FA Cup or Top 4?

[billyiddo]

Taking the first point of Liverpool if were to win this would buck the historical trend that is not the norm.

I’m not sure we can include city for the reason they were a few years into this massive cash injection and gives them the advantage or missing a step.
The fact we are going to increase our match day income will still be no where near Emirates Marketing Project levels of cash injection. Also winning their first trophy a couple of months before could still be seen to assist in the league campaign.

Leeds and Saudi Sportswashing Machine also had less of a challenge from other clubs, in an era where foreign ownership wasn’t as prevalent to the extent we see with Chelsea and Emirates Marketing Project.
But even then as you say cl campaigns by both didn’t result in winning the bigger trophies.

We are self sufficient and levy is shrewd enough not to take risks like LU. But considering the strength of our rivals, the only challenge I see us competing in is the top 4 but never a league title. Liverpool and Man U also have the financial muscle.
We couldn’t pay Sanchez 500k a week even with a new stadium.
Stability in the top 4 and league/fa cups is our ceiling.

Sure, if you ignore the instances which contradict the point you are making then you'd be right, but you know i don't think that's fair to the discussion tbh - 3 teams (if Liverpool win the league this season) have won the league without winning a trophy the seasons prior vs zero consistent trophy winning sides who aren't first established at the top end of the league...

Regarding the ceiling you set out i am not in agreement - generally over the time Levy/Enic have been in control of the club we have outperformed our financial outlay, once our revenue consistently puts us on an even footing with Chelsea Liverpool and Arsenal, rather than closer to the clubs below, i see no reason to not be optimistic of that trend continuing and us matching the levels of the teams at the very top.

 

[balesleftboot]

Yeah I go all the way back to the early fifties (cue violins) but don't recall anything like what we're getting now. However like you say, it's the internet and forums like this egged on by the huge increase in media hype that the PL and CL are getting nowadays that amplifies the voice of the average fan, so who knows?

So you remember the double winning side of 61, and being the first British side to win a European Trophy but you think that what we have now is better?

 

[Spur of the moment]

So you remember the double winning side of 61, and being the first British side to win a European Trophy but you think that what we have now is better?

Good question. Of course I was thrilled with the trophies the Double side won, who wouldn't be, but for me even then it was much more about the high-octane football we played. I was there in 1961 and again in '62 to witness Danny Blanchflower brandishing the trophies at Tottenham Town Hall so I suppose that tells you how much it meant, but I recall feeling more pride in the manner in which we'd won them than the actual trophies themselves.

Years later when I watched us beat Aston Villa at Wembley to win the League Cup I felt relatively flat because on that day we had been outplayed for most of the game and until the closing stages failed to produce much in the way of quality.

It was the same in 1982 (FA Cup winners after a drab replay against QPR) and again in 1999 when under the Man in the Raincoat we beat Leicester in a somewhat forgettable final.

So the question for me is not whether I preferred the '60s team because of the trophies they won but whether because the football they played was better.

Which it probably was, but not by that much imho.