Winning the Europa v getting 4th

Jackthelad wrote: Have they done any worse though than how man city have got on in the CL. Different standard of team being faced obviously, but city won't find many feeling too sorry for them with the money they've spent. We made the semis a few years back, beaten by atleti in the 2nd leg at anfield If I remember correctly.

Are city the bench mark though, I would think not. City got a couple of stinker groups in their defence due to their seeding.

English teams have performed badly in in overall though. Shocking.

PanteirA wrote: If I was the manager of one of those clubs I would concentrate more on trying to finish 4th. They should make the knock out stage of the europa league anyway. When there see how you're doing in the league. I don't think Spurs have a good    enough team for 4th tbh

they haven't a team good enough to win the Europa either.

Recipe for improvement:

Abolish the Champions League drop-in (aside from 6 from the top nations from the Champions League last qualifying round).
Reduce the number of teams from 194 by one per nation down to about 140.
Abolish the place for the winners of the League Cup (fock it, abolish the league cup), sure they get it rarely enough anyway.
Reduce the group stage from 12 to 8 groups.
Give *both* finalists Champions League places.

32 teams in the group stages, only 6 automatic qualifiers, the rest come through three rounds of qualifiers, like the Champions League. That abolishes the extra round in the Europa League, anyway, and removes a decent amount of the dross teams.