, year after year.
So...although we should make CL qualification our aim every season, is there any real benefit to qualification, if it's only done once every 10 years? Discuss....
