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Will the Europa League be the new AFCON?

Another thing I’ll add to this ‘you’ll struggle because of extra games’ nonsense. I heard people mention the travelling. This may come as huge surprise to people but 4 of the games are actually at home. I know, it’s mental.

SAFC and Newcastle to be fair are used to travelling the full length of the country every other week, we don’t benefit like London clubs do in that respect.

I can guarantee most of our away European games will be easier to get to than the likes of Ipswich and Bournemouth.
 

scott934 said:
We've just matched our highest finish since the mid-1950s, so there's a decent chance of a lower finish next season anyway. A deep run in Europe and survival I would consider a success next season.
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I get your point but there’s no way this leadership team will be thinking that

I see no reason why we can’t build the squad and put out second choice XIs for some of the EL games against lesser opposition
 
tynevalleyblackcat said:
As the reason for everyone else (especially the Saudi's) to say we will get relegated?

To be fair, maybe they were all correct all along about the AFCON f***ing our season. Had it not been for that we might have made the Champions League....
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It certainly didn't help but wasn't as bad as everybody thought it would be. We finished where I hoped we'd be and deservedly so. The whole club can be proud of what has been achieved so far. In the words of Granit Xhaka, this is just the beginning, can't wait for next season.
 
JL1985 said:
A lot of our squad have played in Europe, they are used to it. The ones that haven’t played for us in the championship where you play two games a week for most of the season. It was only 1 year ago sone players and the manager had a successful 49 league game season.

The club isn’t used to European football, the players are and can handle extra games.
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At face value, it might appear that way but with the exception of Xhaka, I don't think anyone is consistently playing at those levels twice a week. Geertruida, Mukiele and Reinildo were squad players at previous clubs and rotated. Sadiki, Talbi and Brobbey all had a weaker league to compete in and weren't necessarily going deep in Europe.

We will have a tougher season next year and we may be a bottom 6 team as a consequence. That's not me being critical or negative, it's a realistic expectation and a result I'll be more than content with.

I think some of our fans will be expecting Top 10 and a Europa league semi final as a measurement of success.

For me, it'll be 14th and getting out of the group stages. Anything else will be a bonus.
 
tynevalleyblackcat said:
As the reason for everyone else (especially the Saudi's) to say we will get relegated?

To be fair, maybe they were all correct all along about the AFCON f***ing our season. Had it not been for that we might have made the Champions League....
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It’s already happening. The bookies have us 4th favourites to be relegated
 
It's why we need a deeper squad. We don't have quality running through the 22 players or so we need. If we get those extra players I think we'll have an excellent season with a possible trophy at the end.
 
FlashGordon said:
There's every chance Europa League results in us struggling in the league next season. People need to stay calm, keep their shit together and back the lads. Playing Thursday and Sunday at such a high level is hard, especially if our squad is not quite there yet. It's a new experience and we need to give the coach and players time to figure it out. That might even be a bad season and a relegation fight. It's part of the journey.
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Spot on, look at Palace, Mags & Forest this season.

I’ll be over the moon next season if we manage to get out of the league stage, one half decent cup run and make 45-50 points
 
FlashGordon said:
At face value, it might appear that way but with the exception of Xhaka, I don't think anyone is consistently playing at those levels twice a week. Geertruida, Mukiele and Reinildo were squad players at previous clubs and rotated. Sadiki, Talbi and Brobbey all had a weaker league to compete in and weren't necessarily going deep in Europe.

We will have a tougher season next year and we may be a bottom 6 team as a consequence. That's not me being critical or negative, it's a realistic expectation and a result I'll be more than content with.

I think some of our fans will be expecting Top 10 and a Europa league semi final as a measurement of success.

For me, it'll be 14th and getting out of the group stages. Anything else will be a bonus.
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We will strengthen and Europe will be difficult because of the quality but not for the extra games. It's an excuse used by poorly performing clubs, I've not heard Arsenal moaning about it this season. Sadiki played 55 games the season before joining us, 12 in Europe. Talbi played 11 CL games, Brobbey 8 European games. Our squad are used to lots of games and we will sign more quality.
 
CARLOS CLASS said:
I get your point but there’s no way this leadership team will be thinking that

I see no reason why we can’t build the squad and put out second choice XIs for some of the EL games against lesser opposition
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Oh aye the club definitely will be planning on improving or at least repeating this season. I would have agreed with a second choice 11 for Conference League but Europa probably means most games will be proper teams.

Just looking it up and Villa had Bologna, Feyenoord, Go Ahead Eagles (they lost), Maccabi Tel Aviv, Young Boys, Basel, Fenerbahce and RB Salzburg in the group stage.

Forest had Betis, Midtjylland, Porto, Sturm Graz, Malmo, FC Utrecht, Braga and Ferencvaros.
 
Oli Wagkz said:
Spot on, look at Palace, Mags & Forest this season.

I’ll be over the moon next season if we manage to get out of the league stage, one half decent cup run and make 45-50 points
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Palace have finished exactly where the have in every PL season for the past 13 years, between 10th-15th. Nothing has changed for them. Forest finished low in the table because they had 4 managers. If they kept Nuno they would have been up there with us. Newcastle's problem is they aren't very good and they seem to prioritise the League Cup every season where every other club try to get knocked out.
 
FlashGordon said:
At face value, it might appear that way but with the exception of Xhaka, I don't think anyone is consistently playing at those levels twice a week. Geertruida, Mukiele and Reinildo were squad players at previous clubs and rotated. Sadiki, Talbi and Brobbey all had a weaker league to compete in and weren't necessarily going deep in Europe.

We will have a tougher season next year and we may be a bottom 6 team as a consequence. That's not me being critical or negative, it's a realistic expectation and a result I'll be more than content with.

I think some of our fans will be expecting Top 10 and a Europa league semi final as a measurement of success.

For me, it'll be 14th and getting out of the group stages. Anything else will be a bonus.
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Reinildo was wasted being a squad player.
 
There’s a stat filled article in the athletic on the differences in PL finishing positions of the so called big six when they miss out on European football………they do better.
If Europe is a drain on them with their sources then it will be on us. Finishing above the mags is as low as I’m prepared to countenance, providing that still means staying up of course.
 
the dude said:
Think Xahas absence just after AFCON affected us more than AFCON.
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I reckon it was a combination of the two, the injuries we got just as players were coming back from the competition stretched our already over stretched squad just too far.
Mansfield Mackem said:
Do we need to qualify for the Europa League or are we straight into the group stage?
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As mentioned straight to the group games with (at present)

Bournemouth
AZ Alkmaar
AC Milan
Juventus
Real Sociadad
Celta Vigo
Hoffenheim
Bayer Leverkusen
Marseille
Rennes
Torreense
 
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