romufc
Full Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2019
- Messages
- 13,307
Perfect post.What a load of nonsense.
Just because a load of you have bought into “the top 4 cup” narrative , doesn’t mean the rest of us are as myopic.
If we had squeezed into 4th would you have enjoyed the season more than winning the FA cup like that ? Beating pool and City like that? Probably being the team that begun the implosion of Klopps final season ?
Lots of clubs get and need luck along the way to cup wins. You mustn’t of been around for our 99 season, but even at that there’s many times you can point to where a team just gets bundles of luck along the way to a cup.
I’d argue this “we need to be 4th/3rd” directive is such small time thinking. Of course we want to get back to the top of the league, but the only reason people value anything other than 1st/2nd is the champions league spots. The Europa gets you that spot and even next season if English teams do better in Europe , 5th will get a spot.
Some of the last 2 seasons under ETH, as bad as it’s been at times , there have been near unforgettable moments that have probably been some of the most satisfying wins since SAF left.
Thats what the sport is about when you clearly aren’t the best club, competing with clubs like Chelsea and city who spend more or Liverpool/arsenal who spend better and have had owners who clearly didn’t have a competent way of running things.
Standards aren’t simply “that was awful , needs to go”, some of you confuse “I think hes a chancer” with “after objective review of all the variables , he is not the right man”. I don’t know what exactly INEOs process was or why they ultimately decided to retain him, but I’m reasonably confident it wasn’t mostly cause of fan sentiment and not just down to the FA cup win.
On the balance of probability, they did think a lot of the things ETH couldn’t control , injuries, player dramas and club dysfunction (including sale) did make it hard for him to the point that while the season was unacceptable, it was more likely an anomaly , rather then a reflection of what he can or will do.
I’d rather an FA cup or Europa cup win every year over “look we finish 4th”. Even “look we finished 2nd , 15 points off 1st” doesn’t do anything for me. Unless we are properly challenging for a league, I’d take an FA or Europa cup. Im not saying I don’t want to see us make progress in the league , I’m saying that for where we have been the last 11 years , a cup is better then the top 4 boring Woodward/glazer target.
I dont know where this play good football and finish top 4 is what we should judge the manager on has come from.
Numerous times we have won trophies being lucky, you need luck to win anything, even a league title. I am in the same boat as you, if we are not competing for the league or CL title, I rather win the FA cup.
The modern day fan is all about top 4 and have written of other trophies, even if we win it its lucky so it shouldn't count.