Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
Well whether or not you care is likely to be influenced by your views on Wenger. If you're sufficiently pissed off with him and want him out no matter what, it stands to reason that you'd be indifferent about finishing top four. In fact, there's even a certain logic in wanting us to miss out in the hope that it forces the issue of him leaving.

All things being equal, however, it would be somewhat odd not to care about whether the team you claim to support qualifies for one of the sport's most prestigious competitions (albeit one that is flawed)
Yes, that's right. My indifference to the CL is in part based on my view that as long as Wenger is our manager we have no chance of winning it.

Also, on a practical level I fail to see how it is 'massive' to miss out on it. BGS (I think) posted the other day that the difference between being knocked out of the CL in the first knockout round and making it to the final of the EL is about 10mil difference only. Hardly significant to a club with over 300mil a year in annual turnover. In fact, I read that ManU had made more in the EL this year than they did in their last CL year. Player recruitment? Well, recent history suggests that is also not true. Both Chelsea and ManU were able to recruit experienced world class players without CL football. Sponsorship deals that reduce their financial commitment if we aren't in it? Possible but I have yet to hear that this is true. Increased wages in order to attract players because you don't have CL football. Again, possible, but I'm dubious that agents would use that as leverage.

Prestige? Yes, I suppose so. But does 21 in 21 sound miles more prestigious than 20 in 21? I don't think so.