I don’t think it’s disputable that beating City and Chelsea to win the FA Cup is harder than beating Genk (it was Genk, right?), Celta, and Ajax. It’s much of muchness really. Europa League has more prestige because it’s a European trophy but in terms of difficulty FA Cup was just as or harder to win.
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Yeah. And before that we played Football League teams. Stuff like that cancels itself out imo.
- Cech 2. Ospina 3. Koscielny 4. Mertesacker 5. Mustafi 6. Monreal 7. Kolasinac
- Elneny 9. Cazorla (
) 10. Ozil 11. Xhaka 12. GIroud 13. Sanchez 14. Lacazette 15. Gabriel
) 10. Ozil 11. Xhaka 12. GIroud 13. Sanchez 14. Lacazette 15. Gabriel=====
- Martinez 2. Bellerin 3. Holding 4. Chambers 5. Coquelin 6. Wilshere 7. Ramsey
- Chamberlain 9. Walcott 10. Welbeck 11. Iwobi
Bramall can go into the Yoof list with as many of the under 21yo as we can shoehorn in there. These are the rules as I understand it, feel free to correct.
But I got an ‘A’ in GCSE maths and feel confident that 15+11 > 25, so someone really does have to go, right?
Beyond Woj, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Debuchy, Akpom and Perez who I’ve already cut. Looks to me like we’re absolutely fine on the foreign quota but just have too fat a squad overall. Maybe this is why we’re open to selling Calum Chambers?..or perhaps Wilshere
Is our problem that Iwobi and Holding are actually now 21 year olds and therefore have to count in our main squad?
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I hold the FA Cup in much higher regard than the Europa league tbh.
The Europa league’s model needs a complete reworking for it to be of any prestige, when the officials in charge of the competition seemly neglect it, it’s hard for us as fans not to feel indifferent towards it.
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Don’t expect much from him tbh
It’s genuinely hard to say. Ibrah has more skill in his pinky toe than Lukaku has in his whole body but Lukaku’s pace, agility and workrate might see him get more goals maybe. Overall considering how much he’s spent Mourinho hasn’t been impressive in the transfer market.
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Giving a CL spot to the winner was a good, if obvious, step, tbf.
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Partly but it wasn’t like we wouldn’t have done better if we didn’t have mid-week football too. They could also play reserves for much of the EL where as we had to go full strength twice a week.
If we keep Alexis/Ozil we will have had a much better window than Everton even without further additions. Although I liked the look of Onyekuru he’s pretty unpolished. Lacazette is still much better than any of their signings.
They prioritised the europa once it became clear they were not gonna get into the top 4
Moriniho was talking about winning the league at the start of last season
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No Old UEFA Cup>FA Cup>Europa League.
We beat City/Chelsea to win the FA Cup, they beat squads that probably cost less than their cheapest player.
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I suppose the question for everyone on the thread would Europa, Reserve Cup and 6th place make you:
Wenger IN
Wenger Out
I’d say that beating City and Chelsea in the semi and the final more than cancels out playing a couple of non league sides in the rounds before, I wouldn’t say the reverse as you just have. I think if you beat the best and third best sides in the final two rounds it’s basically irrelevant who you played before, you’ve more than demonstrated that you are worthy winners, and you’ve more than demonstrated the difficulty of winning the trophy.
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Winning the League Cup is harder to do than winning the Europa League. If we are in a competition I want us to win it but the FA Cup is a much bigger feat than the EL tbh.
Agreed, kinda feel like that’s something the FA Cup should do.
have a play off between 4th spot and the fa cup winners for the 4th qualification spot would be great
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It kinda would tbh.
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Iwobi was born in 96 so still u21.
Are you sure they don’t lose eligibility for the B squad list as soon as they turn 21?
It’s not papering over anything imo.