Agreed, however, I fail to believe that if we’d have said to Burnley (or anyone else for that matter) that GKN will cost £5m, we wouldn’t have had a taker. Premier league experience, and definitely worth a punt at that sort of money. He’d have been off the wage bill, and at the very least someone like Georgiou could have had an opportunity. That’s just 1 example. Agree re your point about Janssen and others, and how more time can actually make the situation even worse. Not quite the same situation, but Ive often thought about our stance on players like Lamela. Whilst I like Lamela, part of me wonders whether we’ve dug our heels in by keeping him all this time to save face and prove that he was worth the £30m. Where as the reality is that he’s and ok player, puts in a shift like a work horse, but hasn’t really set the world alight and offered us what we need a player of his type to produce. Not to mention he’s been plagued by injury. £30m is nothing in football these days, but that was a lot when he was signed. He’s been slightly underwhelming IMO. Could we have taken a hit and put it towards someone else? This is something that’s glaringly obvious, for me anyway. There are certain players who are run into the ground because there’s such a gulf in quality between those and their squad replacements who fail to step up when called upon. This is the gap I want us to try and narrow. And that’s what I bang on about when I say improving the squad. Not spending £75 million on players. We aren’t going to be able to do that, but better options are needed to encourage and aid more rotation in certain position. In theory this should therefore reduce fatigue and injuries, whilst keeping everyone on their toes and hopefully in form.
to be fair its from 12 years, any footballer worth his salt would be able to take one. It's about composure and not overthinking it. We had Jorginho (hardly a goalscorer), David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta take our ones. Not sure any of those are trust worthy to strike it from outside the box or are classy finishers.
Genuine question: what's the point of a two-legged semi-final if away goals don't count? This ties into one of my main criticisms of the Season Killer Cup: why the hell do they have a two-legged semi-final at the exact point in the season where the FA Cup is already bloating club's fixture lists as it is?
TBH the league cup semi-final away goal rule has always been rubbish. Prior to this season, away goals only counted after extra time.
I'm beginning to think we will be known as the 21st century Tottenham Hotspur F.C. C.W.S.( Can't win s..t!)
Very good post as usual, Brian, and some very pertinent points made. What I will say is that sometimes a certain demographic of supporters form their perspectives based on what they grew up watching. It can be generational. And it depends on what club you support too obviously. Most Man United fans over the past 30 years have been spoiled rotten with success in pretty much every competition possible. So when you say it is about going to football games and having a laugh, as you have seen, United fans haven't been able to have a laugh precisely because they've not been competing for the league or Champions League, and have lost their sense of direction since Ferguson left 6 years ago. With me personally, I was born in 1995. So when I was a kid, I grew up during Arsenal's glory period where we were winning league titles, FA Cups and competing with the best in Europe. I was very used to that and obviously when things got lean during the move to the Emirates, which coincided with City being taken over by a Gulf state and Chelsea, who were owned by an oligarch for a few years, it made it a hard reality to accept that there was increased competition for silverware that I was so accustomed to Arsenal having. And even though I was a young kid during those title wins, I still remember those moments fairly clearly. Even though I am under no illusions there are thousands of football clubs, and millions of fans, who would love to have just a sliver of the success we've had, I guess it's all relative to what you've been brought up to expect and what you've been used to observing on a regular basis. Relatively speaking, the last 12 years have been quite hard to watch as I've seen my club get richer and seen the performance of the team decline drastically. And even though I believe we are making incremental steps forward, there is still a long way to go before I believe we'll ever come close to competing for a league title again, never mind winning one. That is hard for me to come to terms with. And results like today make it hard to enjoy when your team make the same naive mistakes every game in every season.
It's true in life, not just in football, that what is visited upon you at an early age comes to be what you expect thereafter. It is not always a good thing but as you get older, you realise that time takes everything from you in the end. You can either spend the rest of your time mourning that loss or shrug your shoulders and make the most of what's left to you. I saw my first game in '69. By '73 we'd won 2 League Cups and a UEFA Cup. In '77 we were relegated. By '81 we were back winning stuff again. I guess I learned to enjoy the good times and accept the bad times early on. It's probably stood me in good stead over the years. Arsenal Fan TV's appeal is that it mainly features Gooners who have no coping mechanism for being a bit **** and are angrily searching for someone to make an official complaint to. Gentlemen, welcome to your modern world. It's time to pay for past glories and earn future ones by getting behind the motley collection of insults to past heroes and back your team and club, no matter what. Some time after we appointed 'The Bloke in the Coat', I thought very briefly about packing it in. The football was dire, most of the players were dreadfully poor, Sugar was a dreadful Chairman and it seemed lost for keeps. However, I just let it go and went to games to deal with the pain and shout my bloody lungs out. It's very cathartic. The worse we played, the louder I would get in trying to drive things forward. I recommend shouting.Lots of it. Nothing lasts forever. It's sure to turn eventually.....more's the pity.
Interesting and good post mate. I used to stay with my cousins who lived in wood green on the Spurs side of the street...so I from about 7 I suported spurs. In my first year as a spur in 74-75 we were ****e ... in the second our manager (ex goon) buggered off to manage arsenal and we nearly went down. The following year (where I folowed us on tv emost week) we were relegated. We then scraped promotion on the last day of the following season and in our first season back we lost 5 nil at home to you and 7 nil away to Liverpool. The flowing season it took 3 matches for us to beat non league Altringham in the fa cup. We kept our manager (Keith Burkinshaw) who then won 2 fa cups, a UEFA cup and gave us some great memories. This is what shapes my views about patience and enjoying good football even if there are no trophies.
