Can the Europa League improve our season?

Sissoko and Co give up Europa league options
Sissoko and Co give up Europa league options
I’ve been quite critical about the Europa League and our participation in it, especially as our Premier League safety is yet to be assured.

However for this article I’m going to try and put the shoe on the other foot and look at any potential positive impact a run in this particular competition could have.

I would say the vast majority of fans were unhappy that we didn’t strengthen in the summer and for me it is the primary reason why we’ve struggled to maintain league form and progress in Europe. Of course injuries have played a part but that would have been negated to a point had the team been sufficiently strengthened before the start of the season. It wasn’t, a mistake was made, and even those in power at the club admit that.

However that crucial mistake has been rectified and we recruited superbly in January, to a point where we have actual quality in depth in most areas of the squad. This has the knock on effect strengthening the side we can put out in Europe whilst also giving us the option of resting players if needed. We do have a squad that can attack on both fronts now, so why not use it?

We are all aware of the feel good the wins against Aston Villa and Chelsea gave us I presume? Well can’t positive results in Europe give us the same feeling? And won’t the players also benefit from the winning mentality only brought about by winning games?

You can also look at the fact that we added a lot of new faces (in relative terms) during January so the extra games will give them a chance to integrate quicker. What would be better? No game over these two weeks or two extra games to build a degree of understanding between new and old faces?

So after being a mardy **** for so long about the Europa League, could it actually be a good thing for us? We’ll see soon enough I guess but perhaps this whole European adventure could end up being a positive.

Have I missed anything?

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

86 thoughts on “Can the Europa League improve our season?

  1. Yup, I agree, we (coaches, manager, fans) can learn more about the players and how best to intergrate them into our current PL first 11-it gives Marv, Yapou and Anita a chance to throw down the gauntlet as well as ideally giving Cisse another chance to find some form…

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  2. Toonsy very good read and I agree with you,
    Congrats mate on your anniversary, nice to see it seems to have cheered you up today, as your normally a mardy *** 😆
    Can’t wait for the game

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  3. Wins breed confidence and imo there are quite a few benefits to doing well in the competition as you’ve said but the most important thing for me is that it’s a trophy! Any competition you enter you should be trying to win but let’s face it, The Premier League…highly unlikely, the big boys have that one sewn up. The FA cup…slim chance again, Pompey apart the “recognised” big boys dominate that. The League Cup…yep a slightly better chance but we haven’t managed it yet! That just leaves The Europa, yep still damned fecking hard to win but middle of the road clubs do win it, so The Europa along with The League Cup are “on paper” our best chance of winning a trophy(however slim) and that’s first and foremost what footballs about, winning trophies…let’s feckin go for it!! :mrgreen:

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  4. If we had picked up just 10 more points this season I would take the Europa seriously.
    I do not think we can take it seriously and I think Pards shares that view. I have seen a ‘probable’ line up for tonight which includes Perch at full back and Shola up front.

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  5. Dave 🙄 😆

    Sidekick-Shola is injured isn’t he?And Simmo will be full back if he’s ok. It’ll be a mix of our first 11 and good bench players, defo won’t be the ressies. Send them out next week if we must.

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  6. Richie 😯 hows you doing mate ? Is this you back with us for good or just a flying visit I agree with you above 😉 that’s why its nice to have you back.

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  7. Dave…divn’t mention internet mate, not even getting 1mb at the moment so I have to limit my time online to avoid throwing things about in temper 👿 😆 hopefully it’ll be sorted in the next few days…if at all 🙄

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  8. Richie 1mb 😯 thats like an old dial up 😀 I guess that means you’ve had to cut out the porn aswell 😆
    I take it your all settled in now

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  9. Dave…don’t worry, I’ve plenty of porn on disc 😆

    We were settled until 100 boxes that were in storage in Madrid arrived last week 🙄 …but getting there slowly 😎

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  10. Ed on Tiote
    “But the thing that surprised us with the story of his arrest at around 6:00 pm local time last night, was his custom Chevrolet Camaro which was reported to cost £75K – here’s the Chevrolet web site in the US – and Camaros they start at around $23K – that around £14K – so how can you get one as expensive as £75K?

    You can actually build one – so if you get everything possible it’s still not too expensive, although the 2013 Camaro Coupe ZL1 is $56,550 – around £35K.”
    Someone made a similar point last night. I wonder if he modified it or maybe he’s just the worst bargainer since Dalguish and Comoli.

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  11. Ice…Horse meats called horsemeat owa here, not beef lasagne like owa there 😆 ….nowt wrong wi a nice horse steak anyway 😉

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  12. Think we should have enough to get through the next couple of rounds and hopefully by then be safe from relegation – if so we should play our strongest side possible to try and actually win it

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  13. We need to hope Hannover beat Anzi Mrsthjlcsdhj because I fancy is beating the Germans rather than the billionaire Russians.

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  14. this will not be a easy game as some think,would like to see young cambell given a shot,anything other than shola

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  15. Off topic but happy birthday King Kev, the man who saved us from virtual extinction. He made us believe we could compete with the best. Barca at SJP, one of the best European footballing nights for a Newcastle fan. Heard Sir Les on telly last weekend, saying there were no tactics, you were told to just go out and play. Those were the days….

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  16. Andy – it’s probable he’ll be back for the second leg. However Pardew might not play him anyway.
    Remember Andy when I suggested we’d buy Sissoko, Mbiwa and Debuchy back in December. Too ambitious you said!

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  17. I think going on a run in the Europa league be good for us. If we can get to the quaters or even the semi’s ( slim chance ) would really give the group the experience of been at the business end of a comeptitions. We havent had a good cup run since Roeder and Shearer got us to the semi’s of this competition a good few years ago at this stage.

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  18. Deb-True. Makes you wonder though, would we have won the PL and the CL if we’d just used some tactics?!

    Ice-I’d like to see Campbell get a run out as well, no sense playing Cisse the whole match unless we’re really struggling and he’s looking sharp. Pointless keeping him here and out of that youth tournament if we’re not going to play him..

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  19. NEWKIE i dont mind cisse playing its just i dont want shola playing with him would like to see cambell play with him 😉

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  20. Ice 😀 You’re right, we need to save Shola for the league! 😆 I’m sure we’ll see him at some point though it might be at their place rather than tonight

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  21. Newkie, I’m sure we could have won the PL if we just had a method of defending better. Still great entertainment while it lasted.

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  22. Toonsy – there are no positives to find. It’s a drain on our resources and the sooner were out of this god forsaken competition the better

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  23. Ice
    Thing that bugs me about Shola is that he seems to be a really great guy.
    But because of that we’ve been stuck with him for so long I actually can’t stand him. For me, he is at best middle of the road Championship standard.
    Yet he seems to have a mini cult following.

    We have done a great job strengthening the squad. But its actually frightening that he is second choice front line striker!

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  24. Andy-Don’t feel embarrassed lad, if you do just look at all of Big Dave’s posts in December about how we’d pissed off Debuchy and Cabaye and how Debuchy definitely wouldn’t be joining us. I imagine Dave might feel a little silly if anyone reminded him about that… 😆

    Deb-Nonesense about the defending, we should have just scored more goals 😈 I blame Les…

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  25. JJ-I’m part of the cult, I won’t hear a bad word about the lad, even if I have to wait another 20 games before he scores again until I can say “I told you so” 😉

    Basically I love him when we’re doing well and he’s not playing much… 😎

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  26. JJ think that is unfair to say he is middle of the road championship level, look he is no Shearer but I think injuries hampered him. He was scoring 1 in 2 under Roeder then his hip went. He is very lazy and inconsitant and that but i think he is a good squad player. He can put in some great performances and then do nothing for a few games. He is also a very good finisher and was unlucky not to grab a goal against spuds the weekend

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  27. Ice – what a pillock he is. Good to hear he is available for selection and not incarcerated at her maj’s pleasure!

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  28. JJ i see your point about a bit of a cult but do these guys ever go and watch the games i doubt it,apart from his non-paying i have lost count on the number of times moves break down through him ie cannot hold the ball up to any effect and the times he is off-side is un-real,drives you potty 👿

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  29. Johno-That is another one of the endearing things. He foud it hard enough breaking into a team with some of the best strikers in the PL going (Shearer/Bellerz) and injuries constantly hampered him, he could have been a top player.

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  30. Johnno,

    He has never reached double figures in a premiership season so to say he was getting one in two. Couldn’t have been for long.

    I think he had great potential as a youngster. He just never fulfilled it. Perhaps it was injuries, which is unfortunate, but I’m more concerned about his standard of play now. For me he is ok for around 15 minutes occasionally. But don’t ever want to see him play 90 minutes.

    Sadly, I think Shola had far more potential than Sammi has shown. Don’t think Sammi will make it.

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  31. Newkie,
    I’m sure in three months when he bundles one in off his ****, people will tell me how invalueable Shola is 😉 , bit like they tell me how wonderful Jonas is when he scores his goal a season and gets that one cross out of 1 000 in a dangerous area.

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  32. Ice-I’ve seen him play and I’ve heard the abuse he gets from the fans at the matches and throughout toon whenever a match has gone poorly and he has played, whenever someone asks me what I thought of a match I’ll tell them and whenever I ask back 70% of the time it will be moaning about Shola, I just think it gets way too OTT.

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  33. JJ-Thing is, Shola doesn’t bundle them in off his ****. He scores top class goals 😉 Jonas scores wonder goals too, and in seasons past I have backed him, just this year the spark seemed to be missing. Fair play the goal clearly meant a lot to him so its good to see he still cares, I wasn’t sure he did anymore.

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  34. Johnno
    I must agree that Shola is not middle of the road championship level.

    I have had the misfortune of watching him for 12 very long years and can only say that he might have been a decent player in non league football.

    Never forgiven Lee Clark for recommending him to the Toon.

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  35. i dont think sammy is worth two bob,headless chicken comes to mind the thoughts of him being around for ten yrs or more like his brother gives me nightmares 😈

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  36. Lot of Shola bashing on here today. I’ve got to admit there’s been times I’d have happily shoved him off the Tyne Bridge and then he has a couple of good games. After his poor performances lately it’s back to the bridge. It’s never more than a couple of good games. Way better than his brother though.

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  37. Ah the great Shola debate continues 😉 .Anyone who puts goals passed the Scum is ok in my book 😎 Seriously he’s a 15 minute late sub player now ,he just ain’t got it in him to do the 90 at full pelt anymore . We need to keep him for Scum games though. 😉 . Agree on Sammi ,don’t see him ever really lighting up St James tbh.
    Toonsy ,good article , I wasn’t fussed about this competition back before the signings as thought it was a distraction to our PL status .I am now hopeing we can make a go of it and climb the PL table and so salvage something from this wreck of a season.

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  38. Feel that the Shola bashers always conviniently forget that it was his goals that put us on the road to getting promoted. It was so finely balanced it could have quite easily have gone the other way 🙄
    I actually am the happiest I’ve been with Shola since he’s been here. He’s a decent 15/20 minute sub. Push him down to 3rd choice and I don’t see how anyone can question him being here.

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  39. And to bring up a favourite stat of mine – who’s Premier League minutes/goals AND minutes/assists is better between Andy Carroll and Shola since Carroll left?
    Hmm should we get him back? 😆

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  40. KIm I’ve always had a soft spot for the geordie lad/accent but most of the time, and it’s been a long time, he’s been bloody useless. Mackem slayer it’s true. PL striker? No!

    Think tonight might be a lot harder than people expect. They’ll be no pushovers with that many S Americans in there.

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  41. Solano – I definitely thought he’d turned the corner in those first 9 games in the championship. Definitely don’t want Carrol back. I’ve never liked him.

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  42. ST-You forget, Shola was completely unnessecary, promotion was entirely assured due to how amazig our squad was and all of us knew we’d top the league and do it with ease 🙄

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  43. Georgio, True he does often look as usefull as a chocolate teapot 😆 Shame cause think with less injuries he could of done well but he struggles a lot cause of that hip I think , doesn’t he only train twice weekly or something cause of it. He’s our Ledley king without the ability 😉

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  44. JJ agree that Shola is now down to an impact sub but still think he is a good squad player. Think you either love him or hate him and I love him 🙂

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  45. The age old Ameobi debate 😀

    I love him aswell. Just for that one game a year he plays like a giant black Messi 😛

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  46. Ice 😆

    Any predictions on tonights match? Know very little of this team but assuming they are a good side since they are at this stage of compeition

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  47. JT just know they are a good team they beat bayer/L so must be canny,dont do forcasts mate this is the toon,it comes back and bites your *** 😀

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  48. Yeah Ice they have to have some pedigree about them, plus I know they are just finished a 2 month winter break but that also has given them 2 months to prepare for us

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  49. I think the line up will be:
    4-2-3-1

    —————–Elliott—————–
    Simmo-M’Biwa-Collo-Haidara
    ———–Anita—–Perch———-
    Obertan—- Marveaux—-Jonas
    —————–Cisse—————-

    Subs:
    Krul, Williamson, Santon, Bigi, Cabaye, Sissoko, Shola

    I will be recording the match and watching it after i get back from taking the misses out 🙁

    Hoping for a 2-0 win 😛

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  50. JT of coarse i know mate,mind if she wants a hot-dog she would have to pay me into the ground,ime all heart me 😀 😀

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  51. Hhahaha Ice you sure are! My wife is taking me to St James Park in Nov for my 30th , I expect more than a hot dog 😉

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  52. JT good on you mate hope it goes well,if your luck is in she might get you a bovril too you lucky guy 😀

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