So my favorite football (soccer) team have crashed out of the Europa cup. A lot of people are saying that it could be a blessing in disguise because we have all the right players, just not enough of them and so the likelihood of the team becoming tired would be higher if we had an extra cup to play in. So now we can concentrate on the Premier League and breaking the top four. Some say it was what got to us last season when we only played 17 players all season and in the latter third we just didn't have the energy and slipped from 3rd to 6th.

What do you think? We never had much chance of winning the cup anyway, so perhaps we haven't actually lost anything, but gained instead.

Other teams manage to do both, get more squad depth. The traditional top 4 teams do have squad depth, your chances have not increased.

Edit: re-reading that, I sound harsh. I do like Aston villa and hope to see them above man city.

I think AV are going to have a harder time this season. They will find it hard to get back into Europe nevermind the top 4.

As long as they bounce back from this defeat straight away, not being in europe shouldn't be a problem. Although you have lost quite a lot of prize money from not qualifying for the group stages, which might restrict your transfer budget.

O'Niel is a top manager, so I can't see Villa (who still have a decent squad) coming lower than 8th or 9th

I don't think getting out of the europa cup has helped your chances this season.

Every season is a long campaign and you've basically reduced the number of trophies/titles you can win this season. Also, I would argue that the europa cup is an easier competition (in the long run) then the EPL. Sure, the knock out nature of the Europa cup is much more daunting, but there are less games to play and definitely less difficult opponents.

I'm not sure the added rest from not having to play in the cup will significantly help AV's chances in the EPL, but I guess it doesn't hurt either. I predict 7th or 8th finish this season (Given that I don't think big 4 will change and Man City+Tottenham look to fill out the first 6 places).

Also, if you want a club to build, playing in Europe is crucial. Not just for the experience of playing against different teams, but in terms of building depth for the club, not many middle to top class players who are still relatively young (think: less than 30 years old), will want to come to AV if they aren't competitive in europe.

I'm a Blues fan myself, but I really like AV as a team, so I hope you guys do well this season (even though I predict a Top 6 finish, I don't want Man City to come anywhere near that).