Mauricio Pochettino has insisted that Chelsea need to “accept and respect” the Europa Conference League if they qualify for the competition next season.
The Blues are facing the prospect of missing out on European football for the second consecutive season and currently find themselves in the bottom half of the league with 11 games left to play but are still in the FA Cup.
Winning the FA Cup would see the Blues rewarded with Europa League football and the competition is perhaps the club’s best route back into European football next season.
Qualifying for the Europa Conference League is still a possibility this season and despite there being reports that from an economic point of view and with Uefa restrictions it wouldn’t make huge sense for the club to take part in it Pochettino insisted the competition must be treated with respect.
When asked in his pre match press conference about his thoughts on potentially qualifying for the competition the Argentine said: “If we qualify for the Conference League, we need to accept and respect the competition and go to try to win the competition.”
“Of course. But we need to accept the reality. I am not going to say nothing, it is an international competition.”
The Blues will be doing all they can in the remainder of the season to make sure they aren’t playing in Europe’s third tier competition but if they do end up playing it would represent a chance to win a trophy the club has never won.
