Daniel Levy will be gutted to miss out on the vast revenue that Champions League football brings. Swiss Ramble says, “The return to the Champions League led to significant increases in both broadcasting, up £50m (33%) from £154m to £204m, and match day, which rose £12m (11%) to a club record £118m.”
So it only makes sense that the club’s hierarchy will be gutted to miss out, as the Europa League is less lucrative than its older brother. However, I believe Spurs fans would rather be in the Europa League right now, as it makes far more sense for development.
Due to the new format, Spurs will get an extra European home game during the new league phase, which will contribute healthily to the club’s finances, according to the Daily Mail. As calculated by financial expert Kieran Maguire, “Spurs make €5.6m (£4.8m) every matchday when taking into account gate revenue and money spent by fans at games while also deducting how much it costs clubs to host matches.”
So, who will break through and star from a Europa League campaign expanded into a league phase? Here are seven players who’ll benefit the most from the game time.
Lucas Bergvall
The young Swede has had plenty of admirers during his time at Djurgardens, the most notable being Barcelona’s pursuit of him. This ultimately led him to choose us for reasons we can only assume are a better pathway into the first time, with solid beliefs that he can play plenty of matches during Postecoglou’s upcoming arduous campaign.
Bergvall can play a more balanced role; however, he’s been lauded for his attacking abilities and instincts. The Europa League will be the perfect play for him to start games and impose himself on the White Hart Lane faithful.
The next time the young Swedish midfielder steps out onto the pitch, it will be in Lilywhite, and Spurs fans will have plenty of matches to watch this Swedish starlet shine.
Mikey Moore
Mikey has had a year out of his wildest dreams. He caps off the season by making his Premier League debut in the delightful loss against Manchester City, earning the legacy number 883, and then playing a starring role for England at the U17 euros, where they fell to Italy despite his five-goal involvement in four games.
Excelling on the left wing, Spurs fans can hope that they’ve found the heir to captain Heung-min Son’s throne, as Moore is proving that his hype matches his ability by lighting up every game he plays. Fourteen goal involvements for England U17s and 25 for Spurs in the 2023/24 season have left Spurs fans clamouring for Ange Postecoglou to play the youngster more.
Mikey faces the biggest year of his career, as the opportunity to break through and solidify his place on the first team is up for grabs. He should aim to start some cup/European games this season and establish himself in the England U21s setup. This is a tall order for the 16-year-old, but the magnitude of his talent means that expectations for the lad will be sky-high.
Alfie Devine
I’ve opted to talk about Devine over the mercurial Donley here because I honestly feel the time is right for Jamie to go out on loan and experience consistent first-team football. Coming back from a successful loan at Plymouth Argyle with Ashley Phillips, Devine would benefit massively from the increased fixture list and has the opportunity to offer some real creativity from the midfield.
Devine is still Spurs’ youngest goal scorer. He netted against Marine in the FA Cup, and after all those years, Devine should be ready for consistent first-team participation. He can make that mark in this season’s Europa League.
With Hojbjerg and Lo Celso seemingly set to depart, it only feels right that Devine takes this opportunity and doesn’t look back.
Timo Werner
Timo hasn’t had a consistent scoring season since his first stint at Leipzig, which is five years ago now. Since then, he hasn’t thrived for many reasons, but in a Spurs shirt, we’ve seen glimpses of absolute brilliance. It’s just about unlocking it now for him.
The system seems tailor-made for a player like Werner, who can take on his man, carry the ball to the byline, and flash it across goal. Blessed with a fast pace, too, it only takes confidence and trust from the manager to restore his goal-scoring touch, which I believe he can do in the Europa League.
With another year on his loan deal, Spurs will be able to pick him up for pennies if he can show that he’s the perfect option off the bench who’s making solid cases to start every week. That all stems from starts in the Europa League to get his numbers off the ground again.
Brennan Johnson
Brennan’s had an excellent first season at the Spurs, and I won’t change my stance. His numbers have even been better than our superstar Sonny’s first season in Lilywhite. Johnson gets a lot of stick from Spurs fans for some high-profile misses, but that will often overshadow all the electric running he’s been doing for the team. He even hit ten assists, proving he could thrive in the Postecoglou system.
Since his move from Forest, a big price tag has hung over his head, and he’s never experienced the atmosphere of a European night in any capacity, so the Europa League will be the perfect proving ground for Brennan to spark into life.
Johnson will benefit from the variety of oppositional fullbacks he will face as the diversity in skill set he’ll be battling against will massively accelerate his development. He’s on the right track to becoming a 20 G/A season winger.
Radu Dragusin
Dragusin was brought in during the January transfer window, and he’s been so unfortunate not to have had more of a look due to Romero and Van de Ven’s imperious form. He looks classy when he has had game time, especially in the air, which has been a clear weakness at Spurs in the second half of the season. Dragusin fixes that.
A run of Europa League fixtures will offer Dragusin a chance to start multiple games. Micky and Cuti must be rested to avoid injuries/suspensions like the ones they suffered last season. Dragusin has a massive chance to showcase why he came here over Bayern Munich.
With his towering presence, I foresee Radu scoring some important goals in Postecoglou’s swashbuckling system. Whether gallivanting up the field or posing a devastating aerial threat from set pieces, Dragusin is set to reap the rewards of the increased fixture list.
Spurs will have a genuine chance of winning the Europa League as the number of notable clubs this year is lower than usual, with the biggest competition for the crown coming from Manchester United, Frankfurt, Lazio, Roma and Porto. However, we all know that in typical Spurs fashion, a team like Genk will be playing us off the park and handing us an embarrassing round-of-16 exit. COYS.
Ange Postecoglou
Ange has had a European campaign to forget so far in his career, so he’ll be hoping for a much better account when he debuts in the Europa League this coming season.
This is the best environment for Ange to test his tactics and potential plan B against some of Europe’s better clubs, not the best. Hopefully, he’d have learned his lesson from getting knocked out of the League Cup last season. He’ll take this European journey for what it’s worth and play a severe lineup but still try to integrate a few youth players where possible.
It will be exciting to see how European teams compete against Ange-ball.
It’s fair to say that we should have some legendary European away days this season, with the minimum being four and hopefully 8 in total, all the way to Europa League glory in Bilbao.
