Call me crazy....I don't care

[tickler28]

If we finish where we are in the league right now this season and don't go anywhere in the cups....yes it would be disappointing but c'est la vie.....we can just reset, regroup, add players to the squad we need and get rid of those who don't want to be here or are deadwood....it wouldn't be the end of the world.....its football. Not every season can you expect to finish top 6 and win a trophy....loads of teams would be desperate to have achieved what we have in the past 7 years. We've been spoilt and one duff season doesn't mean we can't improve next year with players back and have a similar season to 2019/20 or 2020/21.

 

I know that we could still turn this season round but if we don't let's not all act like spoilt brats about it....fair play to West Ham at giving it a go but don't forget they had season upon season of fighting relegation battles and a toxic atmosphere at the London Stadium.

 

Sit back and enjoy the ride but be grateful for what we've achieved in recent years and could go on to achieve again....don't be bitter and come across entitled like the big 6 supporters.

 

LTID

Edited 8 November 2021 by tickler28

[TiffToff88]

Mods, I think @tickler28 has been hacked. He's actually been reasonably balanced and sensible recently!

[Babylon]

It's not crazy, that's the life of a club our size. On our budgets you will have ups and downs, blimey clubs far bigger than us have. 

[BenTheFox]

Just now, tickler28 said:

If we finish where we are in the league right now this season and don't go anywhere in the cups....yes it would be disappointing but c'est la vie.....we can just reset, regroup, add players to the squad we need and get rid of those who don't want to be here or are deadwood....it wouldn't be the end of the world.....its football. Not every season can you expect to finish top 6 and win a trophy....loads of teams would be desperate to have achieved what we have in the past 7 years. We've been spoilt and one duff season doesn't mean we can't improve next year with players back and have a similar season to 2019/20 or 2020/21.

 

I know that we could still turn this season round but if we don't let's not all act like spoilt brats about it....fair play to West Ham at giving it a go but don't forget they had season upon season of fighting relegation battles and a toxic atmosphere at the London Stadium.

 

Sit back and enjoy the ride but be grateful for what we've achieved in recent years and could go on to achieve again....don't be bitter and over entitled like the big 6 supporters.

 

LTID

I don't really disagree with you that it's not the end of the world if we have an average season. I can understand people's disappointments if this squad were to finish 12th because we have more quality than that. 

[foxinsocks]

2 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

I don't really disagree with you that it's not the end of the world if we have an average season. I can understand people's disappointments if this squad were to finish 12th because we have more quality than that. 

Bad for retention and recruitment.

I can feel youri slipping away...

[indierich06]

I don't much mind where we finish in the league (as long as we're not relegated of course) or whether we win silverware, it's more the performances that are getting my goat.

[BenTheFox]

1 minute ago, foxinsocks said:

Bad for retention and recruitment.

I can feel youri slipping away...

I can see Youri leaving if we don't qualify for the champions league, which is something we won't do. Finishing 6th and qualifying for the Europa League again won't be enough to keep hold of him in my opinion. 

[K1FOX]

We're only 8 points off West ham in 3rd, 7 off the top 4 and 2 points off Man united in 6th. We're also in the league cup QF again Europa league qualification is still in our own hands with two games to go. 

 

A large proportion of our fan base seriously think we should win every game - That was a good hard fought away point yesterday. 

[foxinsocks]

1 minute ago, BenTheFox said:

I can see Youri leaving if we don't qualify for the champions league, which is something we won't do. Finishing 6th and qualifying for the Europa League again won't be enough to keep hold of him in my opinion. 

Agree.  Yet, I am grateful for the time he has played for us.  The fa cup he delivered.  We wont be his last club for sure.

[tickler28]

Anyone holding on to any type of hope that Youri signs a new contract when we're as close to top 4 as we are relegation needs to give their heads a serious wobble. In my mind he's gone already. We have to just try and get as much for him as we possibly can. If we lose players like Chilwell, Maguire and Drinkwater to bigger clubs we got no chance holding on to Youri. Just reality.

[turtmcfly]

3 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

Bad for retention and recruitment.

I can feel youri slipping away...

 

Whereas I can see Youri, every time we come up against any team with an ounce of hussle, looking distinctly at home here.

 

 

[Tommy G]

West Ham arguably the same size club, are better than us and have been for 12 months. All well and good regrouping, but we will likely lose Tielemans in the window, Vardy is another year older and so is Evans. I think a club of our resource shoud be in and around the top 6 at all times.

 

It's not we should ''win every game'' at all, be we can be consistently poor against clubs we should bury, on paper much better etc etc. Is it a mentality thing? I don't know. 

 

Anyone who wants to settle for less likely settles for less in their own lives, or standards etc. If you let that mentality creep in you'll be a Burnley/Brighton/Villa/Palace before you know it. 

[filbertway]

14 minutes ago, K1FOX said:

We're only 8 points off West ham in 3rd, 7 off the top 4 and 2 points off Man united in 6th. We're also in the league cup QF again Europa league qualification is still in our own hands with two games to go. 

 

A large proportion of our fan base seriously think we should win every game - That was a good hard fought away point yesterday. 

Were on average to pick up about 51 points which will see us 14-10

 

Weve won 2 games to be in the QF. One was brighton reserves and the other was an average championship team.

 

Were in a group with Legia Warsaw and Spartak Moscow. Qualification should be all but confirmed, never mind "in our hands"

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

The over arching theme of this thread is correct i.e. fans need to have realistic expectations. But a stinker of a season can have serious implications for club morale, status, recruitment and retention. It can start a slide that becomes challenging to arrest. You only have to look at some of the bigger clubs in the Championship & Div 1 to see what can become. So yes we need perspective. But no we should never rest on our laurels as things can turn against you very quick.

[The Quick Brown Fox]

28 minutes ago, tickler28 said:

If we finish where we are in the league right now this season and don't go anywhere in the cups....yes it would be disappointing but c'est la vie.....we can just reset, regroup, add players to the squad we need and get rid of those who don't want to be here or are deadwood....it wouldn't be the end of the world.....its football. Not every season can you expect to finish top 6 and win a trophy....loads of teams would be desperate to have achieved what we have in the past 7 years. We've been spoilt and one duff season doesn't mean we can't improve next year with players back and have a similar season to 2019/20 or 2020/21.

 

I know that we could still turn this season round but if we don't let's not all act like spoilt brats about it....fair play to West Ham at giving it a go but don't forget they had season upon season of fighting relegation battles and a toxic atmosphere at the London Stadium.

 

Sit back and enjoy the ride but be grateful for what we've achieved in recent years and could go on to achieve again....don't be bitter and come across entitled like the big 6 supporters.

 

LTID

I genuinely would love to see West Ham go on to get CL or even Win the league, they've gone about it the right way and upsetting the big boys. 

Moyes has done a great job with them. Obviously I'd love to have us up there but if there's someone else pushing the big boys then happy days. 

[KrefelderFox666]

4 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

West Ham arguably the same size club, are better than us and have been for 12 months. All well and good regrouping, but we will likely lose Tielemans in the window, Vardy is another year older and so is Evans. I think a club of our resource shoud be in and around the top 6 at all times.

 

It's not we should ''win every game'' at all, be we can be consistently poor against clubs we should bury, on paper much better etc etc. Is it a mentality thing? I don't know. 

 

Anyone who wants to settle for less likely settles for less in their own lives, or standards etc. If you let that mentality creep in you'll be a Burnley/Brighton/Villa/Palace before you know it. 

Vardy will still give us something over the next couple of years and I am confident that in Iheanacho and more so Daka, we have good replacements. Of course, we could do with another addition for depth once Vardy does finish up.

 

However, an Evans replacement is the main priority. We have lots of good defenders but we lack that leader and experienced head. As much as Soyuncu is learning, he is still a long way away from being that player. Fofana is also much too young and who knows how long he might stay with us.

[Hoopla10]

7 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Were in a group with Legia Warsaw and Spartak Moscow. Qualification should be all but confirmed, never mind "in our hands"

This is what I hate. It's the sort of privileged mentality you expect from the so called big clubs. They're football teams with agency that want to beat us. We've got Liverpool in the league cup, it's in our hands to win that game. But by this logic it's not, Liverpool are all but confirmed winners, we might as well not bother.  

[Guest SO1]

40 minutes ago, tickler28 said:

If we finish where we are in the league right now this season and don't go anywhere in the cups....yes it would be disappointing but c'est la vie.....we can just reset, regroup, add players to the squad we need and get rid of those who don't want to be here or are deadwood....it wouldn't be the end of the world.....its football. Not every season can you expect to finish top 6 and win a trophy....loads of teams would be desperate to have achieved what we have in the past 7 years. We've been spoilt and one duff season doesn't mean we can't improve next year with players back and have a similar season to 2019/20 or 2020/21.

 

I know that we could still turn this season round but if we don't let's not all act like spoilt brats about it....fair play to West Ham at giving it a go but don't forget they had season upon season of fighting relegation battles and a toxic atmosphere at the London Stadium.

 

Sit back and enjoy the ride but be grateful for what we've achieved in recent years and could go on to achieve again....don't be bitter and come across entitled like the big 6 supporters.

 

LTID

Thanks Mindreader . Thread now degenerating into just another thread to wail away at our shortcomings. It is what it is.

[Foxxed]

People keep throwing around the term entitled. No one thinks we have a right to be top six. Some think we’re underachieving with the squad.

[filbertway]

1 minute ago, Hoopla10 said:

This is what I hate. It's the sort of privileged mentality you expect from the so called big clubs. They're football teams with agency that want to beat us. We've got Liverpool in the league cup, it's in our hands to win that game. But by this logic it's not, Liverpool are all but confirmed winners, we might as well not bother.  

That game will be in our hands as Klopp plays his reserves and youths in the league cup.

 

Context is important.

 

Would you have been happy if we had just been mid table in league one when we went down despite having clearly the best squad?

 

 

It happens at every level. Better teams should win more games and outplay weaker teams most of the time. 

 

You expect there to be the odd off performance of course, the better team doesn't always win, but they generally do a lot more often than they don't.

[Matt]

Finishing where we are now, no cups. Absolutely fine by me, it is what it is.

 

Lets actually play some decent attacking forward football, something to get behind and have a go at teams though hey?

[coolhandfox]

All the West Ham love in.

 

As we have found out to our cost two seasons running, it doesn't matter where you are until after game 38.

 

They will have the same problem keeping hold of Rice as we are with Youri.

[tickler28]

15 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

People keep throwing around the term entitled. No one thinks we have a right to be top six. Some think we’re underachieving with the squad.

Flip that on its head....could we have been overachieving with the squad the past couple of seasons? 

 

If you look at our current squad....who is world class? Tielemans perhaps (same Tielemans who's had his head turned and refusing to commit)

Other than that what players are underachieving? All Premier League teams have quality in depth. I don't see anything in our squad that is particularly better than an Everton or even a Brighton for that matter.

[K1FOX]

Just now, tickler28 said:

Flip that on its head....could we have been overachieving with the squad the past couple of seasons? 

 

If you look at our current squad....who is world class? Tielemans perhaps (same Tielemans who's had his head turned and refusing to commit)

Other than that what players are underachieving? All Premier League teams have quality in depth. I don't see anything in our squad that is particularly better than an Everton or even a Brighton for that matter.

Completely agree if anything we have massively overachieved and we have loved every moment of it. Realistically what were people expecting this season? A trophy? Still every chance to add to the community shield - We will be in and around the top 7 come the end of the season. Compete in the three cup competitions we're in and go deep and we have had a good season.

[Hoopla10]

13 minutes ago, Marshall Cockney Fox said:

The over arching theme of this thread is correct i.e. fans need to have realistic expectations. But a stinker of a season can have serious implications for club morale, status, recruitment and retention. It can start a slide that becomes challenging to arrest. You only have to look at some of the bigger clubs in the Championship & Div 1 to see what can become. So yes we need perspective. But no we should never rest on our laurels as things can turn against you very quick.

TBF many of those clubs (including ourselves when we dropped through the leagues) had other bigger issues. Owner, financial, legal, direction etc. Unless all our players decide to leave like rats escaping a sinking (even though we're not sinking) our core non-star players are still good footballers our owners are still competent and our recruitment are still the same. 

I'm glad we have ambition and that's important as a forward driving force but like many (including yourself) point out we should also keep some perspective.