Obviously that’s a double-edged sword. Pros of making Conference League are a bit more money, better position in the transfer market as it makes the club more attractive to younger players who want to play in Europe and Conf League offers a spot in Sevilla’s favourite competition, the Europa League, for the winner. There are also the coefficient points which give you a better seeding in the future (=easier draws.) Negative is all the extra midweek games and not exactly in lucrative places. Rayo have been to Belarus, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey this season and have definitely suffered for that in La Liga. It is nice to have something to root for in Europe, but will the Sevilla board build a squad capable of competing in all those extra games?
We can’t stay healthy for just a Liga /copa year.
I think we are getting ahead of ourselves a little.
Of course the club should aspire to play in Europe again and we are only six points off Espanyol in 7th.
However equally we are six points off Mallorca in the bottom three, so right now with the club’s situation on and off the pitch, ensuring our survival for another season has to be the main goal, as has been the case the last few years. John has already pointed out that we were in a better position last year and scraped survival by one point!
Until off-field issues are resolved and we start to build a squad more capable of meeting the competing demands domestically and in Europe, even playing in the Conference League seems like a pipe dream to me that may take a good few seasons to achieve.
Let’s just ensure we’re not playing Segunda football first and the club is on a level footing again on and off the field! Then maybe think of Europe!
I agree Aduk, but I think part of the point is that if you play just trying to stay up, it’s a conservative mindset and cobbling together ties and 1-0 losses may ultimately result in less points than a “go for it” mentality and alternating 2-0 wins with 1-3 losses. I’m not sure I totally buy the argument but I think that’s the view… if we let ourselves be a bit more free and try to be ambitious we may end up with more points than cautiously trying to scrape by
Wouldnt getting european football also help finances, and therefore being able to sign players? I get that having midweek games in our situation isnt ideal as we can hardly compete in La Liga, but that is also why you need a world class academy, so you can rely on players from there to help build a squad and keep rotation. Kike Salas, Isaac, Oso, Castrin, Carmona & Juanlu are a proof that the academy works and we can produce quality players. Winning and being a good team isnt always about signing players and spending the most money. Its about being clever and finding the right mentality in those players.
There is a lot of free agent signings that are more than good enough to help the team in this phase and when we hopefully get new owners, more money will come in and we can start spending 20-30m again.
I’m not sure Nicholas. Of course yes for champions league. But how much do we actually get for conference league (this is look uppable) and raising visibility etc as you said is also ultimately good for finances. But I’m not sure how much of a real the financial benefit is relative to real strains on a team unlikely to majorly invest in the offseason regardless of conference league.
Even with that said, I’d love for us to qualify.
also, I think it’s highly highly unlikely… we have a very difficult remaining schedule and have a big hole.
I was watching some of the player interviews after the match, and almost all of them were talking about staying up rather than improving our position in the table. I don’t think that is the mindset that is needed. Sure, we don’t want false hopes, and we want to stay grounded in reality, but looking down is never good imo.
I was about to say this after the FT vs Betpiss.
Europe (Conference League) will most likely not become a reality, much better teams ahead of us in the table.
However, the mindset and approach should be - let’s aim for the 7th spot!
And then if we fail to reach the 7th… we lost nothing because originally staying up was the goal this season, given how things went.
But if we aim avoiding relegation specifically and isolate that target… then there will be unnecessary pressure which will only increase as mid-April and May approaches.
It will fuck up the already fragile minds of most of the players.
Conference league group stage gives 3m euro base and maybe another 1-2m if you win some games. Not exactly transformational money. If you win every match (and the tournament) the max possible is 15m. So I think that’s pretty modest money given the effort/commitment/strain on team required.
I still want it though…
Quique is the new coach in Alaves. I think that could give them a boost. And he would also have been my choice of temporary manager if Almeyda was kicked out.
One more reason to keep Almeyda.
Here are the exact figures for the Conference League last season (the top 2 got 4m on top this for reaching the final.) You have to go pretty far in it to get anything. Value is more in the prestige and the ranking points it gets you.
Spain are very much in the race for the extra Champions League place so 8th could qualify, conversely if Spain miss that and a Basque team win Copa, 7th may miss out.
Nice. Thanks for digging that up. 8th… is a whole lot more plausible than 7th.
More bad luck.
Peque out for 4 to 6 weeks with an ankle ligament injury picked up in training.
Realistically, this team is not built for a European campaign, they are barely scraping by in La Liga with only one match per week as it is; but if it helps the stature of the club by announcing Sevilla are sort of back in Europe again it might attract some players looking to further or revive their careers like in previous seasons.
So as Shendm said, it would be a good mindset and approach to aim for Europe but not one that defines this season as a success or failure. To be honest getting less than 20m for a grueling campaign in the backwaters of European football really doesn’t seem worth it, I guess they haven’t accounted for the broadcast rights? It would be a welcome influx of cash but the current board would probably find some way to embezzle most if not all of it. Even if the team fails to reach it as the high-earners run out their contacts there should be some cash to add decent reinforcements in the coming seasons.
Given Almeyda is serving a 7 match ban his job is ironically pretty safe, as long as he doesn’t royally f-up the last 6 games or get into fistcuffs with Del Nido Jr and Castro he should still be in the dugout come next season.
One rule for us. One rule for anyone else 
Real Betis has been fined €300 for throwing two bottles onto the pitch during the derby. Yes, three hundred. The price of a nice dinner with friends in Triana or a fine for running a red light. The Competition Committee has classified it as a “minor incident” because the bottles didn’t hit any players according to the official report.
The irony is striking when compared to the case opened against Sevilla FC , who face a €45,000 fine for objects thrown during the previous derby.
https://orgullobiri.com/ya-hay-sancion-por-el-lanzamiento-de-botellas-en-el-derbi-betis-sevilla/
mallorca tying osasuna is the perfect type of result for us. mallorca doesn’t make up meaningful relegation ground (a point gained tho) and osasuna drops two points to a relegation side at home. a team we’d need to pass if our (delusional) dream of conference league could be vaguely entertained.
levante up 1-0 in the 78th against girona… would be another nice result for la liga survival
Slate of good results for us today. Bilbao and sociedad both lost. Osasuna and girona drop points to relegation teams. If we win tomorrow we’d be within 2 points of 8th.
I have thought about this for some time, but I really think this season will end in relegation. We have 9 or 10 matches left this season, yet we still have the top 4 left to play. We looked lethargic at times yesterday, we cant win at home, and while Isaac scored a great goal in the derby, he has not been nearly at a La Liga standard over the past two seasons. We survived with as I remember 41/42 points last season. With one point to spare. It will be very difficult to get 10 more points this season I believe.
Let’s break it down. Here are our remaining games and what I think we can/realistically aim for (results wise). Of course, maybe we don’t beat Valencia but we do beat Levante etc… Just a ballpark estimate that we could still go 3-4-4.
Away - Barcelona - 0
Home - Valencia - 3
Away - Oviedo - 3
Home - Atleti - 0
Away - Levante - 1
Away - Osasuna - 1
Home - Sociedad -1
Home - Espanyol - 3
Away - Villareal - 0
Home - Madrid - 0
Away - Vigo - 1
That would be 13. Or maybe we go 2-5-4 and get 10 points.
Even if we get only 8 more finishing at 1-5-5 or 2-2-7 we’d land at 39. Do we think Mallorca is going to get 15 down the stretch to pass us? AND Elche gets 14? AND Alaves is going to get 13? Because all three of those things would need to happen for us to get relegated.
I’m not saying it will be comfortable or that we COULDN’T end up getting relegated. I’m just saying that when you look at the table, despite a tough remaining schedule, I don’t think its super likely.
Now, hopefully I haven’t jinxed us.