Bilo

I honestly think it should be capped at five, regardless of circumstances. Top four and UEL/UCL winners (if they haven't finished top four) is fine. I'd argue that a team who has won a European trophy has more right to compete in a higher European competition than a side who've finished four places and twenty odd points behind the champions while not winning a sausage.

Hope so. Leeds 2003 style collapse, please.

Why? Aside from their delusion that they're a bigger and better club than they are.

I would imagine it would be difficult to enforce rules retrospectively that didn't exist at the time alleged breaches happened. Ex post facto.

It looks considerably more 'built on sand' than we did. In 2021, we had Maddison, Tielemans, Schmeichel, Soyuncu and Barnes who would have had decent resale value if we had been well-run. Even on a good day, Forest's side is worth a fraction of that lot. And they won't want to sell anyone who's worth anything because they're back to a relegation battle without them unless they reinvest well. Because, let's be clear about this, if Murillo, Milenkovic or Gibbs-White is out long-term, they're struggling.

Thursday nights are indeed horrible. UEL means a minimum of eight games get moved to a Sunday or Monday, meaning that everyone around them plays first and has the opportunity to open up a gap over them. Chelsea, as you rightly say, can just play a second XI against Irish and Kazakh sides to give their main squad a rest for a day or two. Forest's players will be wearily stepping off a plane after a six hour flight from Azerbaijan before going up to Newcastle, and all after having played Liverpool two days before flying out. Unless your squad is huge and talented, the UEL is an absolute nightmare.

They'll be the next us if they miss out on UCL. Possibly worse given that it's been very much 'lightning in a jar' and a lot has aligned for them this season that probably won't next time.

At the start of the season, yes. But it's like being 2-0 up against Liverpool after 85 minutes and coming away with the draw; you'd take it before the game, but call it two points dropped due to circumstances. Rationally, they're a midtable side for whom UEL qualification is a very impressive achievement. But football fans and, crucially, their owner aren't rational. They will see it as bottling UCL qualification, and a slow start in the Premier League next season as they struggle to balance trips to Qarabag on a Thursday with Bournemouth away on the Monday night would put the manager under pressure. We've been there. Twice. And Rodgers had the credit in the bank of a trophy that Nuno doesn't have.

The problem is that the board won't want to sacrifice short-term success. This is actually understandable- the club is geared towards regular Premier League football in terms of its set-up and, frankly, it would only take a semi-conpetent summer for us to be very, very competitive in the promotion race. For me, 'playing the academy players' and 'short-term success' needn't be mutually exclusive if we pick the right man. Sunderland have been a good example this season with some excellent young players. A spine of Stolarczyk, Nelson and Alves with exciting young players already here such as Fatawu, Mavididi and Bilal (if he stays) makes us freakishly capable with a decent signing or two up top.

Easy like Brentford and Everton at home?

Yep. Not difficult to see it going wrong. Finish 6th this season, have to sell players due to PSR, start slowly next due to balancing UEL and PL, Marinakis sacks Nuno with Forest in 13th and brings in Dyche.

See? I've been saying all year that they're not UCL quality. Well-drilled, fit, solid and efficient, but nowhere near the quality to be where they are. A mix of good luck and indifferent form of superior teams around them. They're kicking on at exactly the time that the top teams do, while Forest's third place looks like the artificial position it so clearly was.

Is this the way to Ferencvaros? Besiktas, Maccabi, RFS....

I am semi erect.

In fairness, I don't want them in 7th. The UECL is eminently winnable for English clubs and you'd never hear the end of it. Let them have UEL and get knocked out at the quarters by Viktoria Plzen after months of struggling to cope with the squad demands.

In a sense they're doing a Leicester, just the 2021 version. And without the whole 'winning an FA Cup' part. If they could fast forward to the 2023 version and get back where they belong, that'd be great.

Good job they aren't playing away at a club brimming with confidence after making the FA Cup Final next.

A man can dream. Wondering how the weird fanboys on here who've been cheering on them on this forum are getting along now. 😂

Imagine if we choose that game as the one out of 38 to actually look like professional players. 😂

Bahahahahahahahahahaha

Exactly that. Those two clubs are absolutely huge in a way that means that any form of success attracts adulation from the fans and attention from the media that masks the lack of quality on the pitch that achieved it. The Austrian Bundesliga is actually above the SPFL in the coefficient rankings, but the reality is that the Sturm Graz or Red Bull Salzburg manager would never get the same amount of attention for winning their league as the manager of Rangers or Celtic would.

They still have a better GD than Villa to be fair, but that won't help them if Chelsea start winning.

Hilariously, Villa will knock them down to 7th if they beat Fulham on Saturday.