The looming spectre of.....The Conference League

Feck me. I would have thought EL is a given since we spent fecking 400M. We were talking about challenging for the title or at the very least safely in Top 4 at the beginning of the season.

Let's skip this altogether because it will be painful to watch and embarrassing for Man Utd to be in this tournament
 
Yakuza_devils said:
Feck me. I would have thought EL is a given since we spent fecking 400M. We were talking about challenging for the title or at the very least safely in Top 4 at the beginning of the season.

Let's skip this altogether because it will be painful to watch and embarrassing for Man Utd to be in this tournament
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It's what we deserve, and frankly given how appallingly this club has been run, and managed, ending up in the bargain bin European cup was an inevitability at some point
 
Remember the geese said:
I do think that some could really benefit from it. Less risky than throwing them into a Premier League game. A bit like how Fergie used to field the kids in the early rounds of the league cup.
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Giving them minutes to rotate some senior players - yes absolutely.
Just field the U18? Please no.
 
The manager (whoever he is) should be able to use 50-60 games in a season to;

- Play as strong a team as possible in the league
- Use 3 cup competitions to maximise a squad full of young players with the potential to either make the first team, or be sold for £10m+ at the end of the season.

That’s not throwing lambs to the slaughter, I’m talking about a core group of 10 used in 2’s and 3’s across the season.

That our club produces so many youth players is a huge source of pride. But I’m still proud when they go on to have good careers elsewhere. Play them. Sell them. One or two may show enough to stay in the squad.

Bombing out of the competition because it’s beneath us is ridiculous.
 
I don't want to play conference because must managers outside of Pep don't actually rotate anymore. It'd mean Bruno playing another 50+ game, 90 minutes season. I'd rather lose all our remaining games then be in the conference
 
If we win the conference league we will be the true king of Europe. The only club to win all 3 major European tournaments. Let's fecking get it!
 
Fergie taught some supporters to look down on certain European competitions. I'm actually glad we don't have more European success because some supporters don't deserve it.
 
Depends who the manager is. If we still have Ten Hag, the same 11 players are going to play in every corner of Europe and every PL/cup game 3 times a week until their legs fall off.

I’d say throw the reserves in and let them enjoy it but these ego managers seem to need a trophy to validate their shit philosophies these days.
 
Bet he will blame injuries. Yes it's been a tough ride but even once we are in middle of park, we have no clue what we are doing, midfield don't track back, everyone is jogging, no service to striker, wingers don't cross. We do not even deserve conference league.
 
Would love us to get into this because we are genuinely too shit to win the Europa. Get a proper manager in and hopefully win a european cup, best we can hope for.
 
Time to break some FFP rules and get thrown out of this competition a la Juventus.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
Feck me. I would have thought EL is a given since we spent fecking 400M. We were talking about challenging for the title or at the very least safely in Top 4 at the beginning of the season.

Let's skip this altogether because it will be painful to watch and embarrassing for Man Utd to be in this tournament
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I couldn’t agree more.

the 400 million was the glazers last transfer as full owners was it?
Good riddance.

Valar Morghulis said:
Would love us to get into this because we are genuinely too shit to win the Europa. Get a proper manager in and hopefully win a european cup, best we can hope for.
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All men must die… in the europa league conference
arthurka said:
Hope we miss out on this
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We need a year to reset the way we play. We still will have FA cup and carabao cup.
 
Real Sociedad, Frankfurt, Napoli, Marseille...all those teams are hovering in Conference League places right now so I don't think its absolutely as miserable as some make it out to be.
 
marktan said:
I don't want to play conference because must managers outside of Pep don't actually rotate anymore. It'd mean Bruno playing another 50+ game, 90 minutes season. I'd rather lose all our remaining games then be in the conference
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I doubt ETH will rotate much for ECL either. He most likely will see this as a trophy he’s likely to win and go for it, and besides with the new format you can only really rest players in the final 1-2 games without risking having to play extra two games.

Last season when we were battling on 4 fronts we basically played our strongest team up until the very end, even in dead rubber games / easy fixtures. It will be the same next season.

Also I think Erik might go for ECL because winning it gets us an EL spot which might be hard to achieve through the league.
 
Also another concern is we may end up losing in embarrassing manner to some smaller club again. If Galatasaray and Copenhagen can beat us then I’m sure some hardly known Bulgarian / Romanian team could have a go at us, especially if we are amidst another historical injury crisis and have to get by without 2-3 first team players.
 
Regardless of our opinions on fielding youth teams etc, the publicity and prize money will be coveted by the top brass at the club and therefore we will go for broke to win it.

Man Utd going out in the group stage against Dnipro, Ludogorets and Shamrock Rovers would be an even further PR disaster.
 
Don't beat yourself up guys. The Conference League is plenty prestigious. Ajax might qualify after all.
 
Nicolarra90 said:
If you mean something stupid like fielding a whole u18 team of course it won't happen.
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I'm not suggesting it. It's a long running suggestion in regards to the EL and EC, play the reserves, play the kids, play a load of u21s, u18s etc.

It'll never happen.
 
RoyH1 said:
Real Sociedad, Frankfurt, Napoli, Marseille...all those teams are hovering in Conference League places right now so I don't think its absolutely as miserable as some make it out to be.
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Frankfurt only under the assumption that only 6 European spots are distributed through the league - but it's more likely to be the 8th placed BL team to play in the ECL (if indeed the 5th CL spot is secured and Leverkusen win the cup in their final against Kaiserlautern who are in relegation battle in the second Bundesliga). So that would currently be Augsburg who played a single season in Europe in their history. Could also still be Heidenheim who play their first ever Bundesliga season.
 
I remember Jose saying he had difficulty motivating the players to take the Europa League seriously, despite winning it that season. We probably would just play a youth/squad team and see what happens.
 
I always want European football even if it's the Conference League

It'll give Ten Hag/whoever is in charge next season. Lots of winnable games and a good shot at a trophy. Plus, plenty of opportunities for the young and squad players.
 
At least we have a chance of winning the conference league unlike the Europa or Champions league.
 
stefan92 said:
Frankfurt only under the assumption that only 6 European spots are distributed through the league - but it's more likely to be the 8th placed BL team to play in the ECL (if indeed the 5th CL spot is secured and Leverkusen win the cup in their final against Kaiserlautern who are in relegation battle in the second Bundesliga). So that would currently be Augsburg who played a single season in Europe in their history. Could also still be Heidenheim who play their first ever Bundesliga season.
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Same in Spain where Sociedad are very unlikely to be in ECL, it will go to the 7th placed team which is currently Betis (but could be Valencia or even Villarreal. Some good teams will be there and though we will be favorites, we won’t be massive favorites.

First round should be fairly straightforward though and will also allow ETH to rack up some wins to boost his winning %, especially against lower ranked teams.
 
Winning the Cup Winners Cup under SAF in 1991 gave us a platform towards a long period of domestic success and being competitive in the CL. Although it was the least coveted European trophy, SAF still overcame Barcelona in a final and Mark Hughes hammering home that emphatic second goal was an iconic moment.

If this summer starts a new era of management at Old Trafford, being in this competition could help a new boss set out his stall for bigger and better things in future. It could serve as a springboard.
 
Some of our fans are snobs.
This is our level, and we should try to win it. And this is great oportunity for some fans to see Manchester United live.

Last year, me and my FIL traveled from Split to Mostar( Bosnia and Herzegovina) to watch Zrinjski against Aston Villa. It was amazing experience. And It was special game for me because Zrinjski is first Bosnian club to qualify to any European group stages since our indenpedence. For some young kids it was first opurtunity to watch club from top 5. And kudos for Aston Villa fans, we got hammered after the game, they couldnt believe how much alcohol os cheap in Bosnia. And that day Villa got some new fans.

United should use this oportunity to reach to new fans. We are slowly fading away with new generation and fecking city is everywhere outside England. So go, play good and win some new fans.

And lot of you doesnt know what games like this means for smaller countries. I still remmember game Zeljeznicar-Newcastle. I am from Tuzla, Zeljo is from Sarajevo but a lot of us did go to the game. It was fecking Shearer man. We only saw him on panini stickers or playstation.

Dont be a snob.
 
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We should have beaten Burnley to avoid it. Now it feels inevitable that Newcastle will overtake us.
 
Surely not being in Conference league means, we are not good enough to be even in that. That is even more embarrassing right?
 
Might as well have a run in the conference league - it'll be a good platform for the younger players to break through and good experience for them for hopefully getting into the europa/champions league spots the next season. We need a huge squad overhaul and they'll need experience whether it's promoting youth or buying cheaper players due to FFP this summer. It's still a competition at the end of the day, there's too many privileged fans on here thinking it's beneath us when we can't even beat the teams bottom of the league.
 
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