I think a lot of people are forgetting something very important. If we qualified in the CL, we would have finished second. That means we would have played one of Barca, Bayern, ath madrid, chelsea, United, psg etc. There was a very good chance that we would have crashed out in the second round. We didn't miss out on qf prize money, we just missed out on second round prize money.
Europa League obviously doesn't compare to the CL, but there are a lot of positives that can come out of it.
Financially:
if we think about this whole thing realistically, and consider that we would have gone out in round two in the CL, then we would be incurring no more than 15 to 20 M losses in the C.l. I don't have the exact figures, but that sounds about right.
If we win the Europa League, that's something like 10m in total revenue. That would be cutting our losses in half. Pretty significant if you ask me.
Prestige:
we're one of the most successful clubs in this competition and winning it would increase our prestige, and help attract WC players.
Juventus Stadium:
If we make it to the final against a team like tottenham, for example, this would attract a lot of buzz. It would make the final very watchable, and that is good for the image of the club. it's better to win the Europa League than finish in 16th place in the CL.
You need to walk before you can run:
We haven't been a big team in Europe for a while. let's not forget that this project is sum relatively new. I didn't expect us to win the Cl this year and I think most of you would agree that we were outsiders. not by much but still not close to being favorites. This Europa League thing could be good. It gives our players more experience in Europe, especially younger ones like pogba. it gives conte a third chance to change his system.
It gives the team a chance to gel, and get used to playing teams that aren't Italian. European teams have a very different mind set to Italian ones. While we have perfected the art of destroying local competition, we haven't learnt to deal with teams from Europe. Gala is a case in point. Blame the pitch all you want, when you get a point from 6 against a team that conceded
10 Goals from Madrid, something is wrong.
I'm being hopeful that this competition can somehow benefit is and if we take it seriously, I see no reason why it shouldn't.