12 May 2010

[SP]

Where have the 16 years since the final gone, I wonder what difference winning a major trophy would've made?

[legana]

I often wonder the same but console myself by thinking it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to us as a club.

I think Roy would still have left for Liverpool (winning the Europa League didn't result in a Champions League place the following season back then).

Would we have been able to attract better players after winning? Perhaps I'm wrong but I'm not so sure we would as finances probably wouldn't have improved significantly enough to pay bigger transfer fees or wages. We also qualified for Europe a few years later and didn't really entice better players as a result. Perhaps Dembele?

In short, as much as it could have been a sliding doors moment for the club, I feel there is an established football hierarchy, largely based on a combination of fan base size and how wealthy owners were before financial fair play started. Smaller clubs may have their day in the sun like Palace last year but that success doesn't last forever and the big clubs will always float back to the top.

For example, if Spurs survive this year, they will soon be back towards the top no doubt, whereas as soon as a club like Leicester achieved something, the big clubs pillaged them for their best players. I suppose we are lucky to be near enough the top of the football pyramid right now and close enough to be in the mix for a trophy (even the League Cup or Conference a league should be classed as an achievement for clubs like ours). It's why it is so disappointing when these successes aren't that far from reach and other similar clubs beat us to it.

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

I often wonder the same but console myself by thinking it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to us as a club.

I think Roy would still have left for Liverpool (winning the Europa League didn't result in a Champions League place the following season back then).

Would we have been able to attract better players after winning? Perhaps I'm wrong but I'm not so sure we would as finances probably wouldn't have improved significantly enough to pay bigger transfer fees or wages. We also qualified for Europe a few years later and didn't really entice better players as a result. Perhaps Dembele?

In short, as much as it could have been a sliding doors moment for the club, I feel there is an established football hierarchy, largely based on a combination of fan base size and how wealthy owners were before financial fair play started. Smaller clubs may have their day in the sun like Palace last year but that success doesn't last forever and the big clubs will always float back to the top.

For example, if Spurs survive this year, they will soon be back towards the top no doubt, whereas as soon as a club like Leicester achieved something, the big clubs pillaged them for their best players. I suppose we are lucky to be near enough the top of the football pyramid right now and close enough to be in the mix for a trophy (even the League Cup or Conference a league should be classed as an achievement for clubs like ours). It's why it is so disappointing when these successes aren't that far from reach and other similar clubs beat us to it.

All very valid points but the fact remains that we're the biggest English club without a major trophy - what I'd give for us to win even the Carabao Cub.

[Jim©]

The intertoto at the time we won it, was the third cup in Europe, that has now been repackaged as the conference league. It seems hilarious when West Ham sung "Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that"!!!

I think Brighton are trophyless too?

[bog]

Whatever might have come out of that night if we had won, I will never forget it. Seeing the huge FFC flag on the pitch before ko of the second highest cup final in Europe really got to me.

When 91st and losing to the only team below us who would have believed this was going to happen?     

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

The intertoto at the time we won it, was the third cup in Europe, that has now been repackaged as the conference league. It seems hilarious when West Ham sung "Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that"!!!

I think Brighton are trophyless too?

You can't compare the Intertoto with the Conference League - the Intertoto was a glorified pre-season tournament which existed solely to keep the bookies in business throughout the summer. Not only that but we were one winner of three, alongside Malaga and Stuttgart. Trophies don't get much more tinpot than that.

The Conference League may be UEFA's lowest competition but you still have to perform well enough in the league to qualify for it, and then when you're in it you have to play at least 13 matches in total to win it.

Brighton and Watford are the only clubs of comparable size without a major trophy, however we've spent far more of our history in the top division of English football than them (25 seasons vs 14 and 12 respectively).

[Ludlow Richard]

I remember the final with a mix of fondness and sadness. Fondness because we had to get through a ridiculous number of games to get to the final and at the final itself we played with great spirit and determination. Sadness  of course because we lost but because two of my dear Fulham friends who came to the game with me are no longer with us.

And some amusement of course, because Liverpool lost the semi-final. I well remember the friendly atmosphere at Hamburg airport after the game with the Spanish fans, but wonder how grim it would have been with 20,000 plastered Liverpudlians.

And just one other observation about clubs not winning cups. You can reasonably add Brentford to the list. And Bournemouth.

[sarnian]

I remember the final with a mix of fondness and sadness. Fondness because we had to get through a ridiculous number of games to get to the final and at the final itself we played with great spirit and determination. Sadness  of course because we lost but because two of my dear Fulham friends who came to the game with me are no longer with us.

And some amusement of course, because Liverpool lost the semi-final. I well remember the friendly atmosphere at Hamburg airport after the game with the Spanish fans, but wonder how grim it would have been with 20,000 plastered Liverpudlians.

And just one other observation about clubs not winning cups. You can reasonably add Brentford to the list. And Bournemouth.

Great times even though we lost. Remember being amazed at the huge number of jets lined up at Hamburg airport.

[Twig]

The intertoto at the time we won it, was the third cup in Europe, that has now been repackaged as the conference league. It seems hilarious when West Ham sung "Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that"!!!

I think Brighton are trophyless too?

Don't buy this, the Conference is much more comparable to the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. That was a significantly bigger trophy than the tin pot Intertoto.

[Stoneleigh Loyalist]

The intertoto at the time we won it, was the third cup in Europe, that has now been repackaged as the conference league. It seems hilarious when West Ham sung "Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that"!!!

I think Brighton are trophyless too?

Don't buy this, the Conference is much more comparable to the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. That was a significantly bigger trophy than the tin pot Intertoto.



I think that was recognised by some of our players when the Inter toto cup was presented at the end of the final match.. there was almost an embarrassment at holding such a small trophy.

[acji]

I remember the final with a mix of fondness and sadness. Fondness because we had to get through a ridiculous number of games to get to the final and at the final itself we played with great spirit and determination. Sadness  of course because we lost but because two of my dear Fulham friends who came to the game with me are no longer with us.

And some amusement of course, because Liverpool lost the semi-final. I well remember the friendly atmosphere at Hamburg airport after the game with the Spanish fans, but wonder how grim it would have been with 20,000 plastered Liverpudlians.

And just one other observation about clubs not winning cups. You can reasonably add Brentford to the list. And Bournemouth.

I wish they still listed the bonus points by game from those days.