Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
So which is it? You first said they are not robots, and that they have feelings, which is why they're allowed a day off to go and cry about their international failure. Then you are basically saying that they are robots, and all you have to do is switch them on and feed them money and they go and play, and motivation doesn't come into it.

Second point is bang on though. We're not good enough because we are weak. Not every week, but too many weaks on too many weeks.
Basically, you cannot treat them like robots even though the demands of professionalism insist that you do and despite the fact that you know you shouldn't, in any case. So long as they get rewarded well enough, this is not a problem, except, as you say, to those who don't. The supporters who want to win the league, for instance.

I wasn't trying to say we're weak, more that nowadays we want to have different strengths. The Keown/Deeney exchange post-match touched on this; TD boasting that he came on to try to rough us up and Keown replying sadly that, once upon a time, he would have out there waiting for him. And adding that he didn't think this Arsenal team and these Arsenal players had that attitude anymore.

Well, duh ..