Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:You are igoring twenty odd years of CL and G14 cementing those clubs at the top of the game. Of course they became dominant because they have been snafffling all the TV cash! They take it back to their domestic leagues, have the advantage, qualify again, get more cash and so it goes on. Yes, a team had less games to get through to win it, but that is not the only reason a variety of clubs won it he European Cup. Money and G14 dictated that.
They've also built a system so that the upstarts can't have a good run of form over 2-3 months and earn something special. Now you have to grind it out again the best in the world over 9 months, which again plays into their hands around squad depth, and the like. And yes, we're "one of them" now, in spirit. But my contention is that until you get into Pot1 you can't win this thing unless you are a statistical anomaly which seems to happen about 1.5 times a decade since they invented their mafia grip on the situation.
When Villa won it in 82 they played 8 matches, with 6 of those being two-legged ties for 2nd round, QF, and Semis over the course of 9 months. About an extra match ever month. They didn't have to play a qualifier or it would have added one extra match to their schedule.
Compare it to today where you play 6 matches to get out of the groups alone, and then two legged ties for 3 rounds then a final. It's 5 more matches in total, unless you have to qualify of course.
13 matches vs 8 matches.
We need to get into Pot 1 first before we can win this thing. It's designed to fuck you. We could get lucky, but we won't.
cheers