When winning a domestic cup meant something in Europe

THOSE WERE THE DAYS … WHICH ONES?  IN THE OLD DAYS WINNING A DOMESTIC CUP MEANT SOMETHING IN EUROPE. WHAT DOES WINNING THE EUROPA LEAGUE MEAN?

1.    To be in the European Cup a team had to win the league.

2.    If a team was in the European Cup and lost that team would be out of the tournament and would drop into the … oh … no … hang on … that was it. The club would be out of the competition! End of story! What a bizarre set up!

3.    If a team won the European Cup Winners Cup it was considered a pretty decent trophy to win.

4.    If a team won the EUEFA Cup it was considered a pretty decent trophy to win.

5.    It seemed reasonable to have three distinct European competitions.

6.    It takes around 100 to 2,000 years to realise that Benfica were a better team than Spurs in the 1962 European Cup semi-final and Benfica deserved to win and they won on merit.

7.    These are ‘Spurs Years’. Spurs Years are kind of like dog years but each spurs supporter has a different conversion rate to human years – hence the big window.

8.    Some of us do not accept it at all and we think wibbble. No, stop arguing with me, I mean it. Why are you saying that – have you gone mad? Wibble.

9.    Some articles refer to days of yore. Which ones?

10.  Long gone are the days of assuming we would win a trophy or beat a really big team at a key time as I assumed we would beat Benfica in that semi-final.

11.  When did we last reasonably assume we would win any trophy?

12.  I understand the needs for 4^th place.

13.  Despite those needs wouldn’t you love a to win a cup?

14.  We are told of the drain of resources in today’s Europa League.

15.  Here is the question.

16.  In 2013-14 which would you prefer and why: Winning the Europa League or 4^th place in the PL?

To help avoid OT comments etc let’s take as a given that:

1.    the argument as to whether we would even reach 4^th place is to be held elsewhere

2.    the argument that we would even have a hope of winning the Europa League is to be held elsewhere.

So: Europa League Champions or 4^th in PL and please give your reasons.