From the heart.

Neil Dawson said:
...
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.
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I've been pondering about this sort of stuff for about a year or so since observing the near complete change in teams like Watford since they came up with us.

I wonder if the battling just to tread water for a 14th place is just psychologically draining and the constant churn of managers and players isn't because they are "relentlessly improving" but it's just to get more meat into the grinder, give the staff and fans a little lift. There is for the first time a real ceiling on what we can achieve in the league.

Neil Dawson said:
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!
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If I wasn't so lazy I'd dig up a post I made years ago about us only being an injury crisis away from free-fall down the leagues and potentially going bust if we didn't make any investment in infrastructure. It's looking worrying likely now.
 
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!
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A great sense of perspective Al. Hadn't occurred to me that I have also lived through every relegation and promotion. Ultimately it's the law of gravity - what goes up must come down. But we will continue to live with the hope that we might go up again. Heck even Liverpool haven't won the league for 30 (yes thirty) years! I only wish, if we are to go down, that we do so playing the carefree swashbuckling football that we have largely been privileged to witness over the last few years (current season excepted), not the sterile, fearful incarnation we have seemingly turned into.
 
Kudos said:
since observing the near complete change in teams like Watford since they came up with us.
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I think I heard this right before the game.....us and Watford were just two points difference across the PL seasons together since we were both promoted. Very different ways of doing things but have resulted in near identical results overall.
 
Some great comments on this thread. I arrived properly around 1982 as a supporter and have seen plenty of good and bad seasons. In theory, if we had to play in the Championship again, there are worse things that can happen. Its a great division.
I would want us to have a go at getting back up again though, maybe a bit like Norwich, who keep playing good football.
My main issue with going down would be those people who would gleefully celebrate the downfall of us and Eddie.
 
davygravy said:
Some great comments on this thread. I arrived properly around 1982 as a supporter and have seen plenty of good and bad seasons. In theory, if we had to play in the Championship again, there are worse things that can happen. Its a great division.
I would want us to have a go at getting back up again though, maybe a bit like Norwich, who keep playing good football.
My main issue with going down would be those people who would gleefully celebrate the downfall of us and Eddie.
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Probably only Minty!
We all have a great sense of pride as to what has been achieved in the past decade.
It's been a great ride.
I have always been critical, probably from the first day I ever went to a game, but that is because I care.

Chin up!
It ain't over by a long chalk.
There is the ability in that team to finish above 3 others.
 
What I will say, is that despite how horrible a team we've been these last few months...we're not actually adrift yet, we're only two points off safety. We're now playing the two teams that are just barely better than us.

Maybe...with Ake and Smith fitter, maybe with EH finally having learnt from these games, we might just get two very important wins :utc:
 
...passion and commitment is something that as fans is something none of us lose for our club.

I first attended in August 1969 when my father took me to Dean Court to witness a 0-1 defeat to a Malcolm MacDonald goal...this lit the fuse and the following season under John Bond we thrilled the old fourth division with our attacking style and returned to the third with Super Mac netting 49 goals that season...my god we had a superb team for the next year and a bit...narrowly missing out on promotion to division two in the days of two points for a win...smitten the journey has been one of despair...joy...and wonder, but NEVER dull or boring (okay there was the Hartley spell and the infamous Benson era)...fastest forward to now and in a universe far far removed from what football was (and I would have rather we had made it to the old First Division that this PL place!)...we sit on the almost lowest rung of The PL ladder awaiting a possible fate of going 'down' to The Championship where the best times had been had before...I know that I am trying to paint a picture of happiness (when everyone knows that being in The PL is The Holy Grail for a club like us) if we drop...but perspective is a great healer IMO and in all honesty we can't be like Everton,Liverpool,Man United or City,Arsenal,Chelsea or Tottenham...we are morelike a Reading...Wigan....or Swansea and from small beginnings became a loiterer at the top table just sitting there until the rest say go on clear the dishes and return to the kitchen!
 
AlGard said:
Probably only Minty!
We all have a great sense of pride as to what has been achieved in the past decade.
It's been a great ride.
I have always been critical, probably from the first day I ever went to a game, but that is because I care.

Chin up!
It ain't over by a long chalk.
There is the ability in that team to finish above 3 others.
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I really hope you’re right
 
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