Spurs Should Be Desperate to Qualify for New-Look Europa League
Alright, everyone. You can relax now. Definitely no Champions League football for us next season, as if our anaemic challenge hadn’t been as good as dead for months. It was only mathematical confirmation that Spurs needed; the cold, hard figures which would take any remaining hope we had to the roadside and finish it off with a spade.
Once again it was with the help of an agreeable Newcastle side that our fate was finally resolved; with nothing left to play for except the unfamiliar concept of pride, Pardew did the honourable thing and let Arsenal stroll to three points at The Emirates on Monday night. Arséne Wenger had the cigar cutters ready for the interval while Mezut Özil and the gang prepared to play an entire half in their pyjamas. As for Alan Pardew, well, the love doesn’t live here anymore, sister.
Personally, I don’t think he’s been the same since he discovered that being a Premier League manager didn’t give him licence to dispense playful touchline headbutts when the fancy struck.
He’ll be sacked before June if he doesn’t walk first.
Talking of the condemned, Spurs’ Greatest Ever Manager continues to express his desire to accumulate as many points as he can before the season’s end. He’s used the phrase in nearly every interview since he took over. You can’t argue with a game-plan as solid as that, of course, and right now the potential total Spurs stand to amass is a walloping 72. A handsome collection under any circumstances. With this target in mind and with Tim confident of recouping maximum points against our two claret and blue adversaries, the likelihood is that Spurs will be playing in the Europa League next season.
Before you recoil in horror at the thought of another midweek expedition to the Arctic tundra or a Ukrainian city made famous for its hammer-wielding maniacs, it’s worth noting that the competition will be a significantly more attractive proposition than in years past. Not only is it easier to win, with the Champions League deadbeats excluded from joining the party in the knockouts, the additional reward for doing so has made it a great deal more appealing. Not just some of grandma’s best silver to put in the cupboard for the winner; a place in the following season’s European Cup, too.
So, if we’re to assume that the teams above us (and Manchester United) will spend liberally this summer and a top four finish is made even trickier to pull off, this could well be our best chance of crashing The Big Euro Pot next year. Spurs certainly shouldn’t turn their noses up at the thought of entering the new improved Europa League.
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