Why Champions League qualification isn't a ‘golden ticket’
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last night, Aston Villa stumbled in pursuit of securing a top four place in the Premier League losing 4-1 away to Manchester City.
But as Newcastle have shown this season, despite the money in brings in, qualifying for Europe puts a huge strain on smaller squads especially when financial rules make it harder to spend.
And as Ange Postecoglou commented in the week, Champions League qualification doesn't necessarily provide what clubs are seeking, if they're unable to push on and compete.
Ayo Akinwolere is joined by The Athletic's Tottenham writer Jack Pitt-Brooke, Aston Villa writer Jacob Tanswell and Newcastle United writer Chris Waugh to discuss how the Premier League's growing collection of upwardly ambitious clubs sustained continued Champions League qualification amid the backdrop of strict financial spending limits.
HOST: Ayo Akinwolere
WITH: Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jacob Tanswell and Chris Waugh
PRODUCER: Guy Clarke
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Adey Moorhead
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Last night, Aston Villa stumbled in pursuit of securing a top four place in the |
| 0:10.5 | Premier League. |
| 0:11.1 | It's Foden, and Chambers smarter presented in the chance to get it. |
| 0:18.1 | Stunning a hatrick for Phil Foden. But as Newcastle have shown this season, despite the money that it brings, qualifying for Europe puts a huge strain on smaller squads, especially when financial rules make it harder to spend. |
| 0:33.2 | It's not a Willy Wonka golden ticket, you know. It just gets you a year in Champions League. |
| 0:39.0 | But if you don't build on that, if you don't grow from that, it's meaningless. |
| 0:43.7 | So is Tottenham boss, Anjpasa Cogli right? |
| 0:46.2 | Is the Champions League worth it if you can't compete? |
| 0:50.1 | I'm Ayahu Akim Maleri. |
| 0:51.4 | Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast. |
| 1:00.5 | Music I'm Ayahu Akim Mulary. Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast. Here for this one, we have our Aston Villa writer, Jacob Tanswell, Tottenham, Hotspur writer, Jack Pitt Brook, as well as our Newcastle United writer Chris Woff. |
| 1:09.9 | Jacob, let's start with you. |
| 1:10.9 | Let's talk about last night. |
| 1:12.6 | And I guess that golf between Manchester City and Aston Villa, |
| 1:16.0 | especially when it comes to squad depth, |
| 1:18.3 | it's not necessarily the lack of plays, |
| 1:20.3 | but I guess it's probably the quality of players that probably made the difference. |
| 1:24.1 | I think so. |
| 1:24.5 | I think if you compare the two games, the season between the in December, Acerrilla won. It was their best performance on doing I, Emory's dead. Most of their players fit. Where in town, the season hadn't quite taken hold yet. And then if you take yesterday's performance and you see a really depleted side, a team that made six changes from the win against Wall, because |
| 1:44.2 | Emery's looking at fixture, list ahead and thinking, City's kind of a free hit for us, |
| 1:49.4 | maybe we can get something out of it, but we've got to really focus on Brentford on Saturday, |
| 1:53.8 | then Lille coming up. Those were the main thoughts in Emory's mind. And although they play |
... |
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