The ideal outcome for Spurs from here would be to qualify for the Europa League by coming sixth, but as it stands they look marginally more likely than Brighton and Villa to finish seventh and collect the European consolation (or, depending on your perspective, booby) prize.
The Europa Conference League is a curious competition,
raising a number of issues from a Tottenham perspective, including glory versus
pragmatism, Spurs’ current standing in European football, and what their
ultimate aims are at the moment.
It’s fair to say Tottenham’s first foray into the Europa
Conference League two years ago doesn’t conjure up especially happy memories.
In fact, the main positive Spurs got from the competition was that early exit,
which Antonio Conte later acknowledged helped them qualify for the Champions
League at the end of the season. Without those spare midweeks, his view
was that Tottenham’s small squad probably wouldn’t have had the legs to
overhaul Arsenal and claim fourth place.
Are Spurs to turn their noses up at a trophy given it’s 15
years since they won one? There is some
validity in this perspective, but in reality, Spurs would be on a hiding to nothing.
Don’t win it and they would get taunted for losing to Mickey-Mouse opposition
in a nothing competition; win it and they’d face accusations it was only a
tinpot trophy anyway which hasn’t really ended that
much-mentioned drought.
Spurs could end up having to play 17 Conference League
matches, starting with two play-off matches in August. That’s a huge amount of
effort for a trophy without a huge amount of prestige and which carries the
reward of only a place in the following season’s Europa League (something
Spurs should achieve by finishing in the Premier League’s top
six, or potentially top seven, next season anyway).
Financially, the
rewards are hardly great either given the volume of games — Roma pocketed
around £17million in prize money for winning the competition last season,
alongside some pretty paltry television money. By contrast, the average amount
teams were paid for the Champions League group stages alone was £53.7million
and that’s before taking into account far more lucrative TV rights and the vast
sums for going deep in the knockout stages (by reaching the quarters Chelsea picked
up £79.7million in prize money).
Europa Conference League advocates sometimes argue that
being in the competition means a chance to blood academy players. But in
reality, what it more means is minutes for fringe players who supporters are
largely tired of anyway.
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