You are only in that loop because you've put yourself in it. Getting out of it is in your own hands. Choose!
Yes, I doubt it's anything to do with a drop in physical condition, much more likely to be psychological. I am very sceptical about the value of sunshine breaks for the same reason. I was pleased to hear that Newcastle have jetted off to the sun, but if we have as well ...........
Is it a cultural thing? We have a predominantly british squad and have had for the main part through our history of Xmas underachievement. At least in the PL era a number of teams have had a much more foreign balance to their squads and may be there is a greater professionalism or at least a lesser predisposition to excess that we brits have. Otherwise it could be that little friendly club attitude, coupled with a "well we arn't going to win anything anyway, pint please squire". Bah!
I guess the first requirement is some serious statistical research to establish whether these kinds of impressionistic beliefs are actually true. In general I think psychological factors remain seriously underestimated and neglected compared to the huge amount of effort and resources put into physical conditioning and monitoring.
Vietnam, I am staggered by your comment about being tired of the endless in-out debates, particularly as it was you if memory serves who actually started the whole thing off. I appreciate that you cannot be blamed for what ha shappened since but you never so far held back by sticking the boot in whenever possible. Unbelieveable!
Yes, I'd like to see a good performance against Newcastle and a win against Cardiff as proof that our team has 'turned a corner' for the time being at least. I really don't see CH being replaced before the end of the season and looking at the other teams who have made managerial changes, the only one which seems to have benefited has been Palace.
I think the 2 teams that have benefited from changing the manager are Sunderland and Palace. However, Sunderland clearly needed to get rid of Di Canio and Palace didn't sack Holloway so of the other teams near the bottom I can't see any obvious improvement. Fulham look good, then look bad, then look good. Far to inconsistent to really make a judgement. Cardiff have gone from being a few places above the drop zone to bottom so they clearly aren't going in the right direction. And WBA are pretty much exactly where they were before Clark left. I guess Spurs have benefited from the managerial change but they have 100's of millions of pounds worth of talent and weren't exactly struggling before that. All in all there doesn't seem to be clear evidence that changing a manger improves your team, or makes it worse. Don't see why anyone would want the manager changed at this point in the season when all it will cause is disruption.
Oh no Swedish, I am going way back here, back to the very first Houghton out thread - can't remember exactly when but months ago!
Yeah I knew the thread you meant. I can't remember the exact date but it roughly coincided with the start of the season!
I'm sure some of us have have worked out or gone out for a run the morning after a night out, once you get your head round accepting the first five or so minutes won't be enjoyable it's actually quite manageable providing it's quite routine without much stopping and starting, I'm of the opinion you can sort of 'sweat out a hangover' so to speak but doing something that involves technical skills or concentration is a totally different story though.
