peewee wrote:3 seasons without a trophy, yes he certainly has b!tch slapped us all across the face, especially the people who gave him unconditional support, he has really repaid that faith by winning us nothing yet again.
if we lose the title by six points, is that considered close? I am not sure. If we play next season the way we have proven we can play then we have a chance next season, if we adopt the same stance next season by setting up to not lose then expect the same result, close but no cigar.
So come the end of today the chances are one of our records will be equalled, to be honest I am not too fussed about that anymore, I am more concerned about our lack of success than the mancs success. If we don't win it next season after 6 years with him at the helm and with the millions spent is it acceptable?
Hopefully next season he will concentrate on the football and not the politics, hopefully next season the only point he will have to prove is on the pitch and not in the boardroom or the press.
This club is bigger than any one man, it always has been and always will be, he has a long way to go to match shankly, paisley, fagan and dalglish yet some people rank him up there with those, one champions league and one FA cup in 5 years, do me a favour, he will get legend status when he deserves it, not when we are 6 points behind the leaders having lost two less games than them, not after another pot less season.
Lets not be suckered in by the past couple of months, we do this every season only to revert to type the following year, blowing the league with dire performances against dire opposition.
cue the rose tinted brigade now with their usual abuse.
3........2............1.............Go
I agree with much of what you say here Peewee. That said, for my part I think it's probably time to move onto some new ground.
Your certainly right about the lack of trophies, or indeed any near misses. We've made a great fist of a title challenge this season, but we've been nowhere near in any of the other competitions. From memory it's been the same for three seasons, and even in the league it's been the Mancs to win or lose for quite some time now.
Equally I know where you are coming from with the unconditional support thing. When you look at the arguments which have dominated the forum over the last few years, it's fairly clear that those who have been the most vociferous were actually incorrect. Rotation Rafa style, whether we should be more attacking etc have all pretty much been proven categorically on one side of the argument. Just like it would be utterly ridiculous to deny we have improved a lot, especially recently, it would be similar to deny that the "pro's" as far as rotaion was concerned were a mile off, or that we WERE being too defensive as many of us were suggesting.
It seems only fair to include Dirk Kuyt as well, as I'm perfectly happy to hold my hands up and say I was wrong about him and how well he has managed to run around at right midfield.
All that said though, the arguments on most of those scores are surely over now. Surely there isn't anybody left who thinks that changing the team 75 times in the first 15 matches is necessarily the best way to go, nor are there too many people who think anymore that results like drawing at Home with Hull can't potentially cost you the title.
Rafa himself has said that he has changed the team much less this season, and although I haven't read about him saying we are playing more attacking, you'd have to be a numpty not to see we are.
Given all of that, I simply cannot see why he would regress into his old ways next season. There is absolutely no reason for him to do that, so I don't think he will.
I think he'll continue as he is, and I think we will go close again. I'm just saying that if we give it a good go but don't quite make it, we shouldn't give up on him now he's got the hang of it.
Like I say though, the odd semi final or trophy or something wouldn't go amiss, I do agree with that.