timeEd32

I haven't done the math in awhile to be honest. Without diving into the details there are definitely a lot more variables to contend with for 24/25 and heading into 25/26 that make this fuzzier than things were last summer.

Emery is fast becoming my favorite PL villain. Just watched the Man United highlights again to see his tantrums.

Plot twist: he’s Eddie’s guy now

Hopefully not but even if he goes we will have learned and adopted new methods that can continue.

My first thought as well.

We’re still competing with a hand behind our back, but we have a chance over the next 12 months to really elevate ourselves both on and off the pitch.

There are no more groups. We will have at least 2-4 winnable games. And someone very high profile at home.

Maybe but Man United all over them. Should be winning.

Decades of scars. Might take a decade or more to reverse.

It makes sense when you have a series of unequal tournaments. It's basically a winner take all promotion system. And the CL winner gets the biggest bag of money, access to the CL, UEFA Super Cup, and now also the Club World Cup.

The winner of a European tournament gaining access to the competition above it the following season just objectively makes sense. Removing CL dropouts from the EL was also a good change in the context of the old format. However there are new problems both self-inflicted and complicated: - Expanding the CL while removing EL consolation weakens that competition - There are 6 clubs in Europe that match England's top 6 in revenue. There's another four around Newcastle / Villa. After that you have the likes of Marseille, Roma, Napoli, etc. who are effectively no different than any mid-table PL club. This means the CL is the only European competition that is even remotely financially fair when looking at England vs. everyone else. - The number of extremely rich English clubs now outstrips the number of European places available. It's already off-kilter that any PL club could financially compete with Tier 2/3 European clubs, but when Europa and Conference League spots are being taken by Man United, Tottenham, and Chelsea (all top 10 in revenue) then you've completely distorted the fairness of the competition. All of that is why the ECL and even the EL feels like its lost its prestige. If you're looking at it from the perspective of an English club winning it I think you can absolutely argue that the domestic cups are more difficult at this point.

Not being able to score against a backline that includes Pickford, Young, and Keane is really a nightmare scenario.

This season and two seasons ago, yes. Last season, no. But good managers, good players, and good seasons come and go. The only constant in football when viewed over a long enough timeframe is that more money means more wins. Until we have gotten closer to them financially we have not surpassed any of them.

We haven’t gone past any of them (yet).