City Raider
Well-Known Member
Do I have to?
This for me. The memory of Pep arriving and us blowing everyone out of the water early season(remember the first 45minutes at Old Scaffold?)seems distant now.4/10
If we finish top 4.
It's the end of an era of underachievement. An era that could have been one of domination, if those who knew nothing about football had let those who did get on with it.
The real sad thing is that these periods of domination only happen perhaps once in a fan's lifetime. Ours was diluted and eventually removed by those jokers from Spain and an obsession with the concepts of all things Barcelona.
A classic example of a bird in the hand if you ever needed one.
Some spoilt ungrateful sods on here.
There was a time we would have an open top bleeding bus having a season like this.
Agree but we have moved on since those days and still find ourselves under performing, simply frustrating.
We have to win our remaining games now starting with a thumping win against the rags and look forward to next season.
There will be no thumping win against the rags and no massive clear out this summer.
Transitional season that many, myself included, wrote off early on. I expect little when we have to rely on Gael fucking Clichy or the like to try to adapt to Pep's game. Was always going to take time for the best of players, but for some it's just pointless.
Worth a 7/10 if we make third, based on some good performances, some historic results, and having to make do with an unbelievably shallow squad coupled with bent officials.
We have a lot of players out of contract this summer, so yes, there will be a massive clear out.
We regularly play 5 players who were with the club in 2011-2012. No other squad in the top six, or top eight even, even comes close to this. They've all undergone major refreshes under the direction and guidance of new coaches. Pep deserves the opportunity to fully do the same and the club will be backing him to a hilt to do so. We should do the same.
I don't care who leaves. I care who is coming. Do you really believe we will be able to fill all -- or even half -- of the holes we will have with players who are markedly better? In a hyper-competitive environment? Based on what? It isn't about whether the club or we back him -- it's about whether it's actually realistic to expect the players we need/want to come. Our experiences with ter Stegen and Laporte aren't anomalies -- they're normality. We will get two of who we really need/want and the rest will be plan B or C (god knows none of them will be from the Academy). That's not enough IMO.
Past is prologue I believe.
Like you I predicted we'd be fourth this year. I thought we'd be eighth at Xmas, then get better as the system took hold.