Everton boss Roberto Martinez admits competing in the Europa League hurt their Premier League campaign this season.

But he insists he would embrace a return to the competition next term.

"Does being in the Europa League affect you in the Premier League? Yes, 100 per cent!" said Martinez.

"But the difficulty is a season with European football after a season with no European football - that's a real change.

"You only have to look at the teams involved and you can see their average points return drops immensely. When you get one injury and you're involved in Europe, that really shows. You become a little bit more exposed.

"And there is no hiding from the fact that when you travel in Europe on Thursday, get home in the early hours of Friday then have an early kick-off on the Sunday, it's a demanding week.

"But we have learned from it and, if you ask me, I don't believe any football person doesn't want to get into Europe. I don't think that's the case at all but it does bring demands you have to go through to cope better in the future."