It was though. Why did Ashley splash out for Cisse full in the knowledge that it made the Europa League such a strong possibility?
IIRC right up until we lost to Man City we looked like we could sneak into the CL.
By the time we had bought Cisse we looked like we had drifted away from the possibility of CL football. It was only that winning run of 7 out of 8 games in the run in, which no-one saw coming, that put us right back there.