Fulham captain Danny Murphy talks about the Premier and Europa League after returning for his second season as a Eurosport-Yahoo! blogger.
"Going to Lithuania for the Europa League game with Fulham was a really good experience, everybody in the squad looked forward to it and it was the first reward that we had for such a fantastic finish last season.
It was the first leg of what will be a great adventure in Europe, and one which everyone involved in the club from the players, to the supporters and the staff is looking forward.
On a personal level, it felt great to be back in European competition. Obviously I have had lots of experience playing in Europe and over the last couple of years I have missed that significantly.
I vividly remember playing in Europe and the great memories, some of the wonderful places and stadiums that I experienced, so hopefully I will be able to repeat that this year with us qualifying for the group stages.
If we manage to do that we will get drawn against some good teams and there will be some big challenges ahead, so everyone is very excited about the Eurpoean adventure and hoping we do well.
One of the aims for the new season is to progress in the competition, even though we know it is going to be more challenging with the amount of games ahead, and of course we will have to strengthen the squad to prepare.
I think we need to strengthen for two reasons: one is that all the other clubs move forward and we need to keep up; and secondly, to cater for the European games. If we do well in Europe then we will be adding six to 10 games on to an already tough season.
In an ideal world we would want to strengthen in each area of the pitch, with a defender, midfielder and striker. The manager is actively looking to do that before the new season. I'm sure we will see some new additions, which is always going to help and of course it will create competition for places that always improves performances.
I personally get as excited as I always have about the new season. You start looking forward to certain fixtures, seeing when you are going to play the big teams or in the big stadiums where you like playing.
After such a great season last term, everyone is excited. We are confident and we have every reason to believe we can do well again.
In terms of talking of a higher place finish in the Premier League, I don't think that's overly realistic. We have to be cautious of being over-confident and thinking we can just go out and get results, because every club you look at now is spending money and trying to improve.
A top-half finish is probably more realistic and something that is still a challenge in the Premier League these days. Last year was a wonderful season and to get somewhere near that again would be brilliant. We will be looking to have another excellent and progressive season.