IF we had qualified for the Europa League...

[Paris]

...through last seasons FA Cup. Would our fans have wanted us to play full strength sides in every competition?

Just popped into my head as we weren't a million miles away from getting to the FA Cup final(Sunderland reserves/Sheffield United semi final).

It would have buggered up our fixture list i.e plenty of games on the Sabbath

 

[atfc village]

Dundalk had a fine 2 1 away to Hadjuk Split tonight ,but lost 3 2 on agg.

 

[Ali_rrr]

I would love to go on a European tour with Brighton, nothing sounds better than people trying to stab you in cities and towns with a worrying lack of vowels in Eastern Europe!

But seriously, it would be cool. But I would hope we didn't play full strength as we'd be knackered. I think Wigan and Birmingham would have done a lot better without it.

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

Personally, yes.

Whilst I understand the financial implications of making it to the PL (or not), I would rather we went hell for leather for any available trophy regardless of how it impacts our league form (or our chances of actually winning).

It's the 'prioritise the league, forget the cup(s)' mentality that has left clubs fighting over 4th place in the PL instead of paying attention to winnable trophies and, in all honesty, I hate it. You can't put a league position in a trophy cabinet after all.

 

[Dan Aitch]

If we'd been promoted we could be fighting for a Champions League spot this year.

So close... so close.

 

[Cian]

Every draw is worth about £70,000 and every win about £140,000 so there's some rewards to putting in a performance - also about £1M just for qualifying (as the cup winners go direct to the group stages). There's actually not a huge amount of direct cash for going to the knockout stages though.

 

[Paris]

If we'd been promoted we could be fighting for a Champions League spot this year.

So close... so close.

Hull, Sunderland reserves, Sheffield United.

Chelsea, City, Arsenal, United, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton etc over the course of 38 games.

I see your point

 

[Dan Aitch]

I see your point

But ignored the sarcasm on purpose, right?

 

[Quinney]

Would be great to watch us in Europe. I'd like to think if we'd bothered going to watch we'd have a full strength team as possible out.

 

[Paris]

But ignored the sarcasm on purpose, right?

Keep taking the medication

 

[Paris]

I would love to go on a European tour with Brighton, nothing sounds better than people trying to stab you in cities and towns with a worrying lack of vowels in Eastern Europe!

But seriously, it would be cool. But I would hope we didn't play full strength as we'd be knackered. I think Wigan and Birmingham would have done a lot better without it.

Birmingham did well to reach the play offs with Hughton in charge. Loud mouth Whelan made the mistake of employing Coyle. Had they brought in Rosler at that stage....well, who knows?

 

[Ali_rrr]

Birmingham did well to reach the play offs with Hughton in charge. Loud mouth Whelan made the mistake of employing Coyle. Had they brought in Rosler at that stage....well, who knows?

I reckon Birmingham would've have gone up automatically that year if it wasn't for Europe. Same I think with Wigan if Rösler was appointed earlier and they were not in Europe.

 

[seagull_in_malaysia]

We can try and get promotion every season. How often are Brighton and Hove Albion in a European-wide competition? For me it's clear what the priority should be.

 

[Paris]

We can try and get promotion every season. How often are Brighton and Hove Albion in a European-wide competition? For me it's clear what the priority should be.

Agreed. Being able to see us pit our wits against the likes of Ajax and Inter Milan would be great to see. Hopefully Sami will take at least one of the domestic cup competitions seriously this season, aside from a promotion(hopefully) push.