Unfortunately, Football is full of cowards who want everything to be easy and success to be automatic. Badge-kissing players jump ship at the first sign of trouble... and so-called "world-class" managers will only take shoe-in jobs with a fat wad of transfer cash.
But as fans we don't give up on the team in difficult times... and we don't (or shouldn't) only show loyalty when it's convenient. Heggy is partially right that it is harder to attract the top players while not in the CL... but Craney and Laz are right to point out that the CL teams can't sign everyone and there are plenty of good players going to other clubs. I personally think we have good drawing power... not just because we're a fabled club and all that but because people in football know we won't be down for long. I think the domestic cups have showed that we are stirring again... now we just have to make the decisions to give us more consistency in the league.
The endless negativity does get to you but I think it just shows the different psychology in approach to fandom. Our league performance has been disappointing but we do not look like a club spiraling down to me.... we look like a club that has got a lot of good things in place but needs to strengthen in key areas. I like the way we play in a lot of our games (not all but a good majority). I like the fact that we have some strong potential on the horizon too. I think we lack a couple of key players... and some genuine speed and width... but I don't think we're as far off as the doomsayer's like to preach we are. Next season will not be identical... not for us, not for Spurs, not for Newcastle... there will be another big shake-up and we just have to learn from what we did wrong before. Remember, these owners are new to the sport.... they are learning and they will get things moving in the right direction. I think they already have...
It's become clear to me that there are 2 or 3 people on here who will just be miserable and unsatisfied no matter what the team do. In life there are people who just like to complain, be miserable and try bring others down with them - the footballing world is no different. I have a mate who's negative about everything, and surprise surprise, he's always negative about Liverpool too.
Our league campaign has been a shambles in terms of results. I don't think it has been in terms of overall performances. I don't think there are as many changes in the playing staff as some may think. On top of what we have, we need a striker, a right-sided winger and a central midfielder all of high quality (between £10-20m each - if we can a sign a player or 2 on free transfers then even better). Aside from a small few games in the league when we've been abysmal, I've generally been satisfied with our play, just the finishing has been predictibly atrocious. So many of our players will never have another season of finishing as bad as it has been. If we can get a couple of decent signings in, there can be reasons to be optimistic for next season and not complete doom and gloom. That's without even mentioning out unbeaten run the the 2 cup competitions so far.
