We as fans have been truly spoilt over the last decade, I’m sure every man and his dog would agree.
Pep is clearly one of us, he’s bought into the project, defended us against the press and made us the envy of every other fan - hence the bitterness in the press.
I can completely accept this season as a write off (as long as top 4 is achieved).
If Pep wants to be overly loyal to players who’ve achieved so much with us - then so be it. If Pep is being very stubborn to his footballing philosophy that won us 4 titles on the bounce - go for it mate.
Guardiola isn’t an idiot, he’s the greatest tactical mind the games every seen. We’ve seen the media reports how stressed he’s getting, he’s looking like a broken man and will have huge weight of expectation on his shoulders so I do feel for him.
My issue with this run and potentially season is I’d have marked this as a ‘transition’ season. Would it really have harmed our chances further to see what nico or wright could produce holding as dm with energy? Would mcatee instead of nunes on the wing made us less fluid? Simpson Pusey at the back could have slotted in as a rb or cb and made us more solid than a lewis or nunes again.
My gripe is purely I’d have liked to have seen this as a chance to blood the unknown players, the players that have been elite throughout the youth teams, star players in the junior England setup. I just can’t fathom how we haven’t utilised this slightly more - especially when you see palmer, Lavia and Delap flying atm.
Now saying that, Lewis is a young lad and seems to be near universally ridiculed atm so maybe my youth theory is a naive assessment.
Anyway, Pep you’ve given me the best years of my life foootball wise. For his sake rather than us spoilt fans I want him to turn this round and show the world he’s still the best manager we’ve ever seen.
Nail on the head. We're having a transitional season without a transition. Plenty of us are sanguine about what's happening regardless due to the results under Pep, and we all knew a drop off was coming sooner or later, but it would be a lot easier to accept a top 4 battle if we had the bones of the next generation all growing and learning together.