Stoke City boss Tony Pulis believes that this season’s Europa League has received a much needed dose of glamour with the addition of Manchester United and Manchester City.
The two Manchester clubs joined Dutch heavyweights Ajax in prematurely crashing out of the Champions League in midweek, and with his side currently unbeaten in European competition this season, Pulis’ is eager to face his Premier League counterparts.
Pulis told the Daily Express: “Sir Alex and Roberto [Mancini] will both be desperately disappointed at going out but it makes the Europa League so much more glamorous.
“To have teams like City and United is an amazing prospect for other clubs involved, including ourselves.
“It has traditionally been the poor relation to all the other cup competitions but now I’m sure everybody will be watching it.”
The Welshman shrugged off comments that Stoke’s chances of winning the competition have been deflated after the addition of the dropouts from Europe’s elite tournament.
He added: “I’ve not thought about how much harder this has made it for us. We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got a chance of playing one of them in the last 16.
“Fingers crossed we get a decent draw and a Western European team because we’ve done well more than 10,000 miles already.”