We need to concentrate on winning the Europa League now....

[maltahotspur]

I think we need to stop and ponder whether it is wiser for us to consider making the Europa League our top priority now.

My reasoning on this is because, as from this season, the winner of the Europa League gets direct qualification into the Champions League.

As things stand, we have already qualified for the last 32. However, to finish top of the group, we need to obtain at least draw in our final fixture against Besiktas. That will not be an east task in Turkey and hence, we need our best players to play in it. A win or a draw, will guarantee us to be one of the 16 seeded teams for the draw and we will also get to play the 2nd leg of the tie at home.

After all, I really think that we stand a better chance of winning the EL. than finishing in the top four in the league. In the event that we fail to win the EL and also drop to a lower places in the PL, say 8/10 (due to concentrating our efforts towards winning the EL) will probably also serve us better for next season, as we will not have the distraction of Playing the Thursday's EL fixtures.

Discuss...............

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Won't happen. We should concentrate on winning the Capital One Cup.

 

[Mr Pink]

Obviously you'd prefer to win the Europa League than finish fourth, a trophy and CL next season. But I don't agree at all, I think its a tougher ask than finishing fourth given how badly so many of the bigger Clubs in the Prem are doing, Its open season for fourth, and possibly third, for anyone who can put a really good run together.

Both should be the priority but with no EL until February we should be resting as many as we can for this Thursday given we're already through.

A good run over the festive period could put us in a very good position, particularly if we improve in the second half of the season.

So its a raft of changes for me this Thursday, as if we were to win our next three League games we're in business by the time United and Chelsea come to the Lane.

 

[Spurger King]

We should concentrate on being able to beat mediocre teams at home.

 

[maltahotspur]

Won't happen. We should concentrate on winning the Capital One Cup.

I'll be a happy buddy if we win CO cup but that will give us qualification to EL and the Thursday night games again.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

I'll be a happy buddy if we win CO cup but that will give us qualification to EL and the Thursday night games again.

https://vine.co/v/OOQhhbLpFtA

 

[Shea]

We have less chance of winning the Europa than we do coming 4th

How often have we been in the Europa recently and never been further than the Quarters? Why does anyone think we'll magically turn ourselves in to winners this year - it's a pipe dream at this stage

That said we won't make CL via the league either and I very much doubt we can win the league club

We should simply focus on rebuilding the squad now, we have players to sell, players to buy and need to give significant time to the manager and squad to develop under this new style of play and hope that in the next half a season we see signs of progress than will see us grow next year

I am already willing to write this season off and just want to see evidence that we're making progress for the future.

Forget about lofty ambitions like Cup victories or 4th place league finishes because this will almost certainly end in disappointment this year

But if by the end of the season we're seeing far more Everton at home performances and far less Palace at home performances then I will see that as progress and have my faith restored that we are back on track for the coming seasons

 

[Shadydan]

We're not good enough to win it.

 

[Mr Pink]

We have less chance of winning the Europa than we do coming 4th

How often have we been in the Europa recently and never been further than the Quarters? Why does anyone think we'll magically turn ourselves in to winners this year - it's a pipe dream at this stage

That said we won't make CL via the league either and I very much doubt we can win the league club

We should simply focus on rebuilding the squad now, we have players to sell, players to buy and need to give significant time to the manager and squad to develop under this new style of play and hope that in the next half a season we see signs of progress than will see us grow next year

I am already willing to write this season off and just want to see evidence that we're making progress for the future.

Forget about lofty ambitions like Cup victories or 4th place league finishes because this will almost certainly end in disappointment this year

But if by the end of the season we're seeing far more Everton at home performances and far less Palace at home performances then I will see that as progress and have my faith restored that we are back on track for the coming seasons

Agree with most of that, and certainly the sentiment of your last paragraph. However, if we're still in the mix we should still be aiming to finish as high as we can. If fourth is within reach, its within reach sort of thing.

 

[maltahotspur]

We're not good enough to win it.

TO DARE IS TO DO.

 

[Shadydan]

TO DARE IS TO DO.

If you think we're gonna come anywhere close to winning the competition then you're gonna be in for a disappointment.

 

[Shea]

Agree with most of that, and certainly the sentiment of your last paragraph. However, if we're still in the mix we should still be aiming to finish as high as we can. If fourth is within reach, its within reach sort of thing.

Of course - I'm not saying we as a club shouldn't be pushing hard to win the race for fourth

I'm more commenting on my expectations as a fan - obviously I WANT us to win every game, qualify for CL and win every piece of silverware we can by my expectations have been lowered to the stage where I don't believe we can win any silverware (not even the League Cup) and I think CL via the league will be out of our reach (though miraculously it's still in touching distance due to the performances of our rivals being equally weak)

I think the priorities from a managerial point of view will remain the same - we'll go strong in both the league and the cups, we won't play youth teams or B teams in the cup to save our league performances on the weekend. If we didn't already do that against some of the low level teams we played in the league stages I can't see us doing so now we're in the knock outs

 

[mark87]

No we should concentrate on putting in consistently good performances, give a a fuck about CL at the moment, it's way out our reach, lets just improve as a squad and look at CL within the next couple years.

 

[maltahotspur]

If you think we're gonna come anywhere close to winning the competition then you're gonna be in for a disappointment.

Hypothetically we can! And I'm an optimist by nature

 

[shelfboy68]

We have less chance of winning the Europa than we do coming 4th

How often have we been in the Europa recently and never been further than the Quarters? Why does anyone think we'll magically turn ourselves in to winners this year - it's a pipe dream at this stage

That said we won't make CL via the league either and I very much doubt we can win the league club

We should simply focus on rebuilding the squad now, we have players to sell, players to buy and need to give significant time to the manager and squad to develop under this new style of play and hope that in the next half a season we see signs of progress than will see us grow next year

I am already willing to write this season off and just want to see evidence that we're making progress for the future.

Forget about lofty ambitions like Cup victories or 4th place league finishes because this will almost certainly end in disappointment this year

But if by the end of the season we're seeing far more Everton at home performances and far less Palace at home performances then I will see that as progress and have my faith restored that we are back on track for the coming seasons

Agree we are not winning nothing anytime soon and as you say we are quarter finals and bust.

 

[SteveH]

TO DARE IS TO DO.

That might as well of come from an Enid Blyton tale The Famouse Five play football.

 

[Monkey boy]

I see no reason why people are writing us off as not good enough to win the Europa League. Ok we've never been further than the QF but so what? I put it to you that we have never really had a proper go at winning the Europa as we have always been involved in a tussle for 4th place. We've proved that on our day (ok they have been very few and far between) that we can put in good performances, Arse (a), Everton & Soton (h) and by the time the competition gets serious then surely we would have picked up some sort of understanding and form. Im pretty sure that most teams will still be looking to avoid Tottenham when the draws are made.

 

[maltahotspur]

The January transfer window is upon us soon. Changes will be made and MoPo now is much more 'ITK' of what is required to make us a better team for the 2nd part of the season.

 

[Shea]

Hypothetically we can! And I'm an optimist by nature

Hypothetically we can still win the league and England can win the European Championships

 

[homer hotspur]

This was possibly a reasonable approach at the start of the season -ie concentrate on the EL-but we have been pretty poor in most of these matches too and Besiktas completely outplayed us at WHL. Whether we finish first or second, we will have to be transformed by the time the knockout stages come around to have any chance against the better quality teams and I just can't see it, much as I would love to. Also, the thought of us in the CL is laughable at the moment although I suppose that is somewhat irrelevant as. if we did somehow qualify, we should be able to attract some proven quality players in the summer. I'm not sure whether the EL winners go straight in or have to play off as per 4th place teams because, if the latter, who can forget the Young Boys near debacle when we thought we had got the easiest possible draw.