"We’ve had a lot of great experiences in this competition, the first final, the emotions after the game, felt we could have done more on the pitch. The Chelsea defeat is still very painful, we had a chance to win the competition that year, but we put it right. We had a lot of tough opponents; we didn’t get to the final by luck. That experience, winning the cup, has helped us grow as a team."
It was well documented that it was quite close that he could have left, in a variety of ways. A loan was always our preference because in our view we wanted Will to play.
We wanted him to continue his development, which he did brilliantly last year, because he committed to a path of limited game time and big training time, with a lot of work with Graeme Jones. A lot of reviewing his performances and then putting work into action.
The next step was to get him playing regularly, so that was the aim, and especially with us bringing two strikers in the thought was he could continue that development best on the football pitch.
Obviously it didn't happen, much to our relief because Yoane picked up an injury and Will's vitally important. We believe in his talents. He's quick, he athletic, but he's added through his attitude to training, a better know-how and nous.
"Sven has no concussion, it was a cut, a bad cut, which he had stapled together. He didn’t train yesterday, but we will see how he is today. Lewis is the closest to coming back out of those injured, but this game will come too quickly for him. Tino is still on track, we are looking at the Manchester City game for him for when he can be available for."
This will be a really tough game against a team that is in form away from home. It is going to be a real challenge for us. Thomas Frank's teams are very aggressive off the ball - they are very well organised.
It is a good game for us, a tough game, but one we look forward to.
We have some players here who had a fantastic experience last year winning the Europa League final. They are very eager to win more trophies and we would like to compete and win. We are definitely going for it. Of course there will be a little bit of rotation like I have basically done from game to game because we have played every third or fourth day.
You need to do it, every club does if you need to compete and that's the next thing. If you want to compete over 60 games, you can't play the same XI for 60 games because the risk of injury, fatigue and lack of performance, that naturally happens. So, it is that fine balance to manage that, but that is what we are up for.