Tottenham win the gamble on the future

Europa League title helps Tottenham revive - Photo: REUTERS

The concept of "big 6" has almost had to be rewritten after the last 2 seasons in the Premier League. Newcastle and Aston Villa have increasingly shown their potential, stability and ability to advance to the group of Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City. Chelsea has also somewhat revived after 2 consecutive bad years. But Tottenham and Man United have been slipping further and further in the Premier League.

The season may not have been so bad for Man United and Tottenham. But with the prize of Champions League football on the line, both teams are gambling on the Europa League title race.

Manager Arsene Wenger is right to complain about UEFA's regulation of awarding a ticket to next season's Champions League to the Europa League champion. The story of Man United and Tottenham this season is a clear example, when the two giants accepted to drop to 16th and 17th place in the domestic league to focus all their efforts on winning the Europa League.

Not only that, the reform of UEFA's continental tournament system this season also broke a traditional format: teams eliminated early in the Champions League are not allowed to play in the Europa League from the knockout stage (in the past, it was the third-placed teams in the group stage). In the past 7 years, there have been 2 times when the Europa League champions were representatives relegated from the Champions League.

Because of this change, the goal of winning the Europa League has become much easier. Right from the group stage, Man United and Tottenham were considered the two clearest and most capable candidates for the championship. The fact that they gave up the Premier League made everything easier.

Lyon and Athletic Bilbao - 2 tough opponents of Man United - before entering the final, both had to compete fiercely in their domestic leagues (Lyon ranked 6th, Bilbao ranked 4th). And when entering the Europa League, Man United has an advantage in terms of physical strength, health, concentration...

But Man United and Tottenham have the right to calculate when in a bad situation. Falling to the bottom of the Premier League rankings has cost each team at least 30 million euros in prize money. Along with that is a series of declines in terms of brand, advertising...

Winning the Europa League brings in around €35m in prize money, which is not enough to make up for that decline. But a ticket to next season’s Champions League could, promising a prize of between €50m and €100m, along with other benefits in terms of branding, advertising, ticket sales, etc.

In all, the gamble that Man United and Tottenham are taking is worth half their annual revenues. The gap between winning and losing is a huge number of hundreds of millions of euros. And in the context of both teams being under pressure to be kicked out of the "big 6", the team that wins will have a better chance of staying.

In the end, Tottenham won despite their potential being inferior to Man United. But in just the past year, it was the "red devils" who had to lay off half of their staff due to the financial crisis. That recession will certainly continue with Man United. As for Tottenham, the team's owner can now rub his hands thinking about the transfer deals to revive the team next summer.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tottenham-thang-canh-bac-tuong-lai-20250523084524815.htm