you use the *kool-aid* reference a few times above. That is a commonly used American term (for the type of brand-named soda drink that Jim Jones poisoned his cult with in French Guyana). The term is rarely known by non-americans. Hence, are you American? Nothing wrong with being American. One can find a decent one, given enough time. But I do like to know who I am debating the club with.
You talk about under performance. Name me one other club that has finished these past 10 years, nearly always in the top 4, on a net annual budget of approx 17 million pounds. Go on, try. And two CL finals thrown in to boot. And an FA Cup. Go on. Name one other premiership club. You can't.
It is not so much we under-performed (we didn't). Instead, we have been overtaken because of others throwing hundreds of millions at the title. How could any sane business-man compete with the madness at Chelsea and Man Utd (and now Man City)? Would you prefer we did a Leeds United? Take on massive debts, on the hope that we could keep the financial house of cards afloat by having never-ending success.
Would you run your houehold that way? Would your wife be happy to see you buy a massive mansion, and a new BMW each year, plus go on endless foreign holidays - all on ever mounting vast sums of debt? Perhaps you could keep up the façade for a while. Perhaps your job earnings might pay off the interest for a while. But sooner or later that house of cards will come crashing down. Your scheme would be one of madness.
No, I much prefer sanity. I prefer to spend what I can afford. I prefer to build a bastion of invincibility, not a sand-hill of plastic nothingness, that will blow away with the first breezes of autumn.
We have got rid of two carpet-bagging, lying buggers. We have essentially no debt. We have a fantastic base now to build upon.
We HAD a fantastic manager - who you bizarrely think played *hoof-ball*. Goodness knows what you'd make of someone like Sam Allardyce. Rafa was the best since Paisley IMHO. The very best managers (the elite) have the perfect balance between defence and attack. Rafa was the king of that. I loved watching his teams. Take it from me, you will most likely never again see a week where we hammer both Man Utd and Real Madrid, 4-1, playing them both off the park. Rafa did that.
I am very optimistic re the future. Kenny has galavanised the club. Who knows if he can take us to the required level. But I think he has to be given the opportunity across the next year or two, to try.
Given the fact that Hicks and Gillett, and their mountain of debt, have been kicked out of the club......and given that we have turned our season around, and given the superb lads we bought in January, and given that Kenny has been awesome, how in under goodness can you - and Martin Sheen - be so bleeding negative?
No I am not American! I was born in england, have always lived in england, but from Greek and Guyanese Descent! I find the Kool-Aid term particularly pertinent to what I was saying.
Name me another club, in the last 10 years, that has had the opportunities we've had to insert ourselves into a title race, only to blow it? I can only name one and that is Arsenal after 2005. I am talking about domestic performance not european performance, which I know has been amazing for us, but in this debate I am speaking about our domestic record. You talk about net spend, but are you trying to tell me that Rafa's record in the transfer market is better than 50%? Because if you are, then sadly you are wrong. Rafa bought some great and good players, but also some shocking players too. I agree other clubs had better resources for transfer funds, but Rafa did spend. What was his record like in the domestic cups after 2006 btw? Exactly.
In the premier league in the last 10 years I honestly do believe we under-performed in certain situations. We could have been 10 points ahead of manure in March 2009, after they came back from the world title championships, but oh no we blew it against the likes of boro and particularly the 2 draws at home against Fulham and West Ham. The opportunity was there and we blew it. By the time Rafa realised this and allowed less grip on the players and just went for it, it was too late as we were playing catch up.
In 2007/8 season we were in the title hunt in the winter, and a win at Reading would have put us in a great position, but Rafa didn't prioritise that instead putting his effort into the CL. We lost to Reading and lost a great opportunity.
In 2006/7 at the start of the season we should have built from our first 2 seasons under Rafa and really go for the title. We had a better team than the Mancs and we were competing nicely with Chelsea, but again Rafa decided to not strengthen in certain areas and prioritised CL over the premier league. We had opportunities to gain ground in the title race, but by November we were out of it because Rafa wanted the CL.
So yes for me we did under perform. Certainly in 2006/7 2007/8 we under performed greatly and in 2008/9 we let a great position slip. So I don't buy your argument.
I prefer sanity and I prefer for us to be self sufficient as well. We are in a great position in that respect.
I said GH played Hoof-ball. Rafa at times played the long game too, it wasn't until the torres-gerrard partnership that we really changed our system. Rafa was not better than Fagan or Dalglish and I laugh at you utterly mentioning Rafa in the same sentence to Paisley. Paisley allowed his players to play and allowed his players to have the freedom to play football. Rafa did not. Fagan won the treble in his first year and Dalglish created our finest footballing team in history in terms of footballing performance in 87-88 so you are extremely wrong saying Rafa is our best manager since Paisley. He's our best manager since Dalglish.
