Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
I said this the other day. When we were a safe top four club and winning no cups people were complaining about the lack of cups. Then we got some cups and now people are saying they are worthless. What really matters is the top four spot that was never ok when we were getting it.
Nobody ever said top four wasnt important. Of course it was, and it was an achievement during the skint days. THe issue was that people felt we were capable of doing better but that the club wasnt fussed- that fourth was all they cared about.

This is where the rot set in, the point at which our performance on the pitch was geared almost solely towards our needs off it. We didnt NEED to win the league, we needed to finish fourth and everyone was happy and relieved every time we did. Once we had more money I am afraid the rot was still there, the environment where ok was good enough proved too hard to shift. All it was ever going to. Take was clubs like Liverpool and Spurs getting their act together. For a good few years we scraped by because one or both of them were **** and then United went ****, Chelsea went**** for a season etc etc.

Once they all came good we got dumped into fifth with a points total better than many in previous years that had proved good enough for third or even second. We have resolutely stood still for so long