Trophies as monumentally important to the club as this season’s Europa League?

Fortitude

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If we don’t win this trophy, we mightn’t see the CL again for a couple, maybe even a few years. Our standing and appeal to the top tier of talent will almost assuredly take a hit as well as our financial situation; the last time we were serious contenders for the EL, it was mainly seen as a trophy to win to complete the European set; it was even looked down upon by sections of the fanbase. It didn’t hold much value in the grand scheme of things, whilst this one is absolutely pivotal.

The European Cup win in 1968 was vital to the club and marked our return to the top in the post-Babes era. It also made United a global name.

The Cup Winners Cup win in 1991 was our second European trophy and one the club needed after 23-years in European wilderness. It was also huge for Fergie and paved the way for so much more.

The Champions League win in 1999 capped a storied decade and season and ushered in the first Treble by an English club. It was the culmination of everything the team had worked to become.

The Champions League win in 2008 made the statement that Manchester United were the best team in the world and put them at the table to go against arguably the best team of all-time in the seasons that followed.

The Europa League in 2017 wasn’t treated with the respect of any of the other trophies mentioned, and CL qualification was probably as important as the trophy itself. We still had domestic aspirations, however, and came 2nd in the league in the following season.

All those trophies carried prestige, but I’m not sure any saved the club from an impending doom? We were domestically secure; league winners or very, very close to it - as in 2nd following, then winning it in 1991’s case - and our league aspirations were strong in their own right. With this Europa League, we’re approaching from a position of need and desperation and the repercussions for not qualifying via it are bigger than the sorrow of not winning the trophy itself, in fact, I’d go so far as to say lifting the trophy is incidental - the vast majority - inside and outside of the club - only care about it pathing the way back into the premier competition and even then for the money it brings and access to players who otherwise aren’t likely to consider us.

I have no idea what the euphoria would’ve been like for the first European Cup, but can note the feeling going into the other competitions on both the way up and for winning. This feels different. The fallout for not winning sets us down a darker road than licking wounds for a few weeks.

I’m hoping the self-serving interests to the players (payrise) has them fight like honey badgers for this. A competition we’ve turned our noses up at in the past is now the beacon for a brighter future. Who woulda thunk it?
 
Winning the UEFA Cup this season would be a miracle of sorts considering how bad it’s been this season… Ten Hag winning the FA cup last season was a huge achievement only because again last season was mostly terrible, I still don’t know how we can do it this season… but it would be seismic in terms of the next couple of seasons. This is where the club is today unfortunately but with football you never know, it is the beautiful game after all
 
The title in 93 was the most important trophy since 68 and trumps anything since.

Had we not won that, the next 20 years is very different. The way we lost the league in 92 was still fresh in the minds of everyone. The club was still a bit brittle. That success gave the club its swagger back. I'm not sure winning the EL this summer has that same impact.
 
I don't think Europa win is important just because it's a "trophy", it's important because:

- We need the money that comes with CL football
- We need CL football to attract a better profile of player than may be we can get without any European football
- It'd make the manager's job a lot easier by reducing the pressure on him and for a little while, at least, everyone from the players to the fans to the management will have more confidence in him. In sport confidence plays a significant role.

Winning a trophy would also make this season a lot of palatable than it has been. Plus, two each of the second tier trophies in this shit show of the last twelve seasons would provide a little more comfort. It would be a relief like when Rafa when his second Australian Open.
 
stretford ender58 said:
Winning the UEFA Cup this season would be a miracle of sorts considering how bad it’s been this season… Ten Hag winning the FA cup last season was a huge achievement only because again last season was mostly terrible, I still don’t know how we can do it this season… but it would be seismic in terms of the next couple of seasons. This is where the club is today unfortunately but with football you never know, it is the beautiful game after all
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Last year's FA Cup enabled to compete in Europa League.
 
If we take Sir Jim's interview re finances, it's arguably the most important in recent history. I am not sure I wholly believe the idea we'd have been bankrupt, but it seems clear finances aren't great and CL money is slowly creating a bit of a mini league within the PL. If we don't get it soon, the CL money, it will get harder and harder to get back into that group even with our commercial power.
 
I’d say Fergie’s first trophy - the FA Cup win in 1990 - was important, as it paved the way for 23 years of success. It also of course enabled us to participate in the aforementioned 1990-91 Cup Winners Cup.
 
Can't help feeling this could make or break the club (not as much on the pitch) but more so off the pitch.

If we don't win the cup, it will certainly set us back at least another 2 seasons imo. Which could also cause Amorim big setbacks for transfers, hitting performance targets and much more.

Goes without saying (but I'm going to say it) winning the EL is absolutely crucial and massive for us, given the financial situation and dire league performances of the last 2 seasons.

A win will bag us at least a whopping 85million in revenues for next season.
 
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KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
The title in 93 was the most important trophy since 68 and trumps anything since.

Had we not won that, the next 20 years is very different. The way we lost the league in 92 was still fresh in the minds of everyone. The club was still a bit brittle. That success gave the club its swagger back. I'm not sure winning the EL this summer has that same impact.I
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KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
The title in 93 was the most important trophy since 68 and trumps anything since.

Had we not won that, the next 20 years is very different. The way we lost the league in 92 was still fresh in the minds of everyone. The club was still a bit brittle. That success gave the club its swagger back. I'm not sure winning the EL this summer has that same impact.
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I agree. That title win in 1993 was the lift the club needed and if we’d failed that year, I’m not what followed would have happened. Leeds popping us the year before was the worst moment I’d ever experienced as a United fan. Driving back from Upton Part and then the humiliation at Anfield and the journey back down the East Lancs was horrific. I slumped into the worst depression ever. The summer of 92 was a nightmare. The title in 1993 changed everything.
 
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Salfordlad70 said:
I agree. T



I agree. That title win in 1993 was the lift the club needed and if we’d failed that year, I’m not what followed would have happened. Leeds popping us the year before was the worst moment I’d ever experienced as a United fan. Driving back from Upton Part and then the humiliation at Anfield and the journey back down the East Lancs was horrific. I slumped into the worst depression ever. The summer of 92 was a nightmare. The title in 1993 changed everything.
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I forget where we were in the table when Eric signed, but United carried that title loss into the next season. It was the the whole place was deflated. I was standing at the bus stop when a bloke came up and opened his paper. The headline said: 'It's Eric the Red' with a photo of Cantona holding up a scarf. I looked at the bloke who was grinning as if we'd already won the league.
 
Moriarty said:
I forget where we were in the table when Eric signed, but United carried that title loss into the next season. It was the the whole place was deflated. I was standing at the bus stop when a bloke came up and opened his paper. The headline said: 'It's Eric the Red' with a photo of Cantona holding up a scarf. I looked at the bloke who was grinning as if we'd already won the league.
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It was a bolt out of the blue. My dad called me to tell me. It felt surreal. I’m not sure where we were in the league, but we were not well positioned at that time. That signing was the difference and he made an instant impact.
 
At the risk of banishment (or worse), I'm not really too bothered about winning the Europa League. It's preferable we do but not absolutely crucial.

The likes of Villa have endured relegation, haven't won a trophy in thirty years and can qualify for the CL. It isn't the 'now or never' routine we hear from the press.

Also, next season's CL would help us but I'm scarred from the 23/24 campaign. We went into it with unbridled optimism and look what happened.

It's a long road back and we need to walk it.
 
It’s big for the club but make no mistake this is game changing for Amorin. Without it I suspect we won’t be able to strengthen the team enough and he may go next season. If we can win it, the perception changes. Amorin will be given more leeway and time and we will have the budget and feel good reputation to make bigger strides. That Lyon game certainly felt like a monumental moment in our modern history and I just pray it wasn’t all in vain. As much as I’ve been critical at times and my faith has faltered, I’d love nothing more than for Amorin to bring us back to the top!
 
2006/2007 title. Chelsea and Jose genuinely looked to dominate for a decade. And we smashed it with an even better side. Rooney Ronaldo Carrick Scholes Rio Vidic Evra VDS.
 
I worry that our players will feel the weight of expectation and crumble under pressure. It’s one thing winning a knockout tie with a bit of luck and dogged persistence, it’s another playing a dominant and professional brand of football to see out a European final (if we get there). We have it in us but I’m never sure which United will turn up.

Biggest game in the last decade considering the club’s current fortunes.
 
You can never predict the future. We all thought liverpool were finished after Klopp left, look where they are now? Ditto with our own club. We all thought we were building something special for the future with the quartet of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, and Bruno, 5 years later look how things ended up? Who knows one or two big clubs would have a horrid season next year and suddenly things click for us?
 
silvercre said:
Last year's FA Cup enabled to compete in Europa League.
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If we didnt get Europa league this season, our season would be massively different.

ETH would have been booted out before the start of preseason.

Rashford/Casemiro/Anthony would have been sold or pushed out on loan in the summer.

Don’t think we would have purchased De Ligt / Zirkzee if we had Amorim in as our manager in the summer too.
 
It’d be the biggest win since Ferguson retired due to the knock on effect (CL Money).
 
DRJosh said:
I worry that our players will feel the weight of expectation and crumble under pressure. It’s one thing winning a knockout tie with a bit of luck and dogged persistence, it’s another playing a dominant and professional brand of football to see out a European final (if we get there). We have it in us but I’m never sure which United will turn up.

Biggest game in the last decade considering the club’s current fortunes.
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To be fair I’m more confident in the final than a two leg game against bilbao
We have shown to have big game players, but I don’t trust them not to feck up one of the two legs
 
elmo said:
If we didnt get Europa league this season, our season would be massively different.

ETH would have been booted out before the start of preseason.

Rashford/Casemiro/Anthony would have been sold or pushed out on loan in the summer.

Don’t think we would have purchased De Ligt / Zirkzee if we had Amorim in as our manager in the summer too.
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…and Sir Gareth Southgate may be our manager
 
I don’t think you could say until we’d won it and then gone on to actually do something with that

We could win that be wank again next year and nobody would look back on it as more important than any PL or UCL win
 
This wouldn’t have been as important had we finished 5th or higher. This competition is what’s keeping our season alive.
 
SirScholes said:
To be fair I’m more confident in the final than a two leg game against bilbao
We have shown to have big game players, but I don’t trust them not to feck up one of the two legs
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Ye I agree. We do usually surprise in finals. We went into the FA cup final against city as massive underdogs and we out did them. Spurs should feel slightly more pressure than us because it will be there first trophy since god knows when.
 
I see it as extremely important for Amorin and his project. It’ll be light going through a portal in Super Mario and transport him at least a year, if not two, forward.

As he says himself, players WANT to join United regardless, but the Champions League qualification and European trophy absolutely will have a boost there. We suddenly likely become as attractive a destination again as any other club in the league.
Without it, it certainly does feel that the likes of Chelsea & Newcastle can beat us to transfers.
Win this and I think there’s every chance we can put our squad into a place it otherwise may take two years to achieve.
Our current players, fans, board and potential players will have much more confidence in the ”project”.

If we go into next season as a Champions League club again with a European trophy under our belt, with new players, the confidence boost will make anything feel possible for the squad and club in general.

Lose the semi or final and start next year poorly, and Amorim will likely be out of the door in no time.
 
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Insanity said:
don't think Europa win is important just because it's a "trophy", it's important because:

- We need the money that comes with CL football
- We need CL football to attract a better profile of player than may be we can get without any European football
- It'd make the manager's job a lot easier by reducing the pressure on him and for a little while, at least, everyone from the players to the fans to the management will have more confidence in him. In sport confidence plays a significant role
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Well written, as these are true most of the time anyway.

All the hype is a bit too Sky Sports for my liking!
 
elmo said:
If we didnt get Europa league this season, our season would be massively different.

ETH would have been booted out before the start of preseason.

Rashford/Casemiro/Anthony would have been sold or pushed out on loan in the summer.

Don’t think we would have purchased De Ligt / Zirkzee if we had Amorim in as our manager in the summer too.
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Nice to see someone with a bit of perspective. If we win the Europa League the board will take greater risk and probably purchase players we shouldn’t be buying. Whilst the club needs the money we will have a situation where players get their salaries bumped up again so the likes of Rashford will be more difficult to sell. Plus the club having more games, I think focusing on the league for a few years, with no midweek football will benefit the club. It’s about time we looked at league form and build a proper base. The only reason we want Europe is for the money.
 
DRJosh said:
I worry that our players will feel the weight of expectation and crumble under pressure. It’s one thing winning a knockout tie with a bit of luck and dogged persistence, it’s another playing a dominant and professional brand of football to see out a European final (if we get there). We have it in us but I’m never sure which United will turn up.

Biggest game in the last decade considering the club’s current fortunes.
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On the assumption that if we got to the final, it would be against Spurs - then think of the enormous pressure on them. We have players who have won things for United, and understand the big occasion. They don’t.

Football is also about your opponent.
 
abr said:
You can never predict the future. We all thought liverpool were finished after Klopp left, look where they are now? Ditto with our own club. We all thought we were building something special for the future with the quartet of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, and Bruno, 5 years later look how things ended up? Who knows one or two big clubs would have a horrid season next year and suddenly things click for us?
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Sorry, but I don't think many people genuinely thought Liverpool were done post-Klopp. Keen, eagle-eyed viewers saw the good work done by their owners and thouht they'd be okay.

I didn't see them winning the title, I'll admit, but definitely did not see them experiencing some
Moyesian descent, either.

A better example for us is the likes of Villa, or Forest. Relegation threatened in recent seasons and decades since a trophy but still capable of CL qualification. Arsenal may be the best analogy we are hoping for, actually.

Sadly, the scousers and city are light years ahead.
 
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I think it's important, but not monumental.
It's more breathing space for the financial options this coming summer, because of the CL group/league stage bonus. But if they fudge up again coming season you'll be back where you started, if not worse.

Their reputation still works in their favor (though you could also argue it worked against many manager's plans, too, as the club of the past decade still gets treated by fans and media as if they are "supposed to be" the same dominant side from 20 years ago) in the attracting of exciting talents, but that will continue to decrease each season the true relief arrives, or whatever you want to call it.

Winning this EL means there is a bit more room to dream, and to build on something that's there now. But even with the financial boost, I don't think it will mean much more than beating City for the FA cup last year. If anything, Amorim's reputation collecting less damage than ETH already had at the time looks to be the main difference.

Then again, the new CL system could work in United's favor as there is a bit more time to fix your course. Whether that's with Amorim or the next Luke Skywalker to replace him.

It will be more of a hindsight beacon. If the utilization of this money and giving time to Amorim and some of the under/non-performing talents pays off, this EL will prove your post, but if the rust of the past ten years is still too much and the next batch of signings also needs time to gel or is burdened by the state of the already available squad, this EL win (if it were to happen) will just be a lucky break in a season worse than the FA Cup win's lucky break.

I get why you feel this way, and it is obviously more pleasant to dream this summer about a new and improved United competing in the CL with some CL bonus to kick things off with, but this EL only means something at the level you mentioned if next season shows actual believable improvement. And remember, the start of this season Onana was a standout performer. Don't think many remember the improved defense and 'keeping of that period anymore, as there were still enough reasons, lucky or unlucky, misinterpreted or not, to get rid of ETH. And at this time the only thing keeping Amorim here is that he didn't really get transfers for his system yet, and that some games some players seemed to show some improvement in a side that went from ETH-numbers to someplace even worse.

I hope that, if it happens, your post will look like a prophecy, but besides football rises and falls in general, and disappointments being possible anywhere, especially this club has shown that it's important to be careful with high expectations and looking to history a little too much. I like Utd, I do hope they win this thing so we can have another opportunity at yet another new plan to finally work for us, but I also know Utd, I know football, and there's no such thing as a surefire success, neither this manager, this possible post-EL-win transfer summer, nor whichever super striker/midfielder/wingback/defender, or even all four of them. They could be the best analyzed set of buys in the history of this club and beyond, and still look like the worst one in practice.

In short/TLDR: yeah, probably.
 
The financial angle means very little, if we don't get our act together. We'll have more money for what? A last throw of the dice at pretending to be a big club? You look at the more recent rumours, and you see United supposedly readying up to fork out £100 million for Cunha and Delap. And, should it happen, they will promote it as shrewd business. But we'll have our trophy, our CL spot and the "mythical" pre-season that will change our fortunes. Where have we seen that before?
 
Assuming he really was on the edge if some sources are to belived than it has to be 1990's fa cup.

The difference would have been united becoming a perennial midtable club not too different from an everton or a villa compared to the institution that we would go on to become.
 
The first league win in 93 has to be the biggest. It killed the myth that Utd couldn’t win it ever again and the 26 year wait was finally over. After that we were the big boys again, until 20 years later when the wheels dropped off.
 
Josep Dowling said:
Nice to see someone with a bit of perspective. If we win the Europa League the board will take greater risk and probably purchase players we shouldn’t be buying. Whilst the club needs the money we will have a situation where players get their salaries bumped up again so the likes of Rashford will be more difficult to sell. Plus the club having more games, I think focusing on the league for a few years, with no midweek football will benefit the club. It’s about time we looked at league form and build a proper base. The only reason we want Europe is for the money.
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Yeah. Expectations would be massively different. Honestly we need a huge clear out of our current players and make shrewd signings.

No player costing more than 35m should be signed this summer, shift everyone that’s earning more than 150k or above 28 out of the club. feck the USA preseason tour. It’s useless and we end up woefully unprepared for the season every single time we go there.

I’m sick of watching us play the same dire football where our players get outmatched physically every single fecking game.
 
There are financial consequences to missing out on europe next season, but at the end of the day it's like another poor transfer. We still need to get a lot of things right.
 
DJ_21 said:
Ye I agree. We do usually surprise in finals. We went into the FA cup final against city as massive underdogs and we out did them. Spurs should feel slightly more pressure than us because it will be there first trophy since god knows when.
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Definitely
Just a shame i feel neither team will be there
 
DRJosh said:
I worry that our players will feel the weight of expectation and crumble under pressure. It’s one thing winning a knockout tie with a bit of luck and dogged persistence, it’s another playing a dominant and professional brand of football to see out a European final (if we get there). We have it in us but I’m never sure which United will turn up.

Biggest game in the last decade considering the club’s current fortunes.
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Yeah the pressure is enormous and bar maybe Lyon we haven't seen much evidence of fight in adversity
 
SirScholes said:
To be fair I’m more confident in the final than a two leg game against bilbao
We have shown to have big game players, but I don’t trust them not to feck up one of the two legs
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Old Trafford will be a huge factor if we survive the first leg. The fans are going to have to really get us across the line.

The opponents we could face in the final, should we get through, should give us some hope. Spurs have beaten us three times this season but are in a worse position than us in the league and their manager is certainly getting sacked sooner or later. The other team we’ve already beaten in the EL this season.
 
If we both make it to the final, United vs Tottenham will at least be a high stakes game, if for nothing else both managers are fighting to have a better chance of still being here next season.
 
Someone said:
There are financial consequences to missing out on europe next season, but at the end of the day it's like another poor transfer. We still need to get a lot of things right.
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Agree with this. Importance of getting Europe is a little overstated. We’ve been in and out of the CL for a decade now, and have never built on it. Even if we get into the Champions League, it means nothing without the right transfer window.
 
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