West Ham to be picked among favourites in next season’s Europa League
West Ham will be back in European action next season despite finishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table thanks to their UEFA Conference League victory in Prague as reported by the Daily Star (9 June).
The Hammers will be drawn alongside some of the competition’s favourites as they find themselves in the top seed.
The winners of the Conference League start in pot one which means the club are likely to avoid many of the biggest threats in the tournament during the group stages.
Villarreal, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, Atalanta and Premier League rivals Liverpool will all join the Irons in pot one. The rest of the teams in the top pot are yet to be confirmed.
Sporting Lisbon and Stade Rennais may still end up in pot one or two, while Real Betis are between pot two and three and Brighton, Freiburg and Toulouse could all end up in pot two, three or four.
With Liverpool, Brighton – who qualified for Europe for the first time in their club’s history this season – and West Ham all in the competition, it makes for an exciting level of representation from English football in Europe next season.
The draw will take place on 1 September with the final set to take place in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 50,000.
European adventure awaits
West Ham will be looking to make it back-to-back European trophies next season and go one better than their last Europa League journey when they reached the semi-finals. The competition will of course be much tougher than the Conference League, especially with the likes of Liverpool lurking and clubs dropping down from the Champions League groups.
However, the club will be full of confidence after their experiences this season and could play another European final next year in front of a capacity twice the size of the one they played in front of in Prague. Many West Ham fans will be ready to make the European trips all over again and be buzzing to get going.
It will be interesting to see how the club balance out the responsibilities this season and whether or not the Europa League will be made a priority. If the club do want to go deep in the competition and compete in the league, they will certainly need some summer reinforcements.