The Race for Champions League Places

[Kenneth]

[little dave hedgehog]

if you give a team a cup, today is a great day.

but if you teach a team to finish higher up the table, compete in the champions league, give them access to better players, which sees them winning more trophies and challenging for the league, the entire future is great.

i'd gladly sacrifice one trophy today for 5 over the next 3 years. but like shaggy, i don't think we have to. would love to see both, as winning a trophy will improve the players we already have.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

if you give a team a cup, today is a great day.

but if you teach a team to finish higher up the table, compete in the champions league, give them access to better players, which sees them winning more trophies and challenging for the league, the entire future is great.

i'd gladly sacrifice one trophy today for 5 over the next 3 years. but like shaggy, i don't think we have to. would love to see both, as winning a trophy will improve the players we already have.

The thing is though, talk like this is pointless.. Winning or Losing to Cardiff has no affect on finishing 4th. I hate this discussion but its cropping up so often its hard to ignore.

[Phoenix07]

We can win trophies and get fourth. We're not in a position whereby we need to choose one over the other.

Houllier didn't and he got 3 trophies AND a Champions League place. Our fixtures are set out weekly from now until the end of the season, and we're on a high.

We've got a Championship side in a cup final. And yet you're all caught up in deciding which is more valuable.

How about we win the Carling Cup, win as many games as possible until the end of the season and then decide.

[BootRoom]

The league campaign has always been our "bread and butter"; the "first is first and second is nowhere" quote was made in relation to the league table, not knock-out tournaments.

Our number one aim should be winning the league title, and for that we need better players, which in turn requires more resources - something the Champions League can offer us. A happy side effect of having a better team and squad through investing Champions League revenue is that it will put us in a stronger position to win knock-out tournaments.

With the likes of players' freedom of contract/Bosman/TV money/rich benefactors etc, we are playing in a totally different football environment, with greater competition for the best players, so pragmatism is understandable in trying to achieve our goals, i.e. winning the league.

[Craig_H]

thats a pretty spineless cuntish thing to say dont you think?

i just hope that the players are less spinless and indeed less cuntish than whoever types the message above

[Craig_H]

@mattshark, no it hasn't. Trophies over 4th every day of the week.

Regular CL participation makes our general chances of consistently competing for trophies far greater. Fact.

[Craig_H]

Considering where we are, I.e. In a transition with backing, and the progress of spurs and the struggle arsenal face, CL football now could change our course for the better for a generation. Obviously the preferred answer is CL qualification and some cups, but I'd have to say CL is the most important.

Everyone saying football is about winning trophies - yes it is. On an ongoing basis, winning trophies will be far easier with annual CL participation, due to the money it brings, the better players it'll help attract and just the sheer fact that it's a fourth competition. Winning a trophy is easier when you've got four of them available.

Being consistently out of the CL would make any trophy win the exception, rather than the rule. And vice versa.

[Craig_H]

Just did a quick twitter poll and every single red that I know personally or who goes the match replied said trophies, 2 who I don't know so couldn't say if they go the game said 4th.

I go the match and i'll be at Wembley in 23 days' time. I think finishing 4th would be better for our chances of future success.

LFC exist to win trophies. It is THAT simple.

Yep, LFC exists to win trophies...

And being in the CL on a regular basis hugely increases our chances of building a squad capable of regularly winning trophies. It's THAT simple.

[Craig_H]

drivel at best.

Winning a cup this season will also help instill a winning mentality into players and also help attracting players in the summer - players will join the club IF they believe in the project and can see what the club is trying to achieve, certainly after the years of H&G and the Bodge bringing in some domestic success would be a good good thing considering how close they took us to the edge.

Remember we had the side pulled apart and although I'd love to be in the top 4 (no reason why we can't be in that come the end of the season anyway) but LFC is about winning trophies we've not done that since 2006, far too long.

Most players want to win things, yes they want to play in the CL as well but really they want to have winners medals thats what when your career comes to an end people talk about and you remember not all those seasons you played in the CL.

This is the one part of winning a cup that is also crucial, to be fair. Winning is a habit and we need to get back into the habit and regain the winning mentality into the club.

[Craig_H]

*applause*

Is ****ing right rcasemore. Too bad half of these wools measure success as mediocrity. Imagine aiming for 4th ****ing place. Winning is everything.

You should really ditch the 'wools' attitude. It doesnt strengthen your argument, it just makes you look a bit silly.

It's a two-sided debate, regular CL qualification will put us in a position whereby we can regularly compete for and win trophies. Like Casemore said though, we need to get the winning mentality and habit back.

As Shaggy points out, we can do both. We've got one hand on a trophy already and arent out of the running to get into the top four.

[elrichio86]

If anybody asked what happened during the 2000/2001 season, will people mention our glorious 3rd place finish, or the fact we won the treble?

[Craig_H]

I dunno. If we hadnt finished 3rd or 4th that season or the following ones, do you think we'd have won the CL four years later?

[elrichio86]

What I meant is that its the trophies that stick in the memory. We go on about our great history - its the trophies that make up that history.

[Craig_H]

Yes i realise that, but the simple point is that the money, ability to attract top players and enhanced reputation of being in the CL will make us a far stronger side - thus increasing our chances of winning trophies on a consistent basis, going forward.

What part of that is so difficult to comprehend? Not aimed just at you BTW.