Rangers and West Ham in Europe

Mr Meeseeks

Mr Meeseeks

Well-Known Member
Looking at West Ham’s performance in Europe this season and last and was thinking what would you have chosen with hindsight now? Our runs getting to the Europa League final last year, not winning it and qualifying for the CL groups this year or West Ham’s losing in the semi last year and getting to the conference league final this season, and let’s say West Ham win it?

Hard one for me as that semi final win last season at Ibrox is the best game I’ve ever been to and know I will remember if the rest of my life. But to win a European trophy, even if it’s the Conference League is still a great achievement and at the end of the day it’s what you win that matters 5, 10 years down the line.
 
I have said on other threads that I believe if we were in the Conference League we’d have a really good chance of winning it. However, the flip side is it’s unlikely, barring a disaster, that we’ll ever have to play in it.
 
Cucumbear said:
I have said on other threads that I believe if we were in the Conference League we’d have a really good chance of winning it. However, the flip side is it’s unlikely, barring a disaster, that we’ll ever have to play in it.
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A fact a significant number of people can’t wrap their head around

I can totally understand that people enjoy the “romance” of the Europa league more than the Champions League, but the sad reality of football these days is that money dominates and that even a “disastrous” Champions league year delivers more money than our “likely” Europa league progress

For us to develop the club in this day, semi regular champions league group stage football is vital
 
Cucumbear said:
I have said on other threads that I believe if we were in the Conference League we’d have a really good chance of winning it. However, the flip side is it’s unlikely, barring a disaster, that we’ll ever have to play in it.
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I agree mate it's a winnable European trophy for us
 
Slightly different conversation but before the final I was having a debate with a few bheasts in work. I said I’d rather win the Europa league than the league (obvious). I’d swap not winning the league to be in the final, and arguably swap a league title for a final loss.

My opinion on the last one has changed. I look back on 2008 with a fondness that beats most title winning seasons which was the basis of my argument. The loss last year haunts me though and I’d now rather the league over the feeling from last year.
 
Mr Meeseeks said:
Looking at West Ham’s performance in Europe this season and last and was thinking what would you have chosen with hindsight now? Our runs getting to the Europa League final last year, not winning it and qualifying for the CL groups this year or West Ham’s losing in the semi last year and getting to the conference league final this season, and let’s say West Ham win it?

Hard one for me as that semi final win last season at Ibrox is the best game I’ve ever been to and know I will remember if the rest of my life. But to win a European trophy, even if it’s the Conference League is still a great achievement and at the end of the day it’s what you win that matters 5, 10 years down the line.
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Europa all day long. The ECL would be a ‘meh’ sort of achievement. A Europa final after beating the teams that we did with the resources we have is an achievement that won’t be bettered for a long, long time and likely ever from any team in this one dimensional shitpot league.
 
TriggersBroom said:
Can you get into the conference by dropping down from the Europa groups?
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Next season is the last season

You need to finish 3rd in your Europa group

As a potential top seed, we’d likely be looking at a European crisis of confidence that means you don’t win knockout ties
 
What we did earned more money that what West Ham will earn, even if they win it.

That said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the importance some clubs are putting on the conference league. You just need to look at how important it was for Mourinho to win it and what it meant to the West Ham supporters and players to reach the final.

I’d love Rangers to win it.
 
CarrickRanger said:
I agree mate it's a winnable European trophy for us
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Unless Scotland, and our, coefficient totally tanks to the point were runner up in the league and dropping our of Europa League qualifying then it’s absolutely not

Folk see a European trophy, and want to win it - that’s totally fine

But the actual reality of even being IN the competition, means that winning it is highly unlikely
 
Europa cup, there was much slating of the beggars on here when they dropped into the conference, seen to be classed as the European diddy challenge trophy
 
Ours

After next season it won’t matter though because you can’t drop out of the new CL format into the EL and we will need the money so will have to keep trying to qualify for the CL. Unless that changes then we are looking at doing absolutely nothing in Europe other than making a bit of money for the rest of eternity
 
GreigC said:
Unless Scotland, and our, coefficient totally tanks to the point were runner up in the league and dropping our of Europa League qualifying then it’s absolutely not

Folk see a European trophy, and want to win it - that’s totally fine

But the actual reality of even being IN the competition, means that winning it is highly unlikely
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After next season we won’t be dropping into anything after the CL, nobody will
 
Eastern province bear said:
So is Europa League
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It is but it’s still incredibly difficult. Last year was a bit of a freak in truth

Don’t get me wrong we played some brilliant football and deserved to be there, but it was quite a fairytale journey that won’t happen all that often. Those Dortmund and Leipzig results nobody seen coming

Frankfurt was arguably the easiest of those 3 sides to play but unfortunately we fell at the final hurdle because they are also a great side and we had been punching the entire tournament almost
 
Dale Cooper said:
We can’t be aiming for that though. Our actual aim will be to get the financial benefit from getting into the joke format of the CL
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Of course we can’t be aiming for it, but with some of the sides that we’d likely face in qualifiers it’s a likely prospect that from time to time it’ll happen

The aim has to be semi regular UCL groups

The point of my post was that the only way we end up in UECL is by disaster

With 5 teams in Europe, and a not great contribution from anyone this year, our coefficient has taken a battering this year

It’s not beyond feasible that we end up in a position where the runner up goes into Europa League qualifiers - and remember that requires one of the top 2 to have won the Scottish Cup too
 
TriggersBroom said:
Can you get into the conference by dropping down from the Europa groups?
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For next season only then the drop downs stop in all comps

It's Actually a strange one get to cl then you will take in more money than now but not get to el

I suppose the scenario is that best suits after next year is cl for 2/3 seasons finish second in league and go into el

We need to keep our coefficient points up though to around 8-10 a year as a club needing a good run every 2/3 years
 
RTD-BEAR said:
For next season only then the drop downs stop in all comps

It's Actually a strange one get to cl then you will take in more money than now but not get to el

I suppose the scenario is that best suits after next year is cl for 2/3 seasons finish second in league and go into el

We need to keep our coefficient points up though to around 8-10 a year as a club needing a good run every 2/3 years
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Finishing 24th on the new table is about the same as finishing 3rd in a group before hand

There’s about £9mil to be gained from just being in that playoff round, alongside all the group stage money we trigger with wins etc

Finishing 2nd in the league and going into the Europa league is a scenario that suits no one…
 
Bit of a Catch 22 unfortunately. The EL is a much more enjoyable tournament but we need the income from the CL. Don't want anything to do with the Conference League tbh, until they at least change the fucking name of it to make it sound less shite.
 
Winning it would be fine but it wouldn't hold the same merit as the Europa League. The fact the stadium holding the final only holds 20k tells you what you need to know!
 
West Ham should be pissing it in the Europa Conference League, most English clubs should be. They make more money a season than most of the sides in that competition could dream of making. I don't think it's an achievement for a club like West Ham to be winning the Europa Conference League tbh.

I'd enjoy us winning it, it's a European trophy at the end of the day. We'd still need to beat some tough teams to win it. It would be more of a challenge to win than any of the domestic trophies we compete for. I'd prefer to win the Europa League, it would be a greater achievement and it's definitely a much more prestigious trophy.
 
It’s barely an achievement for an epl team to win the diddy conference league with the money given to them through their league. Rangers getting to the europa league final is as big an achievement as you will find it football
 
Well done to West Ham getting to the final it's a fine achievement for the Club and the Hammers fans. I hope they go on and win it.
Regardless of the standing of the Conference cup, West Ham have to go toe to toe every second week with EPL Clubs with a budget that dwarfs their own. They won the ECWC in 1965 so it's been a long time between drinks(we know the feeling) for a great support.
 
Let us remember what is important. Rangers, like West Ham (1965) and Everton (with Drumchapel's very own Andy Gray) won one piece of european silverware that only the class teams won - the Cup Winners' Cup.
 
Cucumbear said:
I have said on other threads that I believe if we were in the Conference League we’d have a really good chance of winning it. However, the flip side is it’s unlikely, barring a disaster, that we’ll ever have to play in it.
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We won’t ever play in it unless scotlands coefficient nose dives significantly and we mess up qualifying

Odds are extremely unlikely
 
Europa league final for me. Although the elephant in the room is the Conference League is probably our level and a competition we could regularly realistically compete for.

I like the idea of three European trophies, but UEFA have f-it-up in the way they have organized them, especially given there is no drop down after this season. We would need to have a disaster of a season in order to qualify for the Conference League. Even the EL which we've shown we can compete in will be out of reach unless we sacrifice the CL money to the mentally challengeds.
 
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