bluetonium
Well-Known Member
It's a funny old game, isn't it? A few weeks ago we were debating whether it was right to allow pep to oversee a possible team rebuild and whether his hear is in it.
Turns out some people are always 100% or nothing and we already had enough quality and personality to take back the league. Things we probably knew already but got our knickers in a twist over. Thankfully nobody actually at the club panicked :)
Something's changed though with pep too, to be fair. He's now taking about a longer career, no more early retirement. Something's got him focused on the long term and I can only hope that again it's with us for a bit longer. Not just the tactics or the style, but the standards we hold to each and every opponent, the accountability and willingness to help each other, speak to a true team environment and club ethos that is lived daily.
Only worry now for me is, as pep says, how we react when we do lose, and how we keep the whole team happy and together - realistically that will mean someone always misses out,be it walker, stones, gundogan, de Bruyne, jesus, bernardo.... But the way they accept it now, knowing they will be needed and still have a job to do for he team even on the bench, is again a huge credit to them and the whole staff.
Also I can see pep deciding his next challenge is to see if he can actually do it with inferior players so decides he has to go to the lower divisions to show it. And he'd probably succeed. And Lee Dixon would still find a way to belittle his achievements, because he didn't do it blindfolded riding a moped backwards whilst juggling flaming knives.
Turns out some people are always 100% or nothing and we already had enough quality and personality to take back the league. Things we probably knew already but got our knickers in a twist over. Thankfully nobody actually at the club panicked :)
Something's changed though with pep too, to be fair. He's now taking about a longer career, no more early retirement. Something's got him focused on the long term and I can only hope that again it's with us for a bit longer. Not just the tactics or the style, but the standards we hold to each and every opponent, the accountability and willingness to help each other, speak to a true team environment and club ethos that is lived daily.
Only worry now for me is, as pep says, how we react when we do lose, and how we keep the whole team happy and together - realistically that will mean someone always misses out,be it walker, stones, gundogan, de Bruyne, jesus, bernardo.... But the way they accept it now, knowing they will be needed and still have a job to do for he team even on the bench, is again a huge credit to them and the whole staff.
Also I can see pep deciding his next challenge is to see if he can actually do it with inferior players so decides he has to go to the lower divisions to show it. And he'd probably succeed. And Lee Dixon would still find a way to belittle his achievements, because he didn't do it blindfolded riding a moped backwards whilst juggling flaming knives.