Do you suppose he can touch his own skinless pecker with the tip of his nose?
I beg to differ! It is acutely relevant to this discussion.
There are five 'major' trophies up for grabs each season: UCL, EPL, FAC, UEL and FLC - in that order of importance.
In the last three years We have won two and so have United, Liverpool and Spuds have won **** all. Only The two mega bucks boys have won more than us and we have also qualified for the UCL each year which only City have have also done. We are definitely not in the halycon days of the early Wenger Years, but it aint that ****!
:titles:
But - other than in a long-term historical sense - it doesn't represent progress, does it? Indeed, over the course of Wenger's career, it represents the reverse. Clinging onto top four 'status' by our fingernails would hardly be a cause for celebration - that's what we were doing a few seasons ago when we were skint. :shrug:
You can compare it to something like Coventry's run in the First Division/Premier League. Only Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal played in the top flight for everyone of the 34 seasons that they did. Hugely impressive but basically they were just hanging on for years and when they did go down, they were ****ed
Yes, you are right. We have not achieved what we could all progress in recent years. But progress would require us to improve from an already commendable level of achievement and consistency, which is certainly something to celebrate (albeit not with an open top bus parade).
I agree. The "everything is rubbish" schtick is just Monty being a drama queen. Nobody is saying that at all, not even him.
The discussion is, we want to be better, we are not yet where we want to be; is Wenger still the man to get us there.
Nobody imagined we'd need players from Real Madrid and Barcelona just so we could win a few more FA cups.
:hehe: I used to have to run a conference at the Ricoh Arena. This took place in what was laughingly called 'The Legends Lounge', which was lined with pictures of Coventry...errr...'greats'. This meant speaking from the lectern, one had a bloody great picture of Burrows in one's line of sight. :-(
Well you say it's just a game, but it's also a business, isn't it? It employs a bunch of people whose incomes and even jobs may be threatened should it start to enter a period of serious decline. So we may think 'It's just a game', but the people who run the club may not.
Well, quite. For the shareholders it is a serious matter and they are entitled to ask whatever questions they deem appropriate.
The rest of us are just watching a bunch of lads kick an inflated sphere about. It's nothing to get excited about.
I'm wearing my pragmatic head today.
Oh, I agree. As you know, I'm even less likely than you to get myself excited about it. However, I just felt Monty's tone a tad misplaced and felt the need to pull him up on it.
Is it Decline and Fall again tonight? It's on at the same time as the Saxon violence thing, I think.
I'm not sure, I've got it set to record. glw out tonight, so I need to decide which lump of meat I'm going to experiment with. So far I have Komadoed a leg of lamb (slow roast with smoke) and some fat rib-eyes (seared then finished over indirect heat.) Both results have been marvellous. (The steaks might have benefitted from 30 seconds less cooking.) Perhaps I should try some pigflesh.
As AWIMB conclusively proved in a lengthy discussion the other week, it's more than a business or leisure activity. Passion. Pwide. Love.
And getting mad and letting off steam is what football was invented for anyway. As an outlet for 19th century workers forced into grinding poverty having had not only their surplus value but their very lives and souls sucked out of them by unrestrained, vampiric capitalism. Great days.
I don't think supporter expectation should matter in an ideal world.
I think those questions would be asked by the incumbent himself, who is likely to be best placed to ask and answer them (while has has the desire to do so) given he knows the club and his players better than anyone on earth.