I agree that the extra money from the CL is not a factor, but the prestige of the competition is: players want to be seen and showcase their abilities because, if you hadn't noticed, a lot of them are proper tarts. It really isn't astonishing what coughymachine is saying; he's seeing the world for what it is, and in no way is he defending the sorry state of affairs. There are very few on in forum that are happy with the direction the game is going. But if we want to talk about the possibility of winning anything, finishing in the top four and being competitive in the CL is a must.
The prestige accounts for little, the games best players do simply want to participate they want to win the tournament. And those same players also want the premium salaries which we cannot afford.
As for needing CL to win silverware, the current side was built without CL revenues or football. Our signings since being in the tournament have been pretty dismal and are not an enhancement in terms stature to the ones we were making before.
This squad is good enough to win silvware and has been for 3 seasons now. It doesn’t need additional revenue streams to achieve this, it is already in that postion. Why are so many still vested in this planning stage? It’s always about what we will do in the future and never about the here and now.