It’s become a common footballing cliché. If a side starts to slump in their domestic league then the familiar excuse of, “the Europa League wrecked our season, without that we’d have far less injuries and be flying in the league,” is spouted at every conceivable opportunity. Those refusing to accept the culpability of their team in such abject failure are seemingly unable to see the veritable dearth of real quality at their particular club and hide behind this sort of rhetoric as a means of finding solace.
Yet such thinking is not only fundamentally flawed, but also a complete fallacy- a myth, if you like. Sure, Everton’s alarming fall from the Premier League’s top table has been so sudden that many have looked to point the finger at outside influences, such as travel and player fatigue, however, to accept the Europa League as an excuse for poor performances is to allow Roberto Martinez, his coaching staff and the players off the hook. You see, routinely playing Thursday-Sunday may have affected Everton and their increasingly forlorn looking manager- travelling to the likes of FC Krasnodar certainly will have- and it is a well-known fact that Premier League sides tend to drop down the table dramatically during the course of a Europa League campaign, but there have been other important factors in Everton’s decline, and for this everyone should take a share of the blame (this, of course, is a subject for another day and one I could write a book on).
Besides, a quick glimpse at other challengers for this year’s Europa League title indicates the patently erroneous nature of such logic. For the likes of Sevilla and Wolfsburg are still challenging on two fronts- they are amongst the favourites for this year’s competition, whilst successfully pursuing domestic objectives at the same time. Last year, the former won the Europa League and finished 5th in the league, and this time around they are on course to do the same. The latter, Wolfsburg, are currently 2nd in Germany and were recently installed as the bookies favourites to win Europe’s second tier competitions this season. Both see the Europa League as an opportunity to promote their club continentally, and add vital European experience to their armoury. They act as beacons: shining examples to English clubs such as Spurs and Newcastle, who have recently poured scorn on the competition, and then proceeded to blame it for their travails. It is thus possible (not easy, admittedly) to compete on two fronts. Sure it is hard, but some inside English football claim it is nigh on impossible, and that’s an outright lie.
Given Everton’s woeful recent form and the sheer distance points-wise between ourselves and the likes of perennial mid-table dwellers such as Swansea, Southampton and West Ham, Blues could be forgiven for writing off this domestic campaign, concentrating on safety and a comfortable lower mid-table finish and placing all their hopes on a strong end to the European season for their side. And Everton have quality in abundance to achieve it, providing manager and players alike rally round and show some passion for the cause.
Indeed, every team in the Europa League is flawed in one way or another, hence why they’re not competing in UEFA’s premier competition. In previous years, teams such as Fulham and Middlesbrough have reached the final, and this time around, the likes of Roma’s Gervinho, Wolfsburg’s Bas Dost and Sevilla’s Carlos Bacca should hold no fear for a team accustomed to facing a wealth of Premier League talent. For Everton, the Europa League should not be cast aside by their supporters and those associated with the club, it should instead be something we use to aggrandise our historic institution and make Everton Football Club better known around the continent. It remains the Goodison side’s best chance of redemption- a palpable opportunity to achieve the Holy Grail of Champions League football in an otherwise disappointing campaign. Ukrainian champions Dinamo Kyev come to Goodison on Thursday hoping to upset the proverbial applecart, but rest assured they, and indeed the rest of the competition, will be as worried (if not more so) about Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley as we are by their “star” names. Everton’s last trophy came in 1995. It’s high time that changed. Let’s give ‘em hell…
COYB
