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Eakes wrote:

Jeff, but that is certainly not Rafa's priorities, it might be the fans. Realistically though they don't have a squad good enough to challenge for the league so CL is a better priority for Rafa.

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TheBaldOne wrote:

I guess it depends on how clubs measure success - I always get the impression that the main aim for Chelsea is to win the Champions League, and has been for a while.

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nathan8 wrote:

I'd rather we won the Premiership as it's so long since the last time, but we do have more chance of winning the CL. For now though, I think Rafa's priorities have changed. We MUST finish 4th in the league this year so we get the CL spot again next year.

If that doesn't happen, then I'd dare to suggest it will make it less likely that someone other than Arsenal, Chelsea or United will win the Prem. If Everton get the 4th spot, their squad isn't great, and they won't yet have enough money to spend to realistically challenge for the title. They probably won't get very far in the competition (judging by how they did last time), so won't make a huge amount of money from it. That will mean they still won't have all that much to spend the following summer to challenge the big boys.

Simlarly, Liverpool, without CL money the following season won't be able to spend all that much unless we sell players and get good money for them. We'll then fall further behind the top 3 and will have to make sure we finish in the top 4 the following year, at which point we can start trying to catch them up again. If we don't make 4th this year, I think it'll be 2-3 years before we even get close to the top 3, let alone realistically challenging them for the title.

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PilgrimPete wrote:

But Liverpool without CL money won't be any worse than Liverpool with CL money - £46m spent in the summer and not a lot to show for it. Granted, they bought Torres, who was supposed to be the missing ingredient required to win the Premiership. It turns out that he is actually the one stopping them from being in a battle for mid-table mediocrity with the likes of Spurs, West Ham and Middlesbrough...

I don't see Liverpool mounting a realistic challenge for the title any time soon, with or without CL money.

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PilgrimPete wrote:

It turns out that he is actually the one stopping them from being in a battle for mid-table mediocrity with the likes of Spurs, West Ham and Middlesbrough...

I don't see Liverpool mounting a realistic challenge for the title any time soon, with or without CL money.

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Big JP wrote:

Without Gerrard & Torres, Liverpool would be mid table.

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nathan8 wrote:

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Big JP wrote:

Without Gerrard & Torres, Liverpool would be mid table.

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This is a silly statement IMO. Take Ronaldo and Tevez out of the United team, and they'd be 10+ points worse off. Take Adebayor and Fabregas out of the Arsenal team and they wouldn't be challenging for the title this year, nowhere near. Take Berbatov and Keane out of the Tottenham team, and they'd be battling against relegation. Gerrard and Torres do play for Liverpool, so you can't think 'where would they be without those two'?

There certainly is a big 3 this season. It remains to be seen whether or not that will carry on over the next few years.

Edit: Just remembered a stat I saw the other day (probably 2-3 weeks ago) that pointed out that Tevez and Ronaldo had scored a greater percentage of United's goals this season than Torres and Gerrard have of Liverpool's.

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