1. Finish sixth and lose the FA cup final, ...

or,

2. Finish eighth and win the FA cup?

Finish 17th and win the fa cup

17th and win it.

2. Win the FA Cup

Number 2 FA Cup duhhhh obv's has the same outcome regarding Europe lol infact probably better as surely we would go straight to Europa League not qualifiers....

Win the FA cup - wherever we finish - I'd take relegation to win a major trophy.

Bullabill wrote:1. Finish sixth and lose the FA cup final, ...

or,

2. Finish eighth and win the FA cup?

I don't understand the significance of the distinction - bar the obvious £3M or so for the difference in placing. FA Cup every time for me either way

I'd take relegation in exchange for an FA cup win.

Absolute no brainer from Bullabill there. Clearly didn't think it through.

Win the FA Cup,it would be an achievement to get to the final in the first place.

houseboy wrote:Win the FA cup - wherever we finish - I'd take relegation to win a major trophy.

I wouldn't go that far,but i'd happily sacrifice a few PL places for an FA cup,that will always be in our history should we win it,and in 30-40 years fans could reminisce with the younger generation,as good as our PL adventure has been it's not going to be talked about in the decades to come,whereas silverware is forever.

Tread Warily wrote:Win the FA Cup,it would be an achievement to get to the final in the first place.

One step at a time! With our recent record it’d be an achievement to get beyond the 4th round. Avoiding Man City would be a start.

Sorry, I didn't give enough indication of my thinking. It was about entry into European comp. and which is the more meritorious route. Sixth in the league would reflect hard work and consistency over the full season whilst a good, lucky run in the cup would get us there too with a trophy as well.
I'd go for sixth.

martin_p wrote:One step at a time! With our recent record it’d be an achievement to get beyond the 4th round. Avoiding Man City would be a start.

Draws haven't helped in the past couple of years,our best chance of mounting a cup run was when we crashed out to Lincoln,however even if we'd have won that tie the journey would probably have ended at the Emirates in the qf.

Depending on our league placing come the new year,we should have a strong enough squad to at least attempt to progress through the earlier rounds,again it's down to the luck of the draw,but surely we can't face Man City so early 3 years on the bounce.

I know that you hear some Wigan fans saying that they would not swap their FA Cup win to have stayed in the Premier League but I’m not sure how genuine this really is or whether that’s the view of the majority.
For me it feels like some of our fans have started to take where we are for granted a little. We have seen Burnley come up against and compete (even beat) some of the best players and teams in the world - and we have also seen some brilliant players in a claret shirt.
We all have our fans favourites like Blake, Little, Steve Davis (leave it !), Sir David Eyres and even going back to the likes of Roger Eli, Conroy and further back to the 70s. In reality most of these would never get anywhere near the current squad but it’s all relative and context to where we were at the time.
As Burnley fans most of make them best of what you have - so if that’s trying to make the play offs in the old 4th division you make the best of it because it’s better than being in mid table - even though the players we are supporting we know weren’t great !

I know we had 2 great seasons in the championship under SD - and they were very enjoyable but if we think back to the times under Laws, Howe, Cotterill and last 2 or 3 years under Stan they were rarely good times - finishing near the bottom of the championship, shipping goals and being forced to sell our best players every transfer window. I can’t imagine what this message board would be like if we were back having seasons like these - let alone what we saw in the 1980s.

So yes winning the FA Cup would be great but it’s 6 or so games compared to potentially years of misery ! When Wigan dropped to the old 3rd division recently I’m not sure when they were getting beat at home by Southend in front of 3,000 fans on a freezing Tuesday night that they were all having great banter about the FA Cup final

Win the FA Cup

Finish first and win the FA Cup

TVC15 wrote:I know that you hear some Wigan fans saying that they would not swap their FA Cup win to have stayed in the Premier League but I’m not sure how genuine this really is or whether that’s the view of the majority.
For me it feels like some of our fans have started to take where we are for granted a little. We have seen Burnley come up against and compete (even beat) some of the best players and teams in the world - and we have also seen some brilliant players in a claret shirt.
We all have our fans favourites like Blake, Little, Steve Davis (leave it !), Sir David Eyres and even going back to the likes of Roger Eli, Conroy and further back to the 70s. In reality most of these would never get anywhere near the current squad but it’s all relative and context to where we were at the time.
As Burnley fans most of make them best of what you have - so if that’s trying to make the play offs in the old 4th division you make the best of it because it’s better than being in mid table - even though the players we are supporting we know weren’t great !

I know we had 2 great seasons in the championship under SD - and they were very enjoyable but if we think back to the times under Laws, Howe, Cotterill and last 2 or 3 years under Stan they were rarely good times - finishing near the bottom of the championship, shipping goals and being forced to sell our best players every transfer window. I can’t imagine what this message board would be like if we were back having seasons like these - let alone what we saw in the 1980s.

So yes winning the FA Cup would be great but it’s 6 or so games compared to potentially years of misery ! When Wigan dropped to the old 3rd division recently I’m not sure when they were getting beat at home by Southend in front of 3,000 fans on a freezing Tuesday night that they were all having great banter about the FA Cup final

Apart from the 7th placed finish because it got us in Europe I honestly couldn't tell you what positions we have finished in the Premier league. We stayed up that's as far as I take it.

But I know the year we won the FA CUP, even though I wasn't born.

TVC15 wrote:I know that you hear some Wigan fans saying that they would not swap their FA Cup win to have stayed in the Premier League but I’m not sure how genuine this really is or whether that’s the view of the majority.
For me it feels like some of our fans have started to take where we are for granted a little. We have seen Burnley come up against and compete (even beat) some of the best players and teams in the world - and we have also seen some brilliant players in a claret shirt.
We all have our fans favourites like Blake, Little, Steve Davis (leave it !), Sir David Eyres and even going back to the likes of Roger Eli, Conroy and further back to the 70s. In reality most of these would never get anywhere near the current squad but it’s all relative and context to where we were at the time.
As Burnley fans most of make them best of what you have - so if that’s trying to make the play offs in the old 4th division you make the best of it because it’s better than being in mid table - even though the players we are supporting we know weren’t great !

I know we had 2 great seasons in the championship under SD - and they were very enjoyable but if we think back to the times under Laws, Howe, Cotterill and last 2 or 3 years under Stan they were rarely good times - finishing near the bottom of the championship, shipping goals and being forced to sell our best players every transfer window. I can’t imagine what this message board would be like if we were back having seasons like these - let alone what we saw in the 1980s.

So yes winning the FA Cup would be great but it’s 6 or so games compared to potentially years of misery ! When Wigan dropped to the old 3rd division recently I’m not sure when they were getting beat at home by Southend in front of 3,000 fans on a freezing Tuesday night that they were all having great banter about the FA Cup final

I get your point but for a club the size of Burnley and for the prudent approach we are (sensibly) taking then it is highly likely we will fall out of this league in the next 4 or 5 years anyhow.

For me Id rather win the FA Cup at the cost of dropping out the Prem League a few years earlier. If the question was would you take the FA Cup and relegation against 20 seasons of continued Prem League football then that might be a more interesting discussion

tiger76 wrote:I wouldn't go that far,but i'd happily sacrifice a few PL places for an FA cup,that will always be in our history should we win it,and in 30-40 years fans could reminisce with the younger generation,as good as our PL adventure has been it's not going to be talked about in the decades to come,whereas silverware is forever.

Obviously I wouldn't want relegation but I think I would take it if it meant winning the cup. It's a trophy (and still a major one at that - just about) so in the interest of actually winning things I think on balance I would take it. As you say people will talk about it in 40/50 years time or more whereas our stay in the PL, however long that be, would be just another phase in the club's existence. If the stay wasn't that long then the cup win would be good anyway, if the stay was much longer (and assuming we are not going to win it unless the money situation changes massively) in the future people will say in passing, 'oh remember that time we were in the PL'. Anyway there may not need to be a choice because if Dyche keeps up his love affair with cups anything beyond the 3rd round would be an achievement.

Devils_Advocate wrote:I get your point but for a club the size of Burnley and for the prudent approach we are (sensibly) taking then it is highly likely we will fall out of this league in the next 4 or 5 years anyhow.

For me Id rather win the FA Cup at the cost of dropping out the Prem League a few years earlier. If the question was would you take the FA Cup and relegation against 20 seasons of continued Prem League football then that might be a more interesting discussion

I generally agree with this but if it was winning the cup or spending 20 years annually struggling for survival I think on balance I'd take the cup win.

I would enjoy a good cup run but what I really, really want is to stay and compete well in the PL.

I'd take being knocked out of the FA Cup at the 3rd round stage every season, provided we remain in the Premier League. Seems Sean Dyche shares that philosophy.....

TVC15 wrote:I know that you hear some Wigan fans saying that they would not swap their FA Cup win to have stayed in the Premier League but I’m not sure how genuine this really is or whether that’s the view of the majority.
For me it feels like some of our fans have started to take where we are for granted a little. We have seen Burnley come up against and compete (even beat) some of the best players and teams in the world - and we have also seen some brilliant players in a claret shirt.
We all have our fans favourites like Blake, Little, Steve Davis (leave it !), Sir David Eyres and even going back to the likes of Roger Eli, Conroy and further back to the 70s. In reality most of these would never get anywhere near the current squad but it’s all relative and context to where we were at the time.
As Burnley fans most of make them best of what you have - so if that’s trying to make the play offs in the old 4th division you make the best of it because it’s better than being in mid table - even though the players we are supporting we know weren’t great !

I know we had 2 great seasons in the championship under SD - and they were very enjoyable but if we think back to the times under Laws, Howe, Cotterill and last 2 or 3 years under Stan they were rarely good times - finishing near the bottom of the championship, shipping goals and being forced to sell our best players every transfer window. I can’t imagine what this message board would be like if we were back having seasons like these - let alone what we saw in the 1980s.

So yes winning the FA Cup would be great but it’s 6 or so games compared to potentially years of misery ! When Wigan dropped to the old 3rd division recently I’m not sure when they were getting beat at home by Southend in front of 3,000 fans on a freezing Tuesday night that they were all having great banter about the FA Cup final

Nice post but not sure about your appraisal of the managers you mentioned. I'll give you Laws who was a dreadful appointment and I thought so at the time of signing him, but there were some decent times under the others and even Judas got us promoted to the PL. Howe was a good manager and has proved to be so at Bournemouth as well.
Also there is no reason to think that relegation would be a disaster for us, we are far better run and in much better shape financially than the clubs who have dropped through the divisions after relegation. Wigan was an odd one because to the best of my knowledge they still had money but I think they had a succession of dodgy managers.

Tread Warily wrote:Win the FA Cup,it would be an achievement to get to the final in the first place.

Lets be honest, on past performances, it'll be an achievement to get to the fifth round


Edit: Sorry martin_p didn't see your post

Herts Clarets wrote:I'd take being knocked out of the FA Cup at the 3rd round stage every season, provided we remain in the Premier League. Seems Sean Dyche shares that philosophy.....

Genuine question and no sarcasm or irony intended whatsoever but what is it with this 'PL at all costs' attitude that many Clarets have? Surely football as in all sport is about winning or at least being the best you can be. Okay PL membership is an achievement of sorts but it isn't actually winning anything. Okay I understand about the money but that isn't the be-all-and-end-all of football (although it seems like it is these days). I really don't see the point (genuinely) of having tons of money in the bank when that money is never enough for us to compete in a genuine title challenge and all we ever want at the start of a season is to stay where we are, never moving forward. The way I see it is the best we can do is 7th (realistically) which we have already done and then half the people on here moaned about having to play in Europe because 'it might cost us our PL place'.

I suppose I am baffled because I don't see our club as the Bank of Burnley FC so my interest in that side is, I admit, scant. Football isn't about who has the most money (although with many fans countrywide you could be forgiven for thinking it is) but it appears that many clubs are happy bubbling along being fairly mediocre as long as the bucks are rolling in.

This post is not to start a major row it is simply asking why people think the way they do - either way.

I read the opening post and forgot that we hadn't already been knocked out. Chichester City (h) in Round 3, please, this year. The reserves shouldn't have a problem with them, although gone are the days when Chichester's fortunes depended entirely on the student term time calendar.

I'd like us to win a league and cup double.
Though I appreciate that this may have to wait until next season.

Redbeard wrote:I'd like us to win a league and cup double.
Though I appreciate that this may have to wait until next season.

What? Championship title and league cup? You're setting your sights a little low.

Prem and FA Cup.

To be followed of course by stunning Champs League success.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Apart from the 7th placed finish because it got us in Europe I honestly couldn't tell you what positions we have finished in the Premier league. We stayed up that's as far as I take it.

But I know the year we won the FA CUP, even though I wasn't born.

Yes most fans know when we won the FA Cup but it’s not about remembering exactly what where we finished in the league it’s reaching the league and the memorable games - of which there has been many.
A lot of fans will remember individual games with great memories - and also everything that comes with The Premier League. The money, the increased profile for the club and the town, seeing the stadium full, the fantastic pitch and unbelievable training ground....etc etc - all possible because we are in this league. We employ more people than ever now.
I know that doesn’t replace the feeling of winning and I am not saying that I would not want to win the FA Cup. But my preference is to stay in this league and see the quality of players in a burnley shirt than we have in the last few years.

TVC15 wrote:Yes most fans know when we won the FA Cup but it’s not about remembering exactly what where we finished in the league it’s reaching the league and the memorable games - of which there has been many.
A lot of fans will remember individual games with great memories - and also everything that comes with The Premier League. The money, the increased profile for the club and the town, seeing the stadium full, the fantastic pitch and unbelievable training ground....etc etc - all possible because we are in this league. We employ more people than ever now.
I know that doesn’t replace the feeling of winning and I am not saying that I would not want to win the FA Cup. But my preference is to stay in this league and see the quality of players in a burnley shirt than we have in the last few years.

spot on regards the pitch I take it for granted now....

houseboy wrote:Nice post but not sure about your appraisal of the managers you mentioned. I'll give you Laws who was a dreadful appointment and I thought so at the time of signing him, but there were some decent times under the others and even Judas got us promoted to the PL. Howe was a good manager and has proved to be so at Bournemouth as well.
Also there is no reason to think that relegation would be a disaster for us, we are far better run and in much better shape financially than the clubs who have dropped through the divisions after relegation. Wigan was an odd one because to the best of my knowledge they still had money but I think they had a succession of dodgy managers.

I didn’t mention Coyle on purpose - as much as I don’t like him he gave the fans a couple of the best seasons we have ever had.
Howe did well for us with players he brought in for sure. But our record under him was not great at all - not a memorable period for me personally in terms of stand out games / memorable victories etc
Cotterill did a great job in steadying the ship and the mess we were in - and he also brought in some very good players.
Of course Stan got us promoted and there was lots of memorable players and victories under him and a couple of exciting pushes for the play offs in the Championship which was something that we had not got anywhere near for years.

But most of the above was a time when we had little money and finished in the bottom half of the championship or worse....as per my last post look at what the sustained period in the Premier League has brought for us. On the crowds we get alone other than that period under Coyle we spent many of those years getting half the crowd we get now.

It’s not all roses by a long way but think it’s easy to forget just how far we have come in the last 7 years under SD. And I’ve always said it will end - but if that means we can put up a good fight to go back up that’s great aswell as we have not spent many times in the last 40 years competing at the top of the Championship either !

Herts Clarets wrote:I'd take being knocked out of the FA Cup at the 3rd round stage every season, provided we remain in the Premier League. Seems Sean Dyche shares that philosophy.....

Sums up everything that's wrong with modern football. You don't think things will get a bit tedious if our only aim as a club is to get to 40 points and survive every year?

TVC15 wrote:I didn’t mention Coyle on purpose - as much as I don’t like him he gave the fans a couple of the best seasons we have ever had.
Howe did well for us with players he brought in for sure. But our record under him was not great at all - not a memorable period for me personally in terms of stand out games / memorable victories etc
Cotterill did a great job in steadying the ship and the mess we were in - and he also brought in some very good players.
Of course Stan got us promoted and there was lots of memorable players and victories under him and a couple of exciting pushes for the play offs in the Championship which was something that we had not got anywhere near for years.

But most of the above was a time when we had little money and finished in the bottom half of the championship or worse....as per my last post look at what the sustained period in the Premier League has brought for us. On the crowds we get alone other than that period under Coyle we spent many of those years getting half the crowd we get now.

It’s not all roses by a long way but think it’s easy to forget just how far we have come in the last 7 years under SD. And I’ve always said it will end - but if that means we can put up a good fight to go back up that’s great aswell as we have not spent many times in the last 40 years competing at the top of the Championship either !

You make valid points and all true, but the talk in our what's app group for the next away game is hoping for a good lower league side away in the FA cup. Not any of these premier league games coming up

A few are going to Spurs for the stadium. Nobody says they are looking forward to the game.

Fans crave excitement not the norm.

Quickenthetempo wrote:You make valid points and all true, but the talk in our what's app group for the next away game is hoping for a good lower league side away in the FA cup. Not any of these premier league games coming up

A few are going to Spurs for the stadium. Nobody says they are looking forward to the game.

Fans crave excitement not the norm.

Talk in our group is about how well we played against West Ham and getting the tickets sorted for Spurs when they go on sale this Saturday. We are all looking forward to it.

If there was as much apathy as you are suggesting and so much excitement for the FA Cup i don’t hear it and it’s not reflected in the crowds we get for both competitions either.

All that said personally an exiting draw in the 3rd round is something that I always look forward to and I’d love a good cup run - and it doesn’t need to be at the expense of the league...I’d play our best team in both

Cup games are always up against it as you have to pay again.

Season tickets make sure people go to league games.

Spurs is a new ground though, which are always popular. I feel like theres definitely been a drop off in the interest for away games in the last year or so. I reckon the numbers would back that up. We probably won't even sell out at City or United this season I bet.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Cup games are always up against it as you have to pay again.

Season tickets make sure people go to league games.

Given our cup showings under Dyche can't really blame people for not bothering.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Cup games are always up against it as you have to pay again.

Season tickets make sure people go to league games.

Discounted prices for cups which equate to around the price we were paying for league games 20 years ago. And even putting aside our dismal run in the cups under Dyche when was the last time we got decent crowds in any of the cups ?
Under Coyle later on in the league cup we did - but in the early round v Fulham I remember the crowd being pretty pitiful...and then we had a big crowd v Arsenal (novelty as we weren’t used to playing many games v big clubs).

One of the reasons we got a big crowd when we drew the likes of Liverpool in the cup was because the fans were craving games against the big clubs and they would put out a strong side. Now we draw a big club in the cup and both teams rest players and fans aren’t that interested. The cups are just not what they used to be - which is a big shame. And an even bigger shame is that invariably the final and semi finals still end up being mostly the bigger teams which just means their reserve sides are better than the likes of ours and other smaller clubs reserve teams.

I'd trade relegation for an FA Cup win. But I'd trade hardly anything for 'losing finalist', and absolutely nothing for 'losing semi-finalist'.

That's the thing - it's a bit all-or-nothing, the FA Cup.

Yeah, go on, then. Let's go for it.

I understand why the league is more important. The prize money for finishing a position higher is likely more than it is worth winning the cup.

But I think it would be reasonable to see a compromise when it comes to cup team selection. If we aren't going to rotate players in the league then we are better of making as most 5 or 6 changes in the cup rather than 10 so we at least have some spine to our team and don't look like an outfit plugged together in a celebrity charity match.

On the topic of sacrificing relegation (that actually wasn't even mentioned in the OP)! Can you imagine our chances of coming back up after losing premier league money AND having to pay for a squad big enough for the Europa League? Now that is a way to cement our chances of returning to mediocrity.

You mainly sound like the sort of branless berks that would trade their house for a night on he town...and spent the next 20 years under a cardboard box with the rest of the deadbeats, meths drinkers and general losers....it took 30 years to restore the true Lancashire order....youd throw that away overnight..?

Simpletons.

17th and win it.

Relegation with a cup would at least give us memories, but both Birmingham and Wigan did that and its safe to say they are not going to be bothering the prem anytime soon.

Sad to say, just staying in the prem is worth more to us as a club than a cup.

From the choices, easy. 2.

But that's a massive difference between opting for a cup win for relegation, with a chance we disappear down the divisions. Can't get my head around that one.

Winning a game in the cup would be a change.

tiger76 wrote:I wouldn't go that far,but i'd happily sacrifice a few PL places for an FA cup,that will always be in our history should we win it,and in 30-40 years fans could reminisce with the younger generation,as good as our PL adventure has been it's not going to be talked about in the decades to come,whereas silverware is forever.

I'm going with we've been in Premier League continuously for 30-40 and we won the FA Cup in 1914 and 2022 (and a few finals and semi-finals). Fantastic.

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