History suggests that we can't though.
A club our size should, but like I said apart from about 5 Euro campaigns since 1972 and probably about 8 campaigns overall since 1955 our club has done fúck all in Europe.
We are a once in a generation challenger. Its probably a miracle we got to where we did in 2022. We should have done more in the old UEFA Cup down the years possibly but some of the teams in the EL these days (Liverpool for example) is making it harder and harder.
Your stats provide a strong argument, I agree.
We had a formula though that was working and suddenly we have gone backwards.
Two european finals between 2008 and 2022 - 14 years and we spent 4 of these in the lower leagues and another couple of season screwing around with Murty and Pedro and pre 2012 with Whyte at the controls. In 7 proper seasons we have made two European finals.
A manager with a game plan based on a solid formation and tactics + good recruitment buying good players (doesn't have to be world beaters) who fit into the system.
That is what Smith had in 2008 and it is what Gerrard built for 2022 which Gio made the best of on the European stage.
PSV should not be a class above us and we made them look better than they really are. I have work colleagues in Holland and that is what they said to me this morning.
Sadly we have let our best players go and even worse, only Aribo and Bassey we got serious money for. We should have got big money for Kent, Morelos and Kamara but instead we get only a pittance for Kamara and fxxk all for the other two.
We have invested the money we had on (based on current evidence) signings who are nowhere near the level of those before them. And then there is the question of Beale's ability to manage Rangers.
We had it within our grasp and we, based on what we have seen so far, let it slip away.
