I think what the club needs to look out for is to not be like liverpool. the only place to be, you mentioned that bayern has turned their failure to qualify for CL to a huge change and success, I think what most of us here are scared of is that we become the new liverpool. I agree that 1 year without CL wouldnt be the end of the world, althought i dont believe it would be massively beneficial as you said. People write that players might leave, but only if we fail to qualify again the next season. I dont think key players would leave the first season, but i can see them getting disillusioned by the clubs ambition the second time. Transfers would be effected as this season has proved, we wouldnt have been able to sign hazard if we didnt qualify for CL by winning it, but rather players in the quality of marin.