Both sides have performed horribly in this season's Premier League, so what does their progression say about the strength of European football?
Last year's Europa League final was contested by two wonderfully well-run clubs. As Gian Piero Gasperini pointed out, the meeting between Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin provided compelling proof that 'smaller' sides could still achieve great things in the money-saturated modern game through hard work, organisation, unity, shrewd signings, a thriving youth sector and a clear footballing philosophy.
What, though, does Wednesday's all-English Europa League final between Tottenham and Manchester United say about the state of the sport? Neither set of supporters are happy with the way in which their club is presently being run, while both teams have performed absolutely atrociously in this season's Premier League.
Consequently, the mere presence of Spurs and United in such a showpiece event has, in the words of Ange Postecoglou, "upset a lot of people" – chief among them Arsene Wenger, who has sparked a major debate over whether the winner of Wednesday's game in Bilbao deserves to qualify for next season's Champions League…
AFP'Something for UEFA to think about'
Wenger basically argued that this season's Europa League final has exposed a flaw in the way in which UEFA's tournaments are now structured.
"The winners should qualify automatically for the Europa League again, but not necessarily for the Champions League," the Frenchman told . "Especially when you're in the Premier League, where already five teams qualify. I think it's something [for UEFA] to think about and to review."
Wenger's stance was supported by two former United players in Gary Neville and Roy Keane. "Every game we watch at the minute we just talk about the money at stake," Neville lamented on . "No one is talking about winning the Europa League to win a trophy.
"The UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup used to be big trophies that clubs could win. Now, the first thing you hear is 'Yeah, you get the Champions League, it’s a £60 million game.' Really great competitions have become devalued."
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Spurs does crazy things to people'
Neville's colleague Keane also flagged the absurdity of the Champions League's very name, given so many of the participants are not titleholders, but, just like his former team-mate's complaint about the devaluing of other cups, this is nothing new.
It's now more than 25 years since UEFA started allowing up to four teams from the same country to compete in the Champions League, while money accrued from continental competitions has been the most distortive force in European football for well over a decade at this stage.
Postecoglou has a point, then, when he says it's a bit ridiculous that the Europa League winner qualifying for the Champions League has suddenly become a talking point. It's been this way since the 2015-16 season and it's worth remembering that Sevilla finished 12th in La Liga when they lifted the trophy two seasons ago and nobody was complaining then.
"It's a debate that's been raging for years, or at least the last eight days," Postecoglou quipped earlier this month. "I've never heard it before, but Spurs does crazy things to people. You put that club into any sentence or any issue and invariably they all come out and try to diminish it as much as they can. It's Spurs, mate, they love it.
"But these are the competition rules. Why wasn't it an issue before and is it an issue now? What's the difference?"
Getty Images SportHistorically poor teams
The reason it's being discussed is, of course, rooted in the fact that United and Spurs are 16th and 17th in the Premier League table, respectively, and there's no denying that it's strange to see two such struggling sides in a Europa League final.
Both teams have been historically poor this season. Spurs have lost a club-record 25 games in all competitions this season, while they've conceded at least one goal in each of past 12 Premier League outings – making this their longest run without a clean sheet for 15 years. United are in an even worse run of form, having gone eight league games without a win for the first time since 1990, and they haven't lost this many games (18) since 1973-74 (20), when they were relegated.
In that sense, United and Spurs are absolutely blessed that the gulf in quality between the Premier League and the Championship is now so wide that we're starting to see the newly-promoted teams go straight back down every season with depressingly low points hauls.
However, while both United (39) and Spurs (38) have failed to hit the 40-point mark previously considered essential for ensuring safety, Postecoglou is right when he says that their league positions are pretty much irrelevant when it comes to Wednesday's meeting.
AFP'I couldn't care less who's struggling'
Form often goes out the window in cup competitions, where the only thing that counts is reaching the next round, and it's hard to fault two teams that finished in the top four of this season's Europa League league phase, thus making life easier for themselves in the knockout stage.
United, of course, have made hard work of it at times – most notably in their sensational come-from-behind win over Lyon in the quarter-finals – but the 7-1 aggregate win over semi-final opponents Athletic Club was undeniably impressive.
Spurs' progress hasn't been quite as spectacular and the north Londoners were rather lucky to run into surprise package Bodo/Glimt in the last four, but they demonstrated impressive resilience in getting that far by winning away to Eintracht Frankfurt – who finished third in this season's Bundesliga – in the quarters.
"We understand our league form hasn't been great," Postecoglou said. "We understand the struggles we've had. A lot of them are because of the situation we've been in [with injuries]. But how does that diminish the achievement of getting to a final? I couldn't care less who's struggling and who's not. I think both us and United have earned the right to be there."
Wenger's argument is that they haven't earned a shot at Champions League football – and one can kind of see his point if we look at their Premier League performances in isolation; there are other clubs that finished far higher up the table more deserving of a seat at Europe's top table next season.