DD said:There's pros and cons to this.
On the yes side, we need to get our European co-efficient up, give the lads more experience and it's a trophy to aim for.
On the no side there is a very good chance it will cost us league points, and maybe the points that makes the difference between winning it or not.
I will always maintain that, had we beat Sporting last season, then we wouldn't have won all of our last six games and won the league as a result. We'll never know, but I believe the team will have been meddled with and we'd have dropped more points.
For that reason only, we may be better off without it. Another nine games is just too much.
Its too much for a trophy with such limited prestige. We'd be better focusing on the FA Cup. Fewer games, less travelling, weekends apart from replays, similar prestige.
I find it difficult to get too worked up about ranking points when we're struggling to beat Pot 4 teams. Why put the league title at risk for the sake of a Pot 2 ranking rather Pot 3 ?