From the heart.

AlGard

AlGard

UTC Legend
It's tough right now, isn't it?
But here we are in our 5th season at the apex of English football, and to be honest,
we have not disgraced ourselves in any way.

I bet a lot of you have your Fathers, Grandfathers, who supported the club from the year dot.
I know I have. My Grandad was there for the first league game in 1923 at Swindon. He proudly told me that many a time.

We were at the League 3 level till 1970. An unbroken run of 47 years of nothingness.

So, many of us on here have seen every relegation we have ever had, and on the bright side, every promotion. (I am saying anyone born pre 1962 ish will remember it all)

Here we are today, all depressed because we are in the relegation zone of the toughest league in the world.

I expect we all feel different. If we get relegated, to me in the Championship, we are still batting well above our average.

To the new fans (with all their points for tickets) they will feel we are batting below our average.

I will not mourn if we are relegated. I was alive when the impossible happened.
I wish my Father was here to see what we have achieved.

But, let us put it all in to perspective....16 games to go...48 points...Let's fight for every fookin one of them!
 
AlGard said:
It's tough right now, isn't it?
But here we are in our 5th season at the apex of English football, and to be honest,
we have not disgraced ourselves in any way.

I bet a lot of you have your Fathers, Grandfathers, who supported the club from the year dot.
I know I have. My Grandad was there for the first league game in 1923 at Swindon. He proudly told me that many a time.

We were at the League 3 level till 1970. An unbroken run of 47 years of nothingness.

So, many of us on here have seen every relegation we have ever had, and on the bright side, every promotion. (I am saying anyone born pre 1962 ish will remember it all)

Here we are today, all depressed because we are in the relegation zone of the toughest league in the world.

I expect we all feel different. If we get relegated, to me in the Championship, we are still batting well above our average.

To the new fans (with all their points for tickets) they will feel we are batting below our average.

I will not mourn if we are relegated. I was alive when the impossible happened.
I wish my Father was here to see what we have achieved.

But, let us put it all in to perspective....16 games to go...48 points...Let's fight for every fookin one of them!
Click to expand...

Good summary Al. I always thought top half of championship was the place to aim for. We had a special group of players that achieved the impossible and Eddie is trying to replace them with younger players and change playing style but faced with a side decimated by injuries. Tough ask.

Not given up yet though - so not offering my Norwich tickets!
 
Wow .... witnessing it live we were utter rubbish. Watford 2-0 up showed more desire than us and ...... lo and behold they got a third. Thoroughly deserved to win.
 
AlGard said:
It's tough right now, isn't it?
But here we are in our 5th season at the apex of English football, and to be honest,
we have not disgraced ourselves in any way.

I bet a lot of you have your Fathers, Grandfathers, who supported the club from the year dot.
I know I have. My Grandad was there for the first league game in 1923 at Swindon. He proudly told me that many a time.

We were at the League 3 level till 1970. An unbroken run of 47 years of nothingness.

So, many of us on here have seen every relegation we have ever had, and on the bright side, every promotion. (I am saying anyone born pre 1962 ish will remember it all)

Here we are today, all depressed because we are in the relegation zone of the toughest league in the world.

I expect we all feel different. If we get relegated, to me in the Championship, we are still batting well above our average.

To the new fans (with all their points for tickets) they will feel we are batting below our average.

I will not mourn if we are relegated. I was alive when the impossible happened.
I wish my Father was here to see what we have achieved.

But, let us put it all in to perspective....16 games to go...48 points...Let's fight for every fookin one of them!
Click to expand...
Nice one, Al.
 
Al was talking the bigger picture not just today. We were really pleased when we made the cut when Division 4 was created out of the 2 old third divisions. When we were relegated for the first time (Freddie Cox) the news was a small paragraph on the back page of The Echo when Gillingham won away after the end of our season. The Bond era, the Benson era, the Redknapp era when we achieved the impossible (Boscombe don't want to go up) and lots of other era's led us to desperation measures on a New Year's Eve a decade ago. Since then we have ridden a rollercoaster of emotions.

It may all end in the tv and VAR dominated league at the end of this season but I have seen much more success than my Dad ever did. Recent results hurt and all I may end up with in the back of the wardrobe will be a clapper intact with its rubber band and an unrolled tatty flag but I have been to grounds that were a distant "if" in the 3rd round of the cup.

With respect to those on the pitch not just today In think we did our bit over and beyond the traditional Dean Court silence that was the background to our games. We need some old fashioned grit, determination and sleeves rolled up on the pitch to go along with all those big fancy cars in the car park. We are in it for life they are just passing through although many like living around here.
 
AlGard said:
It's tough right now, isn't it?
But here we are in our 5th season at the apex of English football, and to be honest,
we have not disgraced ourselves in any way.

I bet a lot of you have your Fathers, Grandfathers, who supported the club from the year dot.
I know I have. My Grandad was there for the first league game in 1923 at Swindon. He proudly told me that many a time.

We were at the League 3 level till 1970. An unbroken run of 47 years of nothingness.

So, many of us on here have seen every relegation we have ever had, and on the bright side, every promotion. (I am saying anyone born pre 1962 ish will remember it all)

Here we are today, all depressed because we are in the relegation zone of the toughest league in the world.

I expect we all feel different. If we get relegated, to me in the Championship, we are still batting well above our average.

To the new fans (with all their points for tickets) they will feel we are batting below our average.

I will not mourn if we are relegated. I was alive when the impossible happened.
I wish my Father was here to see what we have achieved.

But, let us put it all in to perspective....16 games to go...48 points...Let's fight for every fookin one of them!
Click to expand...
Totally agree Al!

To be honest, I would much rather be fighting a win away to Notts Forest or Derby than be embarrassed at home to Watford!

However, the manner in which we look like were going down I can’t stand and be grateful for! When you see players who over this weekend earned close to the average UK YEARLY salary in 3 days, and can’t do a 10 yard pass or put an extra sprint in!

If anyone can turn this around, it’s the best English manager in this country and we have him!

9am Monday morning - every player should be made to sit in that analysis room and watch the “Minus 17” documentary!

UTCIAD
 
Great post, I only started going in 1982 so not quite experienced it all, but certainly my fair share. You are right about the points still available. Certainly at the moment we seem certain to be relegated but based on performances of the last couple of months. If we can get back to playing the way we are capable of then we we could still comfortably survive, but I am not we can get back to that level in time to save us.
 
I agree with Al. Seen every promotion and relegation. Key issue is sustainability of the club.

A while ago I posted that teams who stay for more than 3 or 4 seasons risk turning into West Brom or Stoke to stay up. The impetus of promotion can maintain positive, attractive football for a time. The energy that teams have when they come up is hard to maintain. So some clubs go through periods of crisis, sack their manager, do ok, repeat. Great to see wolves and Sheffield United doing so well, but it's very early days.

Our transition from team that came up to new team has failed. The newer players are different to those that came up because they were never part of the journey that took players from being cast offs to premier league players. There is nothing to strive for. Players earn more than most could ever imagine and if we go down they will have their agents hawking them around. I don't blame them, it's how it is.

Eddie's challenge was always to build a team to stay in the premier league. Very few managers achieve that. How many managers outside of the established 7 have managed a team for 5 consecutive seasons in the premier league? Probably none?

And the 'top 7' have all had at least one change of manager in the last 5 seasons.

Southampton have been in the PL for 8 seasons and have had 8 managers.
West Ham also for 8 seasons and have had 5 managers, one of them twice.
Palace here for 7 seasons and had 6 managers, plus 2 spells with a caretaker manager.
Leicester here for 6 seasons, 5 managers plus 2 caretaker managers.

Next is us in our 5th season.

So Eddie is an anomaly. A manager that has been supported by the board for 4 and a half seasons. Maybe being a long term (more than 5 seasons?) manager is just not possible any more? That to stay in the PL will require a new manager. Maybe a regular change of manager. Perhaps that's what keeps players on their toes? New manager no longer guarantees a place in the team so players have to show up or ship out. That will cost the club as contracts have to be honoured. Manager and staff paid off.

I know statistics don't prove anything, but it does show that remaining a PL manager for 5 consecutive seasons is a rare thing.

Whatever happens. Whatever the board decide. These 10 years or so have been incredible. Eddie the best manager of all time. Sacking, resignation and/ or relegation won't change that.

And that's a fact.
 
fritter said:
I agree with Al. Seen every promotion and relegation. Key issue is sustainability of the club.

A while ago I posted that teams who stay for more than 3 or 4 seasons risk turning into West Brom or Stoke to stay up. The impetus of promotion can maintain positive, attractive football for a time. The energy that teams have when they come up is hard to maintain. So some clubs go through periods of crisis, sack their manager, do ok, repeat. Great to see wolves and Sheffield United doing so well, but it's very early days.

Our transition from team that came up to new team has failed. The newer players are different to those that came up because they were never part of the journey that took players from being cast offs to premier league players. There is nothing to strive for. Players earn more than most could ever imagine and if we go down they will have their agents hawking them around. I don't blame them, it's how it is.

Eddie's challenge was always to build a team to stay in the premier league. Very few managers achieve that. How many managers outside of the established 7 have managed a team for 5 consecutive seasons in the premier league? Probably none?

And the 'top 7' have all had at least one change of manager in the last 5 seasons.

Southampton have been in the PL for 8 seasons and have had 8 managers.
West Ham also for 8 seasons and have had 5 managers, one of them twice.
Palace here for 7 seasons and had 6 managers, plus 2 spells with a caretaker manager.
Leicester here for 6 seasons, 5 managers plus 2 caretaker managers.

Next is us in our 5th season.

So Eddie is an anomaly. A manager that has been supported by the board for 4 and a half seasons. Maybe being a long term (more than 5 seasons?) manager is just not possible any more? That to stay in the PL will require a new manager. Maybe a regular change of manager. Perhaps that's what keeps players on their toes? New manager no longer guarantees a place in the team so players have to show up or ship out. That will cost the club as contracts have to be honoured. Manager and staff paid off.

I know statistics don't prove anything, but it does show that remaining a PL manager for 5 consecutive seasons is a rare thing.

Whatever happens. Whatever the board decide. These 10 years or so have been incredible. Eddie the best manager of all time. Sacking, resignation and/ or relegation won't change that.

And that's a fact.
Click to expand...

If I could like this post twice I would.

We are not a PL club, we manufactured a very special and unique situation. It was a coming together of a phenomenal manager with the right group of players, some of which was also luck as the players were already here.

The Premier League is relentlessly improving so if you keep a manager that manager has to adapt constantly and quickly and have resources and infrastructure to match. We haven’t done either but to be honest even doing one without the other was unlikely to work.

So there was always going to be a time limit on it, and even had it worked really well Eddie may well have departed for better things. It was always an enjoy it while we can sojourn for me.

There were two things I hoped would happen. Firstly that it wouldn’t end with Eddies reputation tarnished or him leaving and that if we went down we did it with a huge fight. Secondly that it wouldn’t hurt the club financially and we would use the TV money wisely.

The depressing thing for me at the moment is I’m not sure I am going to get either wish on that front. But it can all change in a week!
 
fritter said:
I agree with Al. Seen every promotion and relegation. Key issue is sustainability of the club.

A while ago I posted that teams who stay for more than 3 or 4 seasons risk turning into West Brom or Stoke to stay up. The impetus of promotion can maintain positive, attractive football for a time. The energy that teams have when they come up is hard to maintain. So some clubs go through periods of crisis, sack their manager, do ok, repeat. Great to see wolves and Sheffield United doing so well, but it's very early days.

Our transition from team that came up to new team has failed. The newer players are different to those that came up because they were never part of the journey that took players from being cast offs to premier league players. There is nothing to strive for. Players earn more than most could ever imagine and if we go down they will have their agents hawking them around. I don't blame them, it's how it is.

Eddie's challenge was always to build a team to stay in the premier league. Very few managers achieve that. How many managers outside of the established 7 have managed a team for 5 consecutive seasons in the premier league? Probably none?

And the 'top 7' have all had at least one change of manager in the last 5 seasons.

Southampton have been in the PL for 8 seasons and have had 8 managers.
West Ham also for 8 seasons and have had 5 managers, one of them twice.
Palace here for 7 seasons and had 6 managers, plus 2 spells with a caretaker manager.
Leicester here for 6 seasons, 5 managers plus 2 caretaker managers.

Next is us in our 5th season.

So Eddie is an anomaly. A manager that has been supported by the board for 4 and a half seasons. Maybe being a long term (more than 5 seasons?) manager is just not possible any more? That to stay in the PL will require a new manager. Maybe a regular change of manager. Perhaps that's what keeps players on their toes? New manager no longer guarantees a place in the team so players have to show up or ship out. That will cost the club as contracts have to be honoured. Manager and staff paid off.

I know statistics don't prove anything, but it does show that remaining a PL manager for 5 consecutive seasons is a rare thing.

Whatever happens. Whatever the board decide. These 10 years or so have been incredible. Eddie the best manager of all time. Sacking, resignation and/ or relegation won't change that.

And that's a fact.
Click to expand...


Spot on Fritter.
Whatever we have all said over the last 24 hours, we want to stay in the PL, for all it's faults.
If it doesn't happen, there is no need to be overly sad.
I have enjoyed giving a biff on the nose to some of the big names in this league, as much as I enjoy giving Scunthorpe a stuffing.

I used to come back from weekend leave, and the Liverpool, Chelsea, big club fans would mock that I had travelled to an away game and lost.
We have beaten them all (bar Man City)

If we went down, would we return?
Who knows. but if we were like "boing boing" Baggies, I wouldn't complain.

Apart from their playing style.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;