You may all raise your eyebrows at this question, but I think you'll understand my point by the end of the article...
It is true, Spurs need trophies to attract and keep big players, hence ensuring that we continue to grow. The UEFA cup, rises our chances of gaining a trophy a lot but with the group stages and 2 leg knockout rounds (we played 10 UEFA Cup games this season), does it damage our league form enough to stop us progressing? As it may have contributed to our relatively large injury list this season and perhaps fatigue has damaged a few of our performances. Also the UEFA cup isn't really deemed as that important, as it is 2nd best in europe so is rather like the carling cup here in England, and as you know it is not very highly regarded.
Also i came across this article and this really has made me believe does the UEFA cup really help in the long term? This season we have played the joint 2nd most amount of games in the season and played a staggering 18 more games than Everton! The telegraph article shows that Spurs managed to receive £2 million pounds from the UEFA cup, compared to Ars*nal's £13.90 million, when getting not as far and Man Utd getting £28.9 million. Now I think you can understand why I am questioning the UEFA cup, as it does perhaps heighten the gap between the big 4 and those trying to break into champions league football.
I am questioning the point in us entering the UEFA Cup, but as many of you do despite these staggering figures believe that we should enter the cup, as it does give us European experience, as well as rising the probability of us winning the cup. Also perhaps the extra games help the players to improve as they get more games and so our squad players will play plenty of games. This is our domestic record after a UEFA cup game this season: Played 10: Won 6, Drawn 3 and Lost 1!
Source for European prize money: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/05/14/ufncas14.xml
(http://www.slavia.cz/data/novinka/foto_13294.jpg) Worth The Effort?
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