Tottenham to Make Serious Challenge in Europa League?

How seriously will Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham take this season’s Europa League competition? The answer to that question will probably become clearer with announcement of the team selected for Thursday’s first Group match against Lazio at White Hart Lane. In this era of Champions League and Premier League domination, many supporters have no interest in UEFA’s second rated competition or even the domestic Cups, preferring that Spurs would focus totally on the League to ensure qualification for next season’s Champions League competition. Older fans tend to remember the club’s ‘Glory Nights’ in Europe and want Spurs to give due attention to every competition in which they participate.

Tottenham’s Record in UEFA Cup/Europa League

Tottenham Winners of 1984 UEFA Cup

For the past three season’s Harry Redknapp displayed little interest in the Cup competitions or European matches – his aim was ‘Champions League or bust’. He achieved his goal once, although was unfortunate last year with Chelsea and UEFA’s regulations denying Spurs a Champions League spot and demoting them to Thursday evening football in the Europa League. Last season, Tottenham sent out a weakened team, comprised mostly of squad and young players, which failed to progress from the Group stages. The matches provided a great learning curve for the younger players but Tottenham should have qualified for the knock-out stages from what was a relatively weak group. Harry Kane, Andros Townsend, Danny Rose and Tom Carroll all benefited from those European games. In his first season, Redknapp dismissed the Europa League and sent out a young team against the eventual winners, Shakhtar Donetsk. The young players put in very credible performances but Tottenham, as a club with serious ambitions should have been taking the competition more seriously. Playing seriously under-strength teams is disrespectful to the competition and to the opposing club and players. It gives a very bad impression of Tottenham as a club who regards themselves as ‘ we are too big a club for this competition’. Martin Jol and Juande Ramos, previously, had given due attention to the competition with progress to the quarter-finals and the last sixteen.

Going back to the early 1970s, Bill Nicholson’s team became the first winners of the UEFA Cup when its name was changed from the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. At that time it was the third UEFA competition, behind the European Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup. It however, was regarded as a much more difficult competition to win as it often included many future title winners who would be destined fro the European Cup in years ahead. Spurs won the competition in 1971-72, reached the semi-final the following year and finished as runners-up in 1973-74. Then in May, 1984, on a memorable evening at White Hart Lane, Keith Burkinshaw’s team defeated Anderlecht in a penalty shoot-out to regain the trophy. Such history shouldn’t be discredited by regarding the current competition as irrelevant.

Andre Villas-Boas

In Andre Villas-Boas’ season at Porto when he won the Portuguese League and Cup but also led them to victory in the Europa League.

The argument that English clubs put forward that the Europa League involves too many games didn’t distract Porto and doesn’t prevent Spanish clubs taking the competition seriously with an all Spanish Final and a third club reaching the semi-finals last season.

Tottenham to Win the Europa League!

I hope that Tottenham make a serious challenge in this season’s Europa League. I travelled to two of last season’s home matches and was to attend to an away game, so I showed my commitment and many other supporters were at every game, including the long journey for the match against Rubin Kazan. It was interesting and enjoyable to see the young players perform so confidently and with such commitment.

For a club of the standing of Tottenham, however, or at least the standing that the club and supporters believe it to have, it should be entering every competition with the intention of trying to lift the trophy at the end of the day. It is unsatisfactory for the club to be going through the motions with an air of disinterest where a European trophy is concerned.

The draw for  season’s Europa League created a group containing Lazio, Panathinaikos and NK Maribor which will be testing and cannot be taken lightly. The manager can rotate his players by selecting squad members along with first team regulars which will help to keep them involved and match fit ready to step into the first team as required. Whatever team is selected the aim should be to win and ensure progression to the next stage of the tournament. While many will dismiss this argument, failure to make reasonable progress in this year’s Europa League will damage the club’s UEFA co-efficient which determines the club’s position in future draws for their competitions, including the Champions League should Spurs qualify.

Football is about winning and glory and the glory and memories come from winning trophies as Tottenham have done in Europe on three previous occasions – let’s hope season 2012-13 can be added to that list.

How seriously do you think Tottenham Hotspur should take the Europa League this season? 

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