Jay The Yid
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- Aug 18, 2010
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In the first leg we could of put a much stronger side out though.
Europa League
- Thread starter whitelightwhiteheat
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camaj
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- Aug 10, 2004
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That's what I was saying at the time. I actually felt we should have given Ramos more time, there's nothing to say he wouldn't have got the same results.
But either way the team we put out was too weak, even if we needed to concentrate on the league. We could have put out a second string team but IIRC he put out a third string team! Yet when we should have been concentrating on the league last season, he was putting out a full strength team in Europe. Clearly Redknapp thinks the league is only the priority if you're going down instead of finishing top 4
werty
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- Aug 8, 2005
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Well, the Champions League is a much more prestige cup than the Europa League so we're obviously going to try and win it. We have a better squad now to deal with both than we did then. Relegation would have killed us. Finishing outside the Top 4 hasn't.
The team in the first leg was; Gomes, Gunter, Dawson, Chimbonda, Zokora, Bentley, Jenas, Huddlestone, Parrett, Gio, Campbell, with Bent and Bostock coming off the bench. That's hardly a 3rd choice team, especially when you consider we probably had injuries and we definitely had a few players cup-tied/ineligible. It's a decent mixture of first teams players, with some youth thrown in as well.
If Ramos didn't prioritise the Europa League in the first place we wouldn't have been in the mess we were when Harry took over and we might have been able to give it a go
The team in the first leg was; Gomes, Gunter, Dawson, Chimbonda, Zokora, Bentley, Jenas, Huddlestone, Parrett, Gio, Campbell, with Bent and Bostock coming off the bench. That's hardly a 3rd choice team, especially when you consider we probably had injuries and we definitely had a few players cup-tied/ineligible. It's a decent mixture of first teams players, with some youth thrown in as well.
If Ramos didn't prioritise the Europa League in the first place we wouldn't have been in the mess we were when Harry took over and we might have been able to give it a go
fieryjack
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- Jan 13, 2006
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Not as livid as me. -15degrees, no food, drink and the toilets were in their section. We still should`ve beaten them over 2 legs though.
camaj
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It's not a question of EL vs CL, it's Europe vs Premiership.
We had a good enough squad then, by which I mean we had enough players that weren't getting regular 1st team football to put out in the second leg, which I believe is the one we played the weakened team in.
Relegation wasn't going to happen, we would have had to play the remaining 30 games as worse than the first 8. By the time we played that game we were on our way up. Either way, playing a second string team would have allowed us to focus on the league and kept us in europe.
mike_l
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- Jul 29, 2005
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I completely forgot about that.
nightgoat
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- Sep 12, 2005
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There's the possibility of long jaunts to Eastern Europe in the Champions League, but no one made an issue of that last season...
werty
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When we played the away leg we were two points off the relegation zone, having only one won of the last 9 games. We were still in the middle of it and were playing Hull away in a relegation battle in a few days. The league match was the bigger game. The second leg was three days later, with the Carling Cup three days after that, which was the bigger game as well.
The second leg team; Gomes, Gunter, Chimbonda, Huddlestone, Gilberto (Bostock 77), Giovani, Palacios, O'Hara (Parrett 71), Bale, Campbell, Obika. That's pretty much a second string, when you consider the injuries and ineligible players we had. The two centre backs looks poor there, but we only had Dawson, King and Woody at the time I believe. Woodgate missed the Carling Cup final a few days later, so must of been injured for that game. We all know about King and there was no point risking Dawson if Woody was doubtful for the Carling Cup Final. Gunter and Gilberto were our backup full backs if I recall correctly. Again, a few youngsters thrown in, which Harry is often criticised for not showing any faith in.
If we played the remainging 30 games the way we played the first 8 we would have been lucky to get into double figures. It's easy to say we would have stayed up anyway and we were too good to good down. Tell that to West Ham when they have the likes of Cole, Kanoute and Carrick in their team. Newcaslte went down that season with a pretty good team too. Yes, we probably have better teams than them, but relegation was a real possibilty at the time. We had just faced the worst start in Premier League history. Not just our worst start, but from any team.
camaj
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In that relegation is a real possibility for any team at the start of the season, yes. We were never in real danger. I would never say that we were too good to go down, but that it was too soon to know. It may have been the worse start from any premiership team but that just proves that the teams who do go down aren't the ones that start badly. Sadly people look at the table after a few weeks and extrapolate from that. That's why you get nonsense about Blackpool or Charlton (a few years ago) sneaking into the CL. Any team can have a bad spell you just can't interpret that as a prediction they'll have a bad season
Anyway, we would have been okay and playing a slightly better team wouldn't have hindered that nor would Harry sending the message that we can and could do it
