Rafael Benitez takes over, makes huge changes to the squad and we struggle in the league but win a Cup. This same team is then slowly pushed towards 2nd in the league. Damien Comolli signs a large amount of young/developing players for Spurs. Spurs initially struggle to gel with the likes of Gareth Bale even considered some kind of hex as whenever he plays the team never win- some even think they've gone backwards. This team is then slowly transformed into one of the most attacking teams in the league and even many of those players who left under the new manager have gone on to do well in their own right e.g. KP Boateng, Adel Taarabt etc. Never mind a few who are somewhat highly rated these days... Billy Beane employs his 'moneyball' strategy at the Oakland A's and initially his team struggles- many in the media ridicule him and those who don't understand where he is going claim he is barking up the wrong tree. The A's later go on a record win streak and Beane is offered a record contract by our future owner John Henry. In Man City's 2nd significant transfer window since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group they sign Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tévez and Joleon Lescott- many of whom are considered to be overrated (i particularly dislike Gareth Barry) and yet many of these players have become the spine of the team despite finishing outside the Champions League places that season. They had also had a further 6months to bed in their initial signings. This team has pushed on to challenge for the league title. "Claudio Ranieri had been instructed to reduce the average age of the squad, and worked to rebuild Chelsea in the summer of 2001, essentially creating a brand new midfield by signing Frank Lampard from West Ham United, Emmanuel Petit and Boudewijn Zenden from Barcelona, and Jesper Grønkjær from Ajax. He also signed defender William Gallas from Olympique Marseille, spending in total over £30 million. He was criticised, however, for both selling fan favourite Dennis Wise and the fact that Chelsea's league performance did not improve much on the previous season. They finished 6th once again but did reach the FA Cup Final, losing 2â0 to Arsenal." The next season they secured Champions League football and with Abrahmovic's investment then came 2nd. "The core of the Chelsea team which won two Premier League titles under Mourinho, including John Terry, Petr Čech, Arjen Robben, William Gallas, Claude Makélélé, and Frank Lampard were all brought to Chelsea or nurtured by Ranieri." Again it took a couple of years but the Chelsea squad settled into a winning machine. So... did you really think this season would be that easy? Let's ignore the fact that we were on the edge of the abyss less than 2 years ago, let's ignore plenty of examples from history and expect a huge number of new players to gel straight away despite huge off the pitch controversy, our best player being banned for 1/4 of our games, hitting the woodwork an unprecedented number of times, missing more penalties than we'll miss in probably any season for 10 years, missing our captain for large chunks of the season, seeing our most consistent player- the heart of our midfield- have his season ended before Christmas aaaaaaand witnessing some of the best opposition goalkeeping we'll see for several seasons. Don't let them get to you, the green shoots are there, unfortunately there's just a bit more soil on top right now! Oh and before you start crying and cursing like a pathetic child (yes you Wishi), why not consider that Arsenal have yet to play Stoke and Everton away and Chelsea and City at home, and we have an FA Cup quarter final at home to play for. There's still plenty of football left to enjoy, so maybe do so! Why give up on a season with lots of football left? If you're going to take that approach then cryogenically freeze yourself and i'll wake you up in 2032 when the rules have been changed and each fan is given their own League Title and every one wins all the time right now no waiting thankyou please! Yours faithfully, Skrtel's 'Increasingly Erect' Nipples (ever the optimist and now one time user of irrelevant ROFLMAO)
Great post mate, hope some of the doom merchants read it. Yes, I'm pissed off with recent results, and a couple of recent performances too, but as you say, the green shoots are visible. YNWA.
Roy Hodgson last 17 PL games P17 W6 D4 L7: 22 points - Sacked. Kenny Last 17 PL games P17 W5 D6 L6: 21 points- ? Is this a trend?
Rafa Benitez = Sacked. Juanade Ramos + Damien Comolli = Sacked Mark Hughes = Sacked Claudio Renieri = Sacked
I dont think many people want Kenny Sacked at all, you run the risk of becoming a Chelsea or a Newcastle. He deserves another season to prove himself. To Paulpowers left foot, the quality of the football this season has been far better than it was under Hodgson, although the results are still frustrating. If we could get someone who cah F*cking finish and give us 20 goals a season things would look a hell of a lot better. I Like this post - this season has been frustrating, we've spent too much money on players who are not good enough, but theres far less **** in the squad than ther was 12 months ago. We've won a Cup, not the most prestigious one but how many are there to win, any club would take it! I just want to see us buy 3 quality players and have a good go next season.
I see where you are getting at with the points and get the underlying theme of patience is a virtue, but times have changed and Tottenham, Chelsea, and City are all where we were and we are on the outside looking in. It is going to be much more difficult to break back in and I think we do need to look at players with better quality in general. We can't have too many 5-year projects, we do need some now players to help us break into the CL.
Watchted Portland play Philly last night, great ****ing crowd Portland has, always singing, but the footy itself..... I was asleep at halftime
**** who did I say? Was it LA with a darkhorse of DC? Another one to watch for is Kansas City, good young energetic team and Salt lake showed they are back in business as well. Kris Boyd looked good last night.........................................................................................
You said KC,and im keeping an eye on them because you tipped them. And you forgot you tipped them. Kris Boyd comes from the darkside(ask hash),i hope his season is crap.
Haha, sorry about that, I had almost forgot MLS started! They barely show the games here! 1 game Saturday night a week and 1 game a month on ESPN, hard to keep up with it when you have the prem, la liga, bundesliga, serie a, my coaching I have all going on Ya, Sporting KC and they have an awesome new stadium as well. Sapong is a player to watch for with them. NY got off to a shaky start as well. As for Boyd, well, I did more in my 45 minutes laying in my bed than he did on the field. The only thing worthwhile he did in that first half was nut some colombian
Anyway, back on topic, I thought we should have never got rid of Rafa in the first place. I thought after all he gave us, all he had been through, he should have had a chance to work with the new owners and given a fresh clean slate, or a chance to show that 1 season was a one-off. I think we would also be talking of a Banega-Lucas partnership right now if we had him still.
Keep of the beer Bluff its clearly giving you memory loss. Your point about boyd does'nt surprise me.
