A season like no other

[Scotch]

18 minutes ago, Duquesne Whistle said:

I think it's a group that suits Scotland, if there is such a thing for any team. No problem getting up for the England match and Croatia/Czech Republic aren't the type of teams that tend to dominate matches and take teams apart. Getting Adams to nail his colours to the Scotland mast was a bonus, he adds much more of a goal threat to your squad. McGinn has had a great season and McTominay has been as good as most of the other Man U midfielders.

Add to that, that quite a few of the England players have had stressful endings to the season with their clubs fighting for something until the very last games whilst the Scottish league was over a while ago and I think there's a genuine reason for Scotland fans to be optimistic this time.

The problem Scotland have had for a while is fitting in our best player. 

 

We are absolutely stacked at CM and LB but weak in defence and on the wings so we have been playing a 3412 (very similar to Leicester) with Tierney at LCB and Mctominay at RCB. That seems to work for us as it gives us a back 3 that might only have 1 natural CB (Cooper from Leeds being my choice) but that is very capable of carrying the ball out. 

 

Up front finally looks half decent after convincing Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams to pick us over their home nations, leaving Mcginn and Mcgregor as a midfield behind one of Armstrong, Christie or Fraser (who we use in a free role when he plays). 

 

Robertson as LWB and whoever we can pull of the street at RWB (although the young lad Patterson at Rangers seems promising). 

 

Anyway, apologies for hijacking the thread with a topic that I'm sure none of you give a shite about. 

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

I've watched every game this season, thank god the football kept running. A much needed outlet during some very dark and depressing winter days

I’m the opposite. I found the football at times far too important to my moods. It’s become all encompassing this season - by being the only outlet, it become too much. 
 

It’s seriously at times probably hurt my relationship - it’s been like suffering from addiction 

Edited 24 May 2021 by Cardiff_Fox

[Duquesne Whistle]

12 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

I’m the opposite. I found the football at times far too important to my moods. It’s become all encompassing this season - by being the only outlet, it become too much. 

I've felt the same. I got so wound up during the Palace match that I genuinely had to have a word with myself afterwards. It was ridiculous and seriously unhealthy at my age. On the back of that, I didn't even watch the next two league matches because of the state I'd been in. As it turned out, I missed two terrible performances and probably saved myself from that horrible nervous knot I was getting in my stomach. It had just become too much.

 

I remember having a conversation with my brother just after the title win where he said that he couldn't cope with supporting a team pushing for honours every season as it was just too stressful. Seems an odd statement but I knew exactly what he meant. This season has been great, but very, very tough too.

[Koke]

Supporting a football club as passionately as we do is emotionally draining. Unless you support Real Madrid or Man City who have endless money and win everything.

[Guest Col city fan]

3 minutes ago, Koke said:

Supporting a football club as passionately as we do is emotionally draining. Unless you support Real Madrid or Man City who have endless money and win everything.

I’ve often thought supporting the really successful clubs must actually be quite dull

Regarding addiction, operant conditioning is a real force. The theory that winning at intervals (to keep your interest up) whilst suffering the dejection of ‘losing’ too is what gamblers suffer. It’s epitomised on the fruit machines of course. They are set to give wins at intervals to keep people playing.

Following LCFC must be far more addictive than following Man City or Real Madrid. With the latter clubs must come the attitude of ‘big deal, we’ve won again). When WE lifted the FA cup came real emotion. 

[HighPeakFox]

I think it's fair to say that the past 15 months have been difficult for absolutely everyone, so I offer you all my best wishes today. 

[ARM1968]

42 minutes ago, Koke said:

Supporting a football club as passionately as we do is emotionally draining. Unless you support Real Madrid or Man City who have endless money and win everything.

And literally, where is the fun in that?  Our wins are miraculous and mean so much. Theirs are expectations. 
 

Like being a billionaire - suddenly all those hard earned things are pretty much meaningless, because you can afford whatever you want. 
 

There is something to be said for striving. 

[Guest Col city fan]

3 minutes ago, ARM1968 said:

And literally, where is the fun in that?  Our wins are miraculous and mean so much. Theirs are expectations. 
 

Like being a billionaire - suddenly all those hard earned things are pretty much meaningless, because you can afford whatever you want. 
 

There is something to be said for striving. 

👍

[Bert]

44 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

I’ve often thought supporting the really successful clubs must actually be quite dull

Regarding addiction, operant conditioning is a real force. The theory that winning at intervals (to keep your interest up) whilst suffering the dejection of ‘losing’ too is what gamblers suffer. It’s epitomised on the fruit machines of course. They are set to give wins at intervals to keep people playing.

Following LCFC must be far more addictive than following Man City or Real Madrid. With the latter clubs must come the attitude of ‘big deal, we’ve won again). When WE lifted the FA cup came real emotion. 

In a roundabout way maybe, but not if you’re born and bred into it like majority of Man City fans would be. I feel it would be different for them. But Man Utd, Liverpool etc all they’ve ever been used to is winning. Their fans are used to winning and get the arse when they’re not.  The other difference from us and them is our club is connected really well to the city and the community whereas the majority of the “bigger” clubs are more about the worldwide economics of it all. 

[Guest Col city fan]

1 minute ago, Bert said:

In a roundabout way maybe, but not if you’re born and bred into it like majority of Man City fans would be. I feel it would be different for them. But Man Utd, Liverpool etc all they’ve ever been used to is winning. Their fans are used to winning and get the arse when they’re not.  The other difference from us and them is our club is connected really well to the city and the community whereas the majority of the “bigger” clubs are more about the worldwide economics of it all. 

Good post Bertie boy, but I’d also suggest even those Man City fans who were overjoyed when Dickov got that goal are now probably coming to see success as ‘expected’

👍

Edited 24 May 2021 by Col city fan

[tickler28]

I think had we been in and around 5th/6th/7th/8th all season and then finished 5th add to that the last match of the season was the FA Cup final yesterday and not the league we'd all be on cloud 9 today but we've been in the top 4 all season and lost our last 2 matches after the FA Cup thus throwing away Champions League football....thats whats stinging us all today. In a few weeks/months time we can look back with pride but for me personally today....I'm not happy.

[Bert]

30 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Good post Bertie boy, but I’d also suggest even those Man City fans who were overjoyed when Dickov got that goal are now probably coming to see success as ‘expected’

👍

Maybe so mate, but personally them moments would make me appreciate the times even more. I’d hate the thought of not being able to get excited at winning something. 

[Koke]

Just now, tickler28 said:

I think had we been in and around 5th/6th/7th/8th all season and then finished 5th add to that the last match of the season was the FA Cup final yesterday and not the league we'd all be on cloud 9 today but we've been in the top 4 all season and lost our last 2 matches after the FA Cup thus throwing away Champions League football....thats whats stinging us all today. In a few weeks/months time we can look back with pride but for me personally today....I'm not happy.

 

True. 

 

Liverpool fans are overjoyed today because they started season poorly but finished strongly. Had we been between 3rd-7th all season and finished 5th there wouldn't have been this emotional upheaval. 

[Wolfox]

2 minutes ago, Bert said:

Maybe so mate, but personally them moments would make me appreciate the times even more. I’d hate the thought of not being able to get excited at winning something. 

This is so true…. Do you think Man City fans a couple of weeks back felt a fraction of what we felt in 2016…?

 

I remember my Man Utd supporting mate telling me in 2011 that there season had been a little disappointing!

[HighPeakFox]

Although it might have been less painful had we finished the season better and finished 5th, I'm fairly sure that people would have popped up saying a version of 'if only we'd started the season better/not screwed up over Christmas/not lost so much against the greedy 6' 

[ARM1968]

It’s done. We are where we are. We move forward. Life is full of setbacks and disappointments, we are not defined by them. 
 

Unless you’re Spurs obviously. 

Edited 24 May 2021 by ARM1968

[Ricey]

9 minutes ago, tickler28 said:

I think had we been in and around 5th/6th/7th/8th all season and then finished 5th add to that the last match of the season was the FA Cup final yesterday and not the league we'd all be on cloud 9 today but we've been in the top 4 all season and lost our last 2 matches after the FA Cup thus throwing away Champions League football....thats whats stinging us all today. In a few weeks/months time we can look back with pride but for me personally today....I'm not happy.

Hope is such a weird thing. We are told in life constantly to be optimistic and hopeful, but in football terms it’s quite dangerous and often ends in disappointment.

 

You have to try and enjoy everything for what it is but it’s so hard at times. How can you not dream of Champions League nights when we’ve spent pretty much all of the last two seasons in the top 4 and the media have constantly been telling us we were going to do it.

 

How can you not dream of glory yesterday when we are winning and Chelsea are losing for over 20 minutes and only have 15 more minutes to keep it together.

 

Although I guess it’s the hope that powers the excitement in pre-season. We’ll all feel that excitement in August and it will be the hope that we can improve on last season that will be driving it.

 

[Blue ROI]

4 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Although it might have been less painful had we finished the season better and finished 5th, I'm fairly sure that people would have popped up saying a version of 'if only we'd started the season better/not screwed up over Christmas/not lost so much against the greedy 6' 

You'd have that too but losing out in such an agonising way not once but twice is hugely disappointing.Even more so when it's only happened to us and no one else.

 

It's slightly different to the Man Utd or Liverpool moaning. They will always be there or thereabouts. We might only have a limited shelf life even though we are a brilliant run club. One of the best in the world in any sport.

 

Of course you only have to look at Sunderland and our own progress and be thankful. We're lucky that the bad days of 2001-08 are behind us and look like we wont hit the floor like that for a long time. Still though it's gonna be that bit harder to maintain our progress on the back of those last 15 minutes yesterday

[Guest Col city fan]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

Although it might have been less painful had we finished the season better and finished 5th, I'm fairly sure that people would have popped up saying a version of 'if only we'd started the season better/not screwed up over Christmas/not lost so much against the greedy 6' 

Don’t you just know it

👍

[jimsmallman]

From reading this topic and everyone's replies all it does is underline to me that we all love our football team a lot more than those fans of so-called "huge" teams.

 

The joy of the league win and the FA Cup win and various promotions is only made the more sweet by countless relegations, going bust, and dare I say it, missing out on fourth place a couple of times.

 

It is never dull supporting us.  I hope my son (aged four) doesn't grow up as entitled as so many United and Liverpool fans do because we're no longer the yo-yo club that I started watching in the eighties.

 

I mean, at least convincing him to support us isn't that tricky these days!

[Guest]

Yep I'm more than happy it's over. One thing that this season has made me realise is that football is actually really not very entertaining as a spectacle, which I accept might be an odd point to raise on a football forum. The majority of matches are very dull, every player (with the possible exception of lovely N'Golo) is a shameless cheat, the officials are making it up as they go. It's shit. One of the things that kept coming up in the heady days of the Super League (remember that?) was that they were worried about kids and future generations not being as interested in football any more. Of course they ****ing aren't. I'm sure it was the pinnacle of entertainment half a century ago but now there's so many other ways to spend your free time. Compared to stuff like video games, YouTube, streaming TV and films, football is comparatively much less entertaining, less accessible and more expensive. It can't compete, and their explanation (kids these days, who will sit for hours on end watching their favourite streamer or playing the same game with their friends, just don't have the attention span!) and solution (throw more money at it and make it more shiny!) were typical of an industry run by people who are very very rich but also very very stupid.

 

The entertaining thing about football is the connection, the sense of community, the feeling of being there and being a part of what's happening, all of which has been non-existent for more than a year. I've almost completely lost interest this year, haven't watched the majority of our games, couldn't be arsed with it at all, and then I was lucky enough to be at Wembley and it was probably the best day of my life. 

 

I think we've had a good season, maybe a great one. Fifth and an FA Cup, that'll do me. I am, however, content to put it all right to the back of my mind until next season rolls around. I don't think I've got the stomach to spend my summer reading about how much of a DISGRACE it was that we only finished fifth for the second season in a row, or how Tielemans is definitely leaving because there's no pictures of him in our new kit, or how Rodgers is literally the new Hitler because he doesn't think Praet (did you know he's a Belgian international?) is as good as you think he is.

 

I'm sure next season will feel more like the game we know and love, when we've got fans back into stadiums again, we've signed another shit right winger from the clearance section of Asda and a load of our players have been implicated in some insane sex and/or racism scandal. Until then, can you be arsed?