| Town and the Champions League 21:26 - Jan 28 with 1863 views | cbower |
For someone of my vintage, it's so hard to watch these Champions League matches without thinking what if. All this came 30, 40+ odd years too late for us. Just imagine being in this competition year after year with our 2nd, 3rd, 4th place finishes in the 70s and early 80s. Even our 6th place finishes and FA Cup win would have us in the Europa League. What if eh, what if....... Not just mixing it in the English top flight, but year on year with the cream of Europe.
You might say we did that and you'd be correct of course, but nowadays you can't be knocked out in the first, second or third round. They all get to play a minimum of 8 fixtures.
The money would have been nice too! |  |
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| Town and the Champions League on 21:33 - Jan 28 with 1787 views | FrimleyBlue |
even more painful was missing out by 3 points in 2000.... how different things may have been after that.
I will add though. I think we will see champions league football back in PR within 10 years [Post edited 28 Jan 21:33]
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| Town and the Champions League on 21:42 - Jan 28 with 1720 views | MK1 |
| Town and the Champions League on 21:33 - Jan 28 by FrimleyBlue |
even more painful was missing out by 3 points in 2000.... how different things may have been after that.
I will add though. I think we will see champions league football back in PR within 10 years [Post edited 28 Jan 21:33]
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Top 4 is a very tough nut to crack.
Man City
Arsenal
Liverpool
Chelsea
Man Utd
Newcastle
Aston Villa
We have a very, very big gap to fill. I believe top 10 is possible within 5 years, but top 4 is a massive step up. |  |
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| Town and the Champions League on 22:47 - Jan 28 with 1551 views | reusersfreekicks |
| Town and the Champions League on 21:33 - Jan 28 by FrimleyBlue |
even more painful was missing out by 3 points in 2000.... how different things may have been after that.
I will add though. I think we will see champions league football back in PR within 10 years [Post edited 28 Jan 21:33]
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2001 |  | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 23:17 - Jan 28 with 1503 views | Wickets |
Too true , I can still remember Màrtijn Reuser interview on Sky on the subject of us in the Champions league , only for us to just miss out . |  | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 23:27 - Jan 28 with 1472 views | positivity |
| Town and the Champions League on 21:42 - Jan 28 by MK1 |
Top 4 is a very tough nut to crack.
Man City
Arsenal
Liverpool
Chelsea
Man Utd
Newcastle
Aston Villa
We have a very, very big gap to fill. I believe top 10 is possible within 5 years, but top 4 is a massive step up. |
top 6 this year, not putting it past uefa to extend it to top 10 in frimmer's time frame! |  |
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| Town and the Champions League on 23:47 - Jan 28 with 1425 views | armchaircritic59 |
I was one of the very fortunates to be around for those times. I don't take it for granted, even now. All I can say to supporters much younger than me who would love to see those sort of times for themselves, is this. There were times between the Sir Alf era and the early SBR era when what happend from around the mid 70's to early 80's wasn't even a pipe dream, I would never even have considered it possible. Well it happened. Keep believing and don't lose the faith. It happened once, it can happen again and as a club we are much better financially off then we were then. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 08:48 - Jan 29 with 1133 views | BtreeBlueBlood |
And then we got a bonus year. When we were relegated with the lowest yellow cards.
That was an amazing year Milan Helsingborg
Playing three games a week our squad couldn’t cope I couldn’t bounce back to the premiership for 20 years |  | | |
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| Town and the Champions League on 09:07 - Jan 29 with 1088 views | PavlovsCat |
| Town and the Champions League on 08:48 - Jan 29 by BtreeBlueBlood |
And then we got a bonus year. When we were relegated with the lowest yellow cards.
That was an amazing year Milan Helsingborg
Playing three games a week our squad couldn’t cope I couldn’t bounce back to the premiership for 20 years |
The 80/81 season saw us knock Villa out of the FA Cup, beat them, both at home and away, in the League, and become embroiled in a race for three trophies. With a relatively sparse squad we eventually ONLY won the UEFA Cup. Villa, with nothing else to play for, went on to narrowly pip Town to win the League title. The following year Villa won the European Cup, (today’s Champion’s League).
Oh, what might have been! | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:04 - Jan 29 with 956 views | mellowblue |
| Town and the Champions League on 09:07 - Jan 29 by PavlovsCat |
The 80/81 season saw us knock Villa out of the FA Cup, beat them, both at home and away, in the League, and become embroiled in a race for three trophies. With a relatively sparse squad we eventually ONLY won the UEFA Cup. Villa, with nothing else to play for, went on to narrowly pip Town to win the League title. The following year Villa won the European Cup, (today’s Champion’s League).
Oh, what might have been! |
With hindsight if we had lost the FA Cup third round tie to Villa, it might have taken strain off us, added games to Villa's schedule and spared us all that dismal day against Man City. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:09 - Jan 29 with 951 views | bsw72 |
I still maintain that winning a UEFA cup in the pre-champions league era was a tougher achievement than winning the European Cup, simply because than rather just the Champions from the each country, you could face the top 2, 3 or 4 of the most consistent teams in each of the European leagues.
Obvisouly us winning the whole thing in 1981 pales into insignifigance compared to those up the road winning 2 matches in the competition in 1993. |  | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:20 - Jan 29 with 918 views | vinceg |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:09 - Jan 29 by bsw72 |
I still maintain that winning a UEFA cup in the pre-champions league era was a tougher achievement than winning the European Cup, simply because than rather just the Champions from the each country, you could face the top 2, 3 or 4 of the most consistent teams in each of the European leagues.
Obvisouly us winning the whole thing in 1981 pales into insignifigance compared to those up the road winning 2 matches in the competition in 1993. |
Must be time for the annual Jeremy Goss's goal in Munich Celebration Dinner soon. No doubt Suzy's Foul Old Twot on Look Norfolk will remind us |  | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 12:17 - Jan 29 with 860 views | VanDusen |
Except... it wouldn't have happened. Town fans have to get with understanding this is not about us. It's about six or so clubs (and a dozen or so others across the world) that have become brands that are 'too big to fail' as they sell so much rubbish to people off the back of it. Our fanbase is never going to compete with that and we are not going to sell chocolate bars in Thailand or shaving products in Estonia so we must be squeezed out of the showbiz stuff - and we're not alone. Why do you think it's the same teams year after year? Why whenever a team is vaguely successful (Leics, Forest, Palace, even Newcastle or Villa) they eventually have their best players stripped clean and are left floundering. What do you think "Financial Fair Play" is all about (which funnily enough was devised after Leicester actually did the impossible) and why Man City's overspending case is delayed eternally?
It's not sport any more - it's just entertainment and we are just an NPC in the Premier League like half the rest of the clubs. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 12:22 - Jan 29 with 840 views | usm |
| Town and the Champions League on 21:33 - Jan 28 by FrimleyBlue |
even more painful was missing out by 3 points in 2000.... how different things may have been after that.
I will add though. I think we will see champions league football back in PR within 10 years [Post edited 28 Jan 21:33]
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| Town and the Champions League on 13:15 - Jan 29 with 764 views | bsw72 |
| Town and the Champions League on 12:17 - Jan 29 by VanDusen |
Except... it wouldn't have happened. Town fans have to get with understanding this is not about us. It's about six or so clubs (and a dozen or so others across the world) that have become brands that are 'too big to fail' as they sell so much rubbish to people off the back of it. Our fanbase is never going to compete with that and we are not going to sell chocolate bars in Thailand or shaving products in Estonia so we must be squeezed out of the showbiz stuff - and we're not alone. Why do you think it's the same teams year after year? Why whenever a team is vaguely successful (Leics, Forest, Palace, even Newcastle or Villa) they eventually have their best players stripped clean and are left floundering. What do you think "Financial Fair Play" is all about (which funnily enough was devised after Leicester actually did the impossible) and why Man City's overspending case is delayed eternally?
It's not sport any more - it's just entertainment and we are just an NPC in the Premier League like half the rest of the clubs. |
There is a direct correlation between club valuation/spending power and how they finish in the CL League table.
Only one side in the top 8 to avoid the playoffs and go through directly to Group 16 stage is not in the top 10 most wealthy - so credit to Sporting for that achievement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fo
https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 13:25 - Jan 29 with 737 views | You_Bloo_Right |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:09 - Jan 29 by bsw72 |
I still maintain that winning a UEFA cup in the pre-champions league era was a tougher achievement than winning the European Cup, simply because than rather just the Champions from the each country, you could face the top 2, 3 or 4 of the most consistent teams in each of the European leagues.
Obvisouly us winning the whole thing in 1981 pales into insignifigance compared to those up the road winning 2 matches in the competition in 1993. |
And I make you dead right.
The European Cup may have been the prestige trophy but the UEFA Cup was the tougher competition. |  |
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| Town and the Champions League on 13:43 - Jan 29 with 708 views | trncbluearmy |
On the plus side we won the UEFA cup when it was a proper competition and considered by some to be the hardest cup to win at the time [Post edited 29 Jan 13:45]
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| Town and the Champions League on 13:46 - Jan 29 with 694 views | Vic |
| Town and the Champions League on 11:04 - Jan 29 by mellowblue |
With hindsight if we had lost the FA Cup third round tie to Villa, it might have taken strain off us, added games to Villa's schedule and spared us all that dismal day against Man City. |
I'll never forgive Paul Power! Standing behind the goal you just knew ... you just knew ...! |  |
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| Town and the Champions League on 19:58 - Jan 29 with 526 views | armchaircritic59 |
| Town and the Champions League on 13:25 - Jan 29 by You_Bloo_Right |
And I make you dead right.
The European Cup may have been the prestige trophy but the UEFA Cup was the tougher competition. |
Certainly was the year we won it. It was widely regarded as being the toughest one to win that season. Full of teams that were in top form in their repective leagues. For those that say we can't compete on monetary terms with the so called " Big Boys " today, well we couldn't then either. To the point where our bench was much weaker than it needed to be and the squad size was smaller than many. No reflection on those guys, they never gave less than 100% when called upon even if there was an obvious quality drop. For younger supporters I just say, don't give up the dream. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 20:10 - Jan 29 with 499 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Town and the Champions League on 12:17 - Jan 29 by VanDusen |
Except... it wouldn't have happened. Town fans have to get with understanding this is not about us. It's about six or so clubs (and a dozen or so others across the world) that have become brands that are 'too big to fail' as they sell so much rubbish to people off the back of it. Our fanbase is never going to compete with that and we are not going to sell chocolate bars in Thailand or shaving products in Estonia so we must be squeezed out of the showbiz stuff - and we're not alone. Why do you think it's the same teams year after year? Why whenever a team is vaguely successful (Leics, Forest, Palace, even Newcastle or Villa) they eventually have their best players stripped clean and are left floundering. What do you think "Financial Fair Play" is all about (which funnily enough was devised after Leicester actually did the impossible) and why Man City's overspending case is delayed eternally?
It's not sport any more - it's just entertainment and we are just an NPC in the Premier League like half the rest of the clubs. |
Ah but we have Ed......... Get town stable in the prem......... Utilise Ed as a global star that he is and watch town become a household name :) | |
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| Town and the Champions League on 20:45 - Jan 29 with 444 views | mellowblue |
| Town and the Champions League on 13:46 - Jan 29 by Vic |
I'll never forgive Paul Power! Standing behind the goal you just knew ... you just knew ...! |
My view was from one of the stands near the half way line, but yes, we all knew it was going in. We looked dead on our feet by then. We seemed to lack energy that day and really needed that first goal. Glad Spurs beat them. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 22:41 - Jan 29 with 369 views | BluedanW |
| Town and the Champions League on 13:25 - Jan 29 by You_Bloo_Right |
And I make you dead right.
The European Cup may have been the prestige trophy but the UEFA Cup was the tougher competition. |
I couldn't believe how the media reported on West Ham winning the Europa conference league a few years back. Their fans making out it was the European Cup. Its a mickey mouse cup compared to the UEFA cup as it was when we won the trophy. The teams in the tournament were 2nd 3rd and 4th in their respective leagues. Many of these teams would be their countries best team that season, such as St Ettiene who were unbeaten in 2 years and we stuffed them 4-1 in their back yard. | | | |
| Town and the Champions League on 08:22 - Jan 30 with 206 views | blueislander |
IMO.The Champions League has been totally devalued. If the 5th placed team gets a place in it it is hardly “Champions” league is it. Just another money spinner. | | | |
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