Champions League, obviously. It is the most prestigious competition, and the number of awesome teams is much higher. In addition, for the self proclaimed 'biggest club in the world', we are nowhere as successful in this competition compared to the other top teams. Having 'only' 3 UCL is a bit of a joke compared to the likes of Real and Milano (or even Barca, Liverpool and Bayern).
Champions league vs Premier League success. Which One Would You Prefer? | Poll added
- Thread starter BusbyMalone
- Start date
You don't. Real is by far the most successful, prestigious and biggest club in the world purely because of their success in this competition. Interestingly, in the majority of cases when they won UCL, they didn't win the league. But still, they have 12 UCL titles and in the eyes of most football fans, all the other clubs are midgets compared to them.I'd say a PL win with no CL is better than the reverse. You have to question the credentials of a CL winning team who were nowhere in their domestic league (fine achievement though it is).
The answer of course is to win both in the same season
I don’t care about catching Milan or Real. The only bragging rights I care about are with fans of other PL clubs. Admittedly a CL victory or two closer to Liverpool’s tally would be nice but given the choice between that and more breathing space in terms of domestic titles I’d go for the latter.
I guess its not logical, but I want to win the PL so bad right now, I'd take it over the CL. Maybe I shade that way because its more realistic.
Well the only bragging rights I truly care about are with Liverpool. And like I said above, we'll most likely win the league again before they do. But their five CL wins grate me.
Of course. SAF was a politician, the 'league first' was just because we were finding much easier to win the league than UCL. The moment he cracked European competition, he started calling UCL 'the biggest/best football competition' and was resting players in the league (even on important matches like Chelsea away in 2008) to focus on UCL.
Biggest lie ever. Which for some reasons, a lot of people buy.
As far as I am aware, there is a single club in Europe who have won more UCL (European main competition titles) than league titles. There are literally hundreds of clubs who have won more league titles than European titles. So no, winning the league is nowhere as tough as winning UCL. If that wasn't the case, we would have won more UCLs and less league titles.
Pretty much this. As you say, chelsea away in a tight title race between the 2 late in the season, and he rested ronaldo for the CL semi with Barca.
CL, even Leicester can win the PL
Winning the CL at the moment would be massive, winning the PL is great too and I hope united do, but imagine United beating Real in the CL final this year..
Winning the CL at the moment would be massive, winning the PL is great too and I hope united do, but imagine United beating Real in the CL final this year..
Breaking my head over it, which club is that?
Nottingam Forest.
Ahh, cheers
You can fluke a CL like Pool in 05 or Chelsea in 12, after group stages luck plays a big role in it. For a league you have to work the entire season every game.
Right now is CL. United need to have more.
This exact rationale! If I were a City supporter I might be more inclined to say Premiership. I think overall the Premiership is a greater trophy to win given its a whole seasons worth and luck only plays a smaller factor, but given all the Premiership success I would just like to knock off the last thing Liverpool have over us
There is logic to this, but also flawed to some extent. You get multiple league winners every year, but only one Champions League winner, so by nature top teams are likely to more often win their league.
But that doesn't make that success any less warranted or CL any more warranted. CL requires luck of draw, luck of knockout games, lucky of injuries at the right time etc. Premiership is over a whole season so the lucky moments are more evenly distributed generally speaking.
You can be the best team in Europe and have a bad day and be knocked out.
Agree except for the City part, I reckon their supporters would want the team to get their hands on that trophy for the very first time.
With regards to my own views, for me it's an absolute no brainer. Champions league by a country mile. I remember a similar thread on here around about the time we last won the CL. In the months leading up to the game there was a fair few citing the Premiership over the Cl. Following our Moscow win quite a few of them were back on here and had done a complete U turn. The premiership is great don't get me wrong but winning it doesn't come close to the elation a fan experiences when old big ears is held aloft.
People keep using these two as examples, but there are countless cases where great teams that dominated their domestic competition failed in the CL despite multiple attempts. Guardiola's Bayern, Mourinho's Chelsea, Allegri's Juventus, Mancini's Inter, Invincibles, etc...
The CL is a different beast. It's the biggest and most prestigious trophy in club football.
Let me be clear; I'm not questioning Real's credentials as a club nor am I saying winning the CL is useless without a domestic league trophy to match. But you would expect a team that wins the CL to be among the very best sides in Europe, and by extension the world. When you look at the likes of Liverpool in '05 (hate to pick on them) and Chelsea in '12 and you look at their league positions that year (5th, 58pts, 37 off top and a cool 19 behind us in 3rd; and 6th, 64pts, 25 off joint-top) do they look like European elite-level sides or good sides who did fantastically well hitting above their weight? As you indicate Real second or occasionally third in La Liga with a CL win could rightly claim a position near the very top in Europe, but could Liverpool '05 and Chelsea '12 do so with straight faces?
The question in the thread is as subjective as it is pointless as nobody gets the chance to pick and choose trophies. I've always preferred the 38 game domestic league to anything Europe has to offer and I value the PL higher than CL based on that. If you're the other way fair play to you, at least we can agree '99 and '08 were fecking fantastic.
Guilty
. I understand the sentiment, there's nothing quite like the CL in many ways and it's an entirely different test to a league campaign.100% it's the League.. UCL we might win by chance ´cause it's more or less a coin toss with the draws starting from the last 16s..
We need stamina and defending and that's what we got in LVG and Jose.
We need stamina and defending and that's what we got in LVG and Jose.
Bayern Munich 2013, Barcelona 2015, and the Real Madrid sides of the past few years did not win the CL thanks to a coin toss. They won it because they are monstrous teams, some of the best teams of all time.
Same here mate. I never quantified it but that seems about right in my mind. CL > League any day for me.
Premier League, every time.
I want the league more because of rivalry. I really can't stand anyone else winning the league. Nothing grates me more.
On the other hand, I don't mind Barca, Real, PSG, Bayern winning the CL. Don't care much about them.
On the other hand, I don't mind Barca, Real, PSG, Bayern winning the CL. Don't care much about them.
I understand the sentimental attachment to winning the league, but it seems clear to me that winning a tournament against the best teams from each league is more prestigious than beating the teams from one league. It's like wanting to win a gold at the Commonwealth games over the Olympics, or preferring the European Championships to the World Cup.
By that measure I assume you regard the Club World Cup as the most prestigious competition a club can win
The league requires you to maintain your level over the most prolonged period and while playing more games than any other competition. The CL requires you to not have a brain fart during the group stage and then play 7 cup games, albeit probably at least 5 of them being against top class opposition.
I enjoy winning the PL more but the CL is probably on par. We do need to win 3 more CL asap though to overtake "5 times".
CL, by some distance, winning the CL & PL 17th place would be a great season.
This is actually the best argument I've heard in favour of winning the league over the CL.
But here's a question: would you rather have City beat you to the league, or City beat you in a Champions League final?
City 11/12.
They weren't lucky.
Final.
By that measure I assume you regard the Club World Cup as the most prestigious competition a club can win
The league requires you to maintain your level over the most prolonged period and while playing more games than any other competition. The CL requires you to not have a brain fart during the group stage and then play 7 cup games, albeit probably at least 5 of them being against top class opposition.
It's not simply about geography though... the World Cup and the Champions League are recognized as elite competitions. I suppose there could be a scenario where you get an ultra weak group, and then due to fluke eliminations end up playing only one or two superior teams, but that being said you can win the Premiership by a referee allowing a 4 minute extra time to turn into 7 minutes, or by a Crystal Palace defeating Chelsea. I believe that having the best managers is slowly converting the EPL into the best league, and I'm a big fan of the league itself, but until that transition is complete, I think Champions League is still the gold standard for non world cup football.
Champions League... we only have 3 - that is a crime!
They won on goal difference by scoring a goal on the 94th minute after playing against 10 men the whole half because of Joey Barton. If that win wasn't lucky then there's no such thing as luck.
This, we will never be truthfully back from SAF retirement unless we win PL.
Many posters seem to suggest League victory would lead to domestic dominance again and hence better than CL.
Not sure that's a likely scenario. The league looks extremely competitive nowadays. Even if we won this year, it will be very tough to repeat. Look at Chelsea last season.
Champions League for sure if it's both a one-off.
Not sure that's a likely scenario. The league looks extremely competitive nowadays. Even if we won this year, it will be very tough to repeat. Look at Chelsea last season.
Champions League for sure if it's both a one-off.
The Premier League. You’ve actually proved yourself the best in the country. Winning the CL proves nothing. Anyone can fluke a cup competition, no matter how prestigious the competition. Teams have won the CL when they’ve not even been the best team in their own country. They’ve actually won it when they weren’t even in the four best teams in their own country. When Liverpool won it in ‘05 they weren’t even the best team in Liverpool. The Premier League, hands down.
Not sure about luck. But I still maintain if QPR game didn't end later than the other game, hence the players knowing they are safe, Aguero won't have happened. It's a travesty and unfair that.