Top 4 Finish Or Carling Cup?

[edge275]

It has to be silverware first and foremost. We need a trophy more than qualification into the CL this year.

Maybe its because Im an old bugger that I want it that way round. Back in the good old, bad old days coming anything other than first was no good. Top four nowadays is more for the need for money (for the sky four)than winning the Carling cup.

Once we get our first cup, hopefully this year, then we can aim for Premier League Champions. Top four isn't a trophy.

No, but it's a huge platform for further trophies.

[Blue in the face]

It has to be silverware first and foremost. We need a trophy more than qualification into the CL this year.

Maybe its because Im an old bugger that I want it that way round. Back in the good old, bad old days coming anything other than first was no good. Top four nowadays is more for the need for money (for the sky four)than winning the Carling cup.

Once we get our first cup, hopefully this year, then we can aim for Premier League Champions. Top four isn't a trophy.

No, but it's a huge platform for further trophies.

I almost agree with you, because I believe we will get both this year, but we only got one choice at the top of the page and so I had to make an argument for picking the CC.

On balance though, a platform versus a cup just doesn't balance.

[rick1894citizen]

Really tough one but CL football for me but would really love to beat those fuckers in semi's and Villa in final and would be my first trip to wembley as didn't go play-off final.

Getting fourth would be immense though as CL is where all the best players want to play and would love trips to nou camp, bernabau, san siro etc.

[10.Goater_Legend]

Carling Cup for me boys.

[Socrates]

Any other time and any other circumstance I would prefer silverware but if we got 4th and went on to qualify for the Champs League then we would have secured the status and turnover necessary to ensure the UEFA proposals do not fully impact on us.

[The Man In Blue]

i want silverware.

fuck me it would be amazing.

[bobadji]

Top 4. Silverware would be amazing, but top 4 would almost guarentee it for years.

[The Man In Blue]

Top 4. Silverware would be amazing, but top 4 would almost guarentee it for years.

but the trophy is so close... like a girl you have been trying to tap for ages has just sent you a suggestive text - you don't know if its possible but your mind is alive with ideas,

or maybe i'm just pissead and imagining the further, greater piss-ups.

[Slim]

1st is in the top four, I am voting for that.

[Lev Bronstein]

Bollox to this. Our only aim should be to go out and win every game we play. We might not, we probably won't - but sod it let's have the attitude of going for everything we enter.

[Socrates]

4th place also does not get the fucking banner down at the swamp. Now that will be a sight to behold!!

We should get an insider into their club ( you know like the one they had at ours, that has just been rumbled!! )
so we can get photo's of them devestated while taking it down !!

they'll just replace it with one saying 42...

[10.Goater_Legend]

As I said before I personally would choose the pot if I had to pick between the 2, but I can look at it from both arguements, if we finish in the top 4 this season we will be given a huge platform to win more trophys in the future because we will be able to add top talent to our already quality squad. However, I would love to win the Carling Cup and get that fucking banner down at The Swamp, theres no reason imo why Roberto can't lead us to both, with abit of luck and his tactical nouse it's perfectly possible.

[john68]

What a nonsense thread...and proof positive of the negativity of HIS MISERABLENESS KING KEV...:-)
Why choose the lesser of the 2 Cup comps...Are you expecting to lose at Boro? If not, why omit the FA Cup. And why are you settling for a mere top 4 when our new manager clearly stated he was aiming at TOP 1 and thought it was possible?

Why no option in the poll for a double or a treble?

MISERABLE GIT.....:-)....DENY IT NOW!!!!!!....:-)

[Trautmann]

It's tempting to say "Mr Ferguson--tear down that banner" (to paraphrase Ronnie Reagan). But the truth is that no-one should give a fiddlers about that banner. Getting into Europe Champs League is where we need to go.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Trophy any day. In it to win it, right?

[DoomMerchant]

It's tough, I want both. With the Cup so close it'll be painful for it to slip away, but I wouldn't want to overreact either. There are many glorious reasons why I'd be inclined to pick the cup.

At the moment though it's top 4. And for the slightly tainted reason that Arsenal and Liverpool would both rather us win the cup. There's vulnerability at the moment and it's a tight time to try and go toe to toe in the spending stakes.

We need to break the top 4 before we can establish ourselves and there's no reason to think it'll be easier next year. We have a fight on our hands and the sooner we do it the better.

that's exactly my feeling. I agree with Andie's comments on the banner at the swamp and us needing a pot, but i think realistically Top 4 and CL is a gating factor to winning even more things later, and with the right infusion of Russian, American or Middle-Eastern cash the Top 4 could look as impenetrable as ever despite our wealth.

cheers

[Colin the King]

Trophy any day. In it to win it, right?

Exactly.

Would you sit your grandson on your knee in years to come and say here's a picture of me with...a newspaper cut-out of the league table from the time when we were the fourth best team in the league?

It's about silverware- something we've had nowhere near enough of given how big a club we are. Being in the Champions League might give you a platform to go and win trophies- but if you're in a position to win them anyway, who needs a fucking platform? We have good enough players and, I reckon, a good enough manager to win things NOW. Not to sacrifice glory on the basis that we can have a platform to sign players opening up the possibility of glory.

In two days' time it will be 34 years since we've won a trophy. That's just too long, so my biggest interest is taking care of it. There's no reason to suggest we can't win a trophy AND finish 4th, but if it's one or the other I'll vote trophy every time.

[mcfc1632]

I was there in '76 - winning at Wembley is special - but I have voted top 4 - it would give me several special 'away days' and I think that the owners would reward it by wining the PL next year

[Good Times]

A top four finish, as several posters have rightly pointed out, is the bedrock for success. How many teams have had their day at Wembley or Cardiff only to slide back into obscurity.

Leeds apart, any team that can get a foot through the Champions League door is almost certainly guaranteed future success. And that means trophies.

[eastlandsblue]

CL, but why not both, Dion Dublin was asked after the Villa game, what he as a player would prefer, and he said silverware. The thing is were capable of easily achieving both these targets. Mancini as probably set his targets alot higher now, if you can believe what the tabs are saying