Champions league vs Premier League success. Which One Would You Prefer? | Poll added

PL or CL?

  • Total voters
    478
  • Poll closed .
It has to be the Champions League. I have seen United win the league 13 times. I have seen us win the Champions League just twice. Both occasions were tortuous (particularly Moscow) but the elation from knowing your team is the best football side in the world is unbeatable.
 
Don’t think the fact United have only won 3 CL and won so many PL titles makes an argument for prioritising the CL.
 
I'm honestly amazed that this is even a debate.

I rate the CL as valuable as 3 league titles, minimum.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The opposite, if anything. It just shows that there’s a massive element of random chance and it’s often won by a team that isn’t the best in the competition. See also Liverpool winning in 2005 and Chelsea’s most recent CL trophy.
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Leicester won the league in 2016, Montpellier in 2012 and Wolfsburg in 2009.

More often than not, great teams win the league. More often than not, even greater teams win the CL.
 
Interesting normally I've always said PL but for the first time I'm thinking CL, maybe it's because we've missed it in recent seasons and won the Europa whilst the Spanish teams have dominated it and PSG/City spend big to win it.
 
IMO, you can never truly claim the best to in Europe if you're not the best in your country.
 
When i created the thread i thought for sure the premier league would be the preference for the vast majority of people here.

Surprised to see otherwise.
 
For this season,it would have to be the CL.We haven't won it for a decade now and a club like ours should have won more in Europe,so I would say the CL.....
 
Infordin said:
Leicester won the league in 2016, Montpellier in 2012 and Wolfsburg in 2009.

More often than not, great teams win the league. More often than not, even greater teams win the CL.
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Those teams all had fantastic seasons and fully deserved each league trophy. Cup competition winners often benefit from favourable draws and/or playing better teams on bad days.

Any truly great CL winning team has always done it as part of a double/treble. Winning the CL without winning your domestic league should be in a different, lesser, category of honours entirely.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Those teams all had fantastic seasons and fully deserved each league trophy. Cup competition winners often benefit from favourable draws and/or playing better teams on bad days.
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You could kind of say the same thing about Liverpool 2005 and Chelsea 2012. Liverpool beat Juventus, Chelsea and Milan (3 world class teams) on the way to CL glory. Chelsea beat us and then Bayern in their own backyard. Who's to say they didn't deserve it?

Also, luck plays a role in league wins too.
 
Winning the PL says more about the quality of the team than winning the CL, but my greatest United memories are in Europe. Those are the seasons that you talk about for decades to come.
 
Infordin said:
You could kind of say the same thing about Liverpool 2005 and Chelsea 2012. Liverpool beat Juventus, Chelsea and Milan (3 world class teams) on the way to CL glory. Chelsea beat us and then Bayern in their own backyard. Who's to say they didn't deserve it?

Also, luck plays a role in league wins too.
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Not as much, clearly. Surprised this is even up for debate tbh.

Not to mention that teams who are able to focus on the CL exclusively have a massive advantage over teams still competing on two fronts.
 
Premier league. No doubt.

Beat Pep's city to the title and were well and truly on our way to being one of the best of the best.

CL is like guessing a number from a weighted dice. We know which team it's leaning to but it's by no means guaranteed. We could possibly win it along with a host of other teams.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Those teams all had fantastic seasons and fully deserved each league trophy. Cup competition winners often benefit from favourable draws and/or playing better teams on bad days.

Winning the CL without winning your domestic league should be in a different, lesser, category of honours entirely.
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Yes you can get lucky in a cup competition and barely ever in a league. But that is largely irrelevant personally as the prestige of winning the CL trumps the question marks over competition/luck etc. in the long run, much like the World Cup being one of the highest measure of succes for any player even though it requires even more luck. To each his own, either will be brilliant.
 
Infordin said:
You could kind of say the same thing about Liverpool 2005 and Chelsea 2012. Liverpool beat Juventus, Chelsea and Milan (3 world class teams) on the way to CL glory. Chelsea beat us and then Bayern in their own backyard. Who's to say they didn't deserve it?

Also, luck plays a role in league wins too.
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They did deserve it. How wouldn't they? Luck? They were valid winners regardless.

But were Liverpool the top side in Europe in 2005? Or Chelsea in 2012?

That's the difference. You win the league and frankly, anyone suggesting you're not the best team (in your league and in your nation) is delusional.
 
Moonred said:
Yes you can get lucky in a cup competition and barely ever in a league. But that is largely irrelevant personally as the prestige of winning the CL trumps the question marks over competition/luck etc. in the long run much like the World Cup is one of the highest measure of success for any player even though it requires even more luck. To each his own, either will be brilliant.
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Yeah, the prestige argument is fair. I just take more pride in my team winning the most difficult trophies. A CL victory (for me) would be cheapened by knowing there was a better team than ours in the league that season.
 
Either really. Either's a success. Both have their challenges, and tbh given the current strength of the premier league neither is particularly easier to win.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The opposite, if anything. It just shows that there’s a massive element of random chance and it’s often won by a team that isn’t the best in the competition. See also Liverpool winning in 2005 and Chelsea’s most recent CL trophy.
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And the last 5 Champions Leagues have been won by possibly 3 of the best teams of all time? The champions league recently (last 5 years) is a feck ton harder to win than any domestic league around.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, the prestige argument is fair. I just take more pride in my team winning the most difficult trophies. A CL victory (for me) would be cheapened by knowing there was a better team than me in the league that season.
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Yeah that’s true. Although it has mitigating circumstances. If we finish a close second and beat some of the big boys in Europe while winning the CL, I don’t think I would be too discontent or people would question the tag as much.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Those teams all had fantastic seasons and fully deserved each league trophy. Cup competition winners often benefit from favourable draws and/or playing better teams on bad days.

Any truly great CL winning team has always done it as part of a double/treble. Winning the CL without winning your domestic league should be in a different, lesser, category of honours entirely.
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Real and Milan have both won multiple CL trophies without winning their league, does anyone really look back and think those victories are diminished? If they do it's only for a second before realizing that on paper, they're worth the exact same as all the other CL trophies those two have won - 12 for Real, 7 for Milan. We can only dream of catching either of them any time soon.
 
The Madrid example is a bit of an exaggeration of the point being made.

La Liga -
2014 - finished third on goal difference, only 3 points behind the winners and took it to the final day.
2016 - A single point behind Barcelona.
2017- They won it.

Not quite like Liverpool finishing 5th. Or Chelsea in 6th. Both miles off.
 
Minimalist said:
The Madrid example is a bit of an exaggeration of the point being made.

La Liga -
2014 - finished third on goal difference, only 3 points behind the winners and took it to the final day.
2016 - A single point behind Barcelona.
2017- They won it.

Not quite like Liverpool finishing 5th. Or Chelsea in 6th. Both miles off.
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Are the Chelsea and Liverpool examples not the exaggeration in this case?
 
2cents said:
Are the Chelsea and Liverpool examples not the exaggeration in this case?
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Show me an example of a similar scenario in the league. Even with Leicester and Blackburn, it's pretty impossible to dispute they deserved the league when they finished top after so many matches over a long season.
 
For me, it would depend on who won the title. If we had to forego the Premier League title to the benefit of City or Liverpool then no chance. The posturing would be unbearable! If Arsenal were to win it though, then yeah I'd sacrifice that for the Champions League.
 
I've never much cared bout the CL. PL is our trophy and about time we won it back. It's also a tougher title to win imo.
 
Minimalist said:
Show me an example of a similar scenario in the league. Even with Leicester and Blackburn, it's pretty impossible to dispute they deserved the league when they finished top after so many matches over a long season.
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Obviously there can't be a similar scenario since they're two completely different formats. I'm just not that bothered by the whole "proving you're the best" argument right now, since we're far more likely to win the league again before Liverpool do and there's no other PL team can get close to us. Meanwhile, we have some ground to make up ourselves in terms of CL victories.
 
The Champions League is a lot more valuable than any league in the world. Surprised the poll is so close.
 
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