Officials from Swansea, Wigan and Estoril Praia speak after the Europa League draw on Friday (August 30th) in Monaco.
Jonathan Jackson, Wigan Chief Executive“We’ve got three days until the transfer window closes and we intend to keep our best players and the squad we’ve got intact. I can’t predict what will happen over the next three days. We’ve had no offers for our best players and hopefully that will remain. We intend to keep them so we can mount a strong challenge in the Championship and in Europe.”
Alun Cowie, Swansea general manager (On how the Europa League effected Liverpool‘s campaign last season)“Well I’d like to suffer like Liverpool and finish seventh. I know for a club like Liverpool maybe that wasn’t good enough, but we’d love to finish seventh. I don’t think the Europa League has lost any of its glamour, if anything it’s increasing in glamour. We keep banging on about the point – we’ve got Valencia and they don’t come much bigger then that. There’s some big teams in that pot one. Tottenham Hotspur they’ve got a fantastic tradition in the Premier League and in Europe. There’s some great competitions and it really is a worthy competition to sit along side the Champions League. Michael (Laudrup, Swansea manager) likes cups and we’re taking it seriously.”
Tiago Ribeiro, Estoril Praia President (On the lack of big name teams in the Europa League)“I think football has changed and lots of new teams are appearing. Teams like us are owned by foreigners, we’re a Brazilian company, we brought this team back to the top division and now the Europa League. Of course sometimes there’s a nostalgic feeling to see some big teams in trouble, but maybe in a few years Estoril will be one of those traditional teams.”
