Alberto2005 Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Would people prefer Conference League over nothing? I ask because would it be better to have nothing and have a better shot at the league without Europe, I'm not saying winning the Conference League wouldn't be good but personally I put it below the League Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myleftboot Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Would rather not be in the conference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramirez Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 8 minutes ago, Alberto2005 said: Would people prefer Conference League over nothing? I ask because would it be better to have nothing and have a better shot at the league without Europe, I'm not saying winning the Conference League wouldn't be good but personally I put it below the League Cup. It would unquestionably be below the league cup, although almost anything would be now. On the fence about conference would have to rotate squad, would mess up saturday games too which is annoying, at least europa would fell worthwhile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Not sure what I think about conference, it’s a bit of a hassle. But then, you can’t target a lower league position anyway so we’ll see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufcjmc Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 16 minutes ago, Alberto2005 said: Would people prefer Conference League over nothing? I ask because would it be better to have nothing and have a better shot at the league without Europe, I'm not saying winning the Conference League wouldn't be good but personally I put it below the League Cup. Team and manager need to get used to more than 1 game a week and while not as prestigious or financially lucrative as the other 2 European competitions by some distance we will still get good money from our home fixtures and a good chance of another cup plus coefficient points to help boost future prize share down the road. While having a reset and going again next year without europe one season will have advantages especially over rivals to the top 6 all playing extra games being in europe one season out next cycle does eventually need to be broken. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) Id take Conference League all day. We wouldn't have to play our strongest team in it until the later stages so it'd give our fringe players more game time. It's also a strong chance to win another trophy and a European one at that. It's also important that as a team we play European games every season. Both seasons we got CL it effected our league form, if we have another season next season of no European football and make a good play for top five will they struggle again the following season? Imagine we were in the Conference League right now, we'd have a chance of a trophy and Europa League next season after a shite domestic campaign. Wouldn't you love that right now? Why not want it for this stage next year? Edited April 8 by Decky Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimbo Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I’d take conference league. It’s the lesser of the lesser trophies but I’ll take it, and winning it gets you Europa league which we can also win, and winning that gets you CL. We can get used to playing twice a week and winning stuff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HayDen Traces Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I'd love another trophy (& soon). I think it would be huge for the 'recovery story'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superior Acuña Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) The conf league is the only trophy I don't totally see as a 'proper' trophy, but I'd still like to win it now that we've got that monkey off our back. I also wonder if the early CL rounds are low quality enough that we could get through without it being anything like as disruptive for our league than the CL was. I also just think for our rep being in Europe and the top 8 consistently, even on a poor season like this one, helps cement us as one of the bigger clubs. Edited April 8 by Superior Acuña Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Agree with Decky. It's probably around the edges but presumably it's marginally positive for our European coefficient or whatever they have now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holloway Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I'd accept the Conference if our 2nd string/kids got a proper run out in it but Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I see the Conference League as a proper trophy. Yes it's not the Champions League or the Europa League, but it's still a competition that requires you to either win a domestic trophy in England or be in the top 30 odd percent of clubs in the countries top division just to qualify for it. Is it really any less prestigious as the League Cup or FA Cup these days? You could potentially play lesser opposition in those too until the later stages, teams a lot worse than Conference League sides. Chelsea got to the semi final of the FA Cup by beating Port Vale at the weekend for example. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duo Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) Conference League is so diluted now the standard is really low - Europa League is bad enough now CL teams don't fall into the competition. I would much rather we missed out all together then get Conference League. You have all the extremes of constant fixtures with negligible financial reward. Edited April 8 by duo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superior Acuña Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) 3 hours ago, Decky said: I see the Conference League as a proper trophy. Yes it's not the Champions League or the Europa League, but it's still a competition that requires you to either win a domestic trophy in England or be in the top 30 odd percent of clubs in the countries top division just to qualify for it. Is it really any less prestigious as the League Cup or FA Cup these days? You could potentially play lesser opposition in those too until the later stages, teams a lot worse than Conference League sides. Chelsea got to the semi final of the FA Cup by beating Port Vale at the weekend for example. The FA Cup and League Cup are competitions including all league teams in England (and therefore some of the best in the world). The Conference League excludes those teams and is an explicitly, by design, 'lower' than two other competitions - it's also new so doesn't have tradition behind it, which is an important intangible in football imo. Can say the same about the Europa being lower, but it's to a lesser extent. The Europa also has the benefit of a long history (but tbh I would also consider winning the domestic cups a bigger achievement than the Europa these days). It is a 'proper' trophy. But i'd put it this way - I'd have been disappointed to win that before we won the LC, I think that being the cup to break our drought would've felt a bit hollow. A half cup. I don't care about that now, so would like to win it, but it'd feel a lot different to winning the other cups imo. Edited April 8 by Superior Acuña Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holloway Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 No doubt there's friends to be made in obscure places for the fanbase but it hardly gets the pulse racing. Whenever I ask West Ham fans about it they just laugh or fucking shrug Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWN Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 keep out of it, reset and get back to being rock hard to beat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abacus Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I don't think any kid goes to bed at night dreaming of winning the Conference League. At the end of it all though, there are a few fun looking ties to go to, and for boring adults which we're now all forced to be, a few points on the European coefficient of nonsense. Wouldn't be all that excited about it as a competition personally, but I do get why it would be a good thing in general. Anyway, let's do what we can till the end of the season and then see where the journey goes from there. If we don't make it, next season I'd hope for an exciting FA Cup run and a proper charge up the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfcastle Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 We'd have to win the Conference League to even begin to justify the downside of being in it (negatively effecting the league, any hope of a CL challenge, risking heat on the manager thus). Should be winning it but it only takes one freak game or upset whilst we've plodded along midtable again. Like being in the UEFA under Sir Bobby. Absolutely brillaint obviously if we won it but getting dunked out in the semi-final - without that whole run we'd probably have made the CL again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Id be surprised if we didn't make the final against what should be lesser opposition over two legs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 2 hours ago, Alberto2005 said: Would people prefer Conference League over nothing? I ask because would it be better to have nothing and have a better shot at the league without Europe, I'm not saying winning the Conference League wouldn't be good but personally I put it below the League Cup. Defintely. We've got a big enough squad now, it will be a good chance to let the squad players get some game time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenham Mag Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 100% want to be in conference league, the final next year will be at Besiktas stadium, which recently featured in The Night Agent on netflix. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfcastle Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Decky said: Id be surprised if we didn't make the final against what should be lesser opposition over two legs. We've just been beaten over two games by the mackems and played really poorly in doing so and scraped past Wolves over two games by a goal, lost over two games to Luton a few seasons back. There'll be teams around that caliber dotting around, Anything could happen. What will definitely happen is a negative effect domestically. Its also more advancing than adventure - towards a cup we should be winning whilst any defeat seen as embarrassing Cant see us finishing high enough in any case and such is football now, I wont mind that at all. Edited April 8 by Wolfcastle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stifler Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I’d take the Conference League. We will be running at a 70% SCR rate even if we are not in Europe, in order to qualify for future years. This gives us an opportunity to get our coefficient up, and as someone else has said, it gives us the chance to start working with 2 games a week. I’d rather be in Europe than not in Europe. During the Ashley years we could only dream of European football. We obviously have higher ambitions and targets now as a football club, but we should still respect the steps we need to take to get there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Is 8th a European spot now? This article says it is. BBC News - How 11 Premier League teams could qualify for Europe - BBC Sport https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8r40164ne4o Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon25 Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I'd fucking love any type of European football tbh. Been the only highlight of the season watching our CL games Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts