Coppell 'will play reserves' in Uefa Cup - Independent Online Edition > Premiership

Links (2)

Steve Coppell to Field Reserves in UEFA Cup
Published 5/2/2007 by The Gaffer at EPL Talk
... If Reading qualifies for the UEFA Cup, Steve Coppell will play reserves in the tournament. And he isn't joking. Coppell knows where his bread is buttered and the lure of the money that can be made in the Premiership far outweighs the TV rights from the UEFA Cup and the thought of travelling across Eastern Europe on a cold Thursday night to play football.

The UEFA Cup Is Not Important, Even Hurtful, To Premiership Teams?
Published 5/6/2007 by CaughtOffside Team at CaughtOffside.com
... . There s also a reasonable case to be made, as Reading boss Steve Coppell has , that competing in the UEFA Cup brings relatively minimal gains while actively hurting your chances of doing well in domestic competitions. Tottenham are still well placed to finish 5th or 6th this season, but their squad has been stretched by playing nearly twice as many games this season as last. The financial rewards don t balance the demands put on your team. Everton have done well with a very thin squad this year, using the same 14 or 15 players each week. Even with summer investment will they have the depth in quality to compete in whole new cup competition and maintain, let alone improve, on their Premiership and domestic cup performance? Without the UEFA Cup matches, Spurs may have been able to compete properly for the last of those Champions League spots rather than fighting to get back to where they finished last