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Playing In Europe Vs Winning A Cup


MJC_MKI
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So now we're out of Europe, I was wondering if any of the posters I've quoted below and any others who shared the same view had changed their opinions from back in March when this was previously discussed on here. These quotes come from the Killie v Motherwell match thread last season when the discussion of whether winning one of the domestic cups was better for a club like our's than playing in Europe.

 

I'm not having a go at anyone, I'm merely interested in the views of those who stated that they thought seeing us qualify for Europe was better than winning a cup and was wondering if they still hold those views...

 

Are you kfidding? The Champions League possibility is almost a once in a lifetime opportunity for a club like ours. League Cup, aye it'd be nice but ahead of qualifying for the CL? Not a chance and only someone with no hope of ever getting to the stage we're at just now would ever come out with a statement like that.

 

 

100% agree MJ, we have won a cup before and been to a few Finals recently. The chance of playing a top team in a CL qualifier just once in my lifetime completely outweighs the poss of a cup win. ESP with how shite Scottish teams are in Europe. Likliehood of getting this chance again is extremely slim.

 

 

I guess for me, it comes down to us having a shot at the league & FA cup every season, whilst probably never getting another crack at the Champions League.

 

I doubt we'll do anything of course, but we may get lucky and land a tasty tie. Couple that with hearing the Champions League music at Fir Park (they play it for qualifiers, don't they?) I think it's really a once in a lifetime opportunity. The kind that we'll be telling our grandkids about.

 

 

Pish, Motherwell have never been about winning trophies and probably never will, otherwise we'd all have given up decades ago.

 

Playing for 3rd every year and somehow getting to 2nd in this climate is/will be a major achievement and far outweighs anything a five game Cup run could offer, not to mention the financial prize. I revere the Cup FInal squad still like everyone but this achievement will still be ranked up there in 21 years time if we manage it, no questions about that. The Champions League is the prime European competition and for a club as small as ours to compete in it would be unbelievable. This isn't just any 3rd rate Euro qualifier, this is the premium tournament and for me that outweighs a domestic cup every day of the week.

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I think a lot of it has to do with the opportunity to see us do something that generally can't be done ie - play in the Champions League. I'd much rather have played in that than won a cup, but now that it's done, from now on i'd rather win a cup that qualify for Europe.

 

Win a cup Vs play in the Champions League for the first (and only) time - The latter.

 

Win a cup Vs playing in Europe generally - the former.

 

We are one of only 4 clubs who have won this countries top division, both top level domestic trophies, and played in everything European football currently has to offer. I'm quite proud of that, especially if you generally accept that no-one else will ever manage it.

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If you win the Scottish cup you automatically qualify for europe. So your questions a bit flawed.

 

We had the opportunity to play in the champions league this year.

 

It'll never happen again.

 

I'm fairly comfortable with the fact that we rarely do either and as such view both as great achievments for our little club.

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I think a lot of it has to do with the opportunity to see us do something that generally can't be done ie - play in the Champions League. I'd much rather have played in that than won a cup, but now that it's done, from now on i'd rather win a cup that qualify for Europe.

 

Win a cup Vs play in the Champions League for the first (and only) time - The latter.

 

Win a cup Vs playing in Europe generally - the former.

 

We are one of only 4 clubs who have won this countries top division, both top level domestic trophies, and played in everything European football currently has to offer. I'm quite proud of that, especially if you generally accept that no-one else will ever manage it.

 

 

Thanks for answering my question. I agree with alot of what you say especially the last paragraph. We've done extremely well for a club of our stature to have achieved all of that and this season's participation in the top European competition is definately something to be proud of. There are some clubs who can only dream of that.

 

While I'd much rather see us win the Cup again than play in Europe, it's good that the club have been able to qualify for Europe and on a regular basis in recent years as well.

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If you win the Scottish cup you automatically qualify for europe. So your questions a bit flawed.

 

We had the opportunity to play in the champions league this year.

 

It'll never happen again.

 

I'm fairly comfortable with the fact that we rarely do either and as such view both as great achievments for our little club.

 

 

I think the original discussion was about the League Cup on the back of Kilmarnock winning it. Some said they'd rather win that than play in Europe others said opposite.

 

For me, if offered the League Cup or European qualification at any level, I'd still take the Cup win.

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I think generally, we've done fantastically well as a club, and have had a good gradual build over the last 10 years which has made our relative success a lot more stable and sustainable. Each thing we've achieved has been made possible by the previous achievement, for example:

 

We'd never have made the Champions League if we hadn't had a season like the last one

We wouldn't have had a season like the last one if we hadn't had a good grounding at a higher level of football in European competition.

We wouldn't have had regular higher-level experience if we hadn't hadn't made the first break into Europe.

We wouldn't have managed that without the first season that Mark McGhee gave us,

We wouldn't have had that if it wasn't for Terry Butcher dragging us kicking and screaming through the bad years.

 

Nothing we've done has been a flash in the pan and then disappearing, we've worked hard to build and sustain, done things the right way and built a foundation first before adding to it over the years where we can, and we should be really proud of that.

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I think a lot of it has to do with the opportunity to see us do something that generally can't be done ie - play in the Champions League. I'd much rather have played in that than won a cup, but now that it's done, from now on i'd rather win a cup that qualify for Europe.

 

Win a cup Vs play in the Champions League for the first (and only) time - The latter.

 

Win a cup Vs playing in Europe generally - the former.

 

We are one of only 4 clubs who have won this countries top division, both top level domestic trophies, and played in everything European football currently has to offer. I'm quite proud of that, especially if you generally accept that no-one else will ever manage it.

 

What he said :thumbup:

 

Add in that all this has been achieved whilst situated well within the catchment area of 2 of the biggest FC's in the World, with one of the smallesst budgets in the League, in front of a regular attendance that would barely fill the South Stand, and my chest bursts with pride.

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I think generally, we've done fantastically well as a club, and have had a good gradual build over the last 10 years which has made our relative success a lot more stable and sustainable. Each thing we've achieved has been made possible by the previous achievement, for example:

 

We'd never have made the Champions League if we hadn't had a season like the last one

We wouldn't have had a season like the last one if we hadn't had a good grounding at a higher level of football in European competition.

We wouldn't have had regular higher-level experience if we hadn't hadn't made the first break into Europe.

We wouldn't have managed that without the first season that Mark McGhee gave us,

We wouldn't have had that if it wasn't for Terry Butcher dragging us kicking and screaming through the bad years.

 

Nothing we've done has been a flash in the pan and then disappearing, we've worked hard to build and sustain, done things the right way and built a foundation first before adding to it over the years where we can, and we should be really proud of that.

 

 

What he said .............. again. Sorry about the brown-nosing Al :blush:

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We haven't played in the Europa or Champions League, let's not kid ourselves on here.

 

Playing in a qualifier is nowhere near the achievement of playing in the real thing and therefore comes nowhere near actually winning a domestic competition IMO.

 

As much as I've loved following us around Europe I'd much rather have beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup final a few years ago.

 

One thing is for sure, these are great fucking times to be a Motherwell fan. Champions League or Cup win, we've never had it so good!

 

Savour it fuckers! :thumbup:

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It's Motherwell. You take what you can get and be grateful we're still in business every year :cheers:

 

As much as I enjoyed us winning the Cup, I had as much fun watching us win the First Division under Davie Hay. It was the first 'proper' thing I saw us win, and after a couple of years of mediocrity in the 2nd tier we had an incredible run of form.

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I think the original discussion was about the League Cup on the back of Kilmarnock winning it. Some said they'd rather win that than play in Europe others said opposite.

 

For me, if offered the League Cup or European qualification at any level, I'd still take the Cup win.

 

If you asked me that last season I'd have taken what we got the CL qualifiying slot as it was something we had never done before.

 

Now having done that it a tougher call and given that we are unlikely to qualify directly into the CL proper then a cup win maybe holds more appeal but I certainly wouldn't have swapped Killies League cup for our shot at glory against Panathanikos.

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In 2012 my football desires I'm order were

 

1. Win the league

2. Win the Scottish Cup

3. Qualify for Champions League

4. Win the League Cup

5. Qualify for Europa Cup

 

This year 3 & 4 are possibly reversed

 

3 & 4 are definitely reversed, I have never seen us win the League Cup

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I saw us winning the cup in 1991, the greatest day in my life, so far.

 

I saw us winning the first division in the 80's, again, brilliant.

 

However, having been to Nancy, Odense and Athens, I think qualifying for Europe is fantastic.

 

You cannot really compare the two, a cup final is a one off, a trip to the shitiest stadium in Scotland and that non-final last year was an embarrasment.

 

I would certainly love to have a repeat of 1991 but would take a European adventure evry year.

 

So, it's Europe for me.

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