Is the Europa League Beneficial to Manchester United and Manchester City?

European competition is set to return this week, but what value is to be placed on the Europa League by both Manchester clubs.

With United and City slugging it out at the top of the Premier League, have they now got another competition in which they must to try and out-do each other?

Or, will they simply use squad rotation and give those that maybe wouldn’t be guaranteed starters a chance to stake a claim? 

For it

The official line from both Sir Alex Ferguson and Roberto Mancini is that the Europa League is still seen as important; they want to go all the way.

Upon elimination from the Champions League, Ferguson, Manchester City's manager, was quoted as saying,  "I think that for Manchester City, [the Europa League] is an important trophy, because we need to win more trophies if possible.

"It is not the Champions League but it will be important."

He then added, "If we can go to the final then I think for Manchester City it will be good.”

While Sir Alex has also been speaking on the benefits of the competition in the lead up to his first ever encounter with Ajax, vowing to “definitely treat it seriously.”

He added, “The great thing about Thursday is we don't have a game next Saturday so I can play my strongest team and will play my strongest team.

“The thing is to look forward to it.

“It's still European football and still a good standard,” he said.

Against it

Both clubs will, no doubt, rue their Champions League exits, with Sir Alex already turning up the heat on Ajax by suggesting that his side could’ve reached a second successive final.

This is in addition to insisting he believes his charges are on the tails on Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The bottom line, though, is that neither manager can be happy at the situation they find themselves in, with a return to the big time next season seeming a mere formality.

While the Europa League is another trophy, we have continued to see it mocked on our shores as, well, a rather pointless exercise—a joke of a competition that none of the ‘big teams’ should concern themselves with.

See the Channel 5 chants for proof.

My question then is this—would you play a full-strength side in the Europa League in the hope of securing another trophy?

Or, would you simply pile all your efforts into beating your rivals to secure the Premier League title?