After being turfed out of the FA Cup yesterday, Saints fans now need to put their prejudices aside and back the top clubs to win the cups.

Saints ultimate aim this season now is realistically a European place, there is a great chance for that being the Champions League, but if we are overhauled then we still want to qualify for the Europa League.

Therefore to give us more chance of ending the season with a place in Europe we need the top clubs to win the Capital One Cup and the FA Cup.

In the Capital One Cup the Europa League spot does not go the runner up if the winner has qualified for the Champions League or indeed the Europa League by league position, therefore we can only root for one winner out of the four teams in the semi's and that is Chelsea, if the Blues win the competition they are virtually assured o's a Champions League spot and that means that the Europa League spot will revert back to the Premier League, that will man that the club in sixth spot would get it.

In the FA Cup its more complicated in that the loser gets the spot as we found out to our benefit in 2003, that being the case its hard to predict what team we want to win it, but truth is that if two out of three from Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool contest the final then on current standings assuming West Ham can't sustain their form then that could help us.

Personally I will it very difficult to cheer on the likes of Chelsea and Man Ute, but if the ultimate result is that it helps Saints get into the Europa League then I will grit my teeth.

On a final note before some get on and indignantly ell me that it won't be a problem and that we will finish in the top four so it doesn't matter, of course ideally this will happen however history tells us (Not just ours but that of the Premier itself) that it is more likely we will not be in the top four than in it come the end of the season, so I am just putting forward what "Could" be vital o us at the end of the season rather than being negative.

Photo: Action Images

ClickInsect added 17:57 - Jan 25 Europa league would be an absolute disaster for us. No time on the training pitch, it's all travel and recovery & the competition doesn't pay anywhere near enough to cover the squad needed. Every club that qualifies for Europa nose dives the next season, pretty much without exception. I want Liverpool, Utd & Arsenal to say in the cups as long as possible so that they have to play enough matches that they lose the advantage over us of having twice as many senior first team pros. We need to be fit, fresh and having clear week's to work while they are travelling, recovering and picking up injuries and fatigue.

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A1079 added 20:25 - Jan 25 Champions league or nothing for me. Europa league is a nightmare for clubs unless you have big enough squads to cope with it. Though we have surprised many by being where we are in the league this far in the season, I agree with you Saintnick that it will be difficult to stay there until the very end. We are going to have to be on top of our game every week. The difficult games will be when we face sides fighting against relegation. But, we have defied many so far, so lets hope it will continue to the end.

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BoondockSaint added 22:34 - Jan 25 Heartily agree with the above. We need the teams below us to stay in the competitions to wear their teams out. Anyone lusting after Europa, just look at Everton-it's just an anchor around their neck! lWhile Europa may attract some players, they are either not good enough for Champions League teams, or sign with you hoping they can make a big splash in the Prem and attract the attention of Champions League teams. RIght now Europa League is mutton dressed as lamb-which may fool broadcasters into throwing money at it, but the clubs and fans know it's still mutton. If FIFA wants to make Europa meaningful, make it for under-21s, or only native born players.

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GeordieSaint added 17:38 - Jan 26 If spurs or liverpool win the uefa cup they would get a champions league spot. Does this mean that if that happened and the same team finished 4th would the 5th place team get champions league?
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