An All-England Europa League Final? Yawn. | OneFootball

Forgive me for not getting excited about the upcoming Europa League final, which features two Premier League sides who are currently sitting at 15th and 16th in the table.

Of course, I’m not questioning whether Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur EARNED their place in the final. They ran the same gauntlet as every other Europa League team, and finished third and fourth in the group stage respectively. Both had some heart-in-mouth moments during the run in, but managed to overcome them and eke out last minute winners. And both thoroughly thrashed their semi-final opponents with a combined scoreline of 12 – 2 on aggregate.

Quick Notes on the Semi-Finals

Man U never looked back after Atletico Bilbao’s Dani Vivian got a red card in the 35th minute. They even resurrected some of the past Red Devil glory in the last fixture, rallying from a goal down in the final twenty minutes to put FOUR in the next before time. Hell, even Mason Mount scored a brace. Combined aggregate win was 7 – 1. That’s impressive by any standard.

Tottenham must’ve learned something from their near-catastrophe at Tamworth during the FA Cup, not least of which was how to play on an artificial surface. Bodø/Glimt’s home form was very impressive until Thursday’s tie, where they lost 2 – 0 in what looked like very uncomfortable weather conditions. Combined aggregate win was 5 – 1. Not allowing Bodø to score at home was perhaps the biggest accomplishment of these ties.

A Lesser Evil?

But one has to look at these two teams, whose domestic form has been so abhorrently poor, and ask whether either truly DESERVE to be in a final. Remember, the winner gets a) nearly $10M in prize money, b) an automatic qualification for the Champions League next season (this alone is worth north of $15M in revenue), and c) a garish trophy to put on display.

I’ll at least listen to an argument that trophy-derived Tottenham Hotspur would be the lesser evil. But you won’t convince me. And don’t even waste your breath arguing in favor of the raging dumpster fire that is Manchester United. The $25M+ they earn won’t rehire the 250+ redundant employees from Sir Jim’s “cost-cutting.”

Out of the myriad clubs that started on this, this is what we’re left with? All-England who cares? I think we all deserved a little better.