People are bound to be frustrated. Nothing wrong with that at all

We've gone from being a yo-yo club which spent 4 out of 5 years in the Prem to mid-table mediocrity. We've watched out last manager-but-three do a fantastic job at a club which is smaller than ours, and now in exactly the sort of position we were in not so long ago. And our last manager is also doing an excellent job with a much smaller club, on a much lower budget.

If, given that, people weren't frustrated at where we are right now, there'd be something seriously wrong. Frustration comes from passion, ambition, wanting the best. And we wouldn't be worth bothering as a club if the fans didn't have that. Plus, well: if we're gonna have a huge disparity between home and away games, it's always better if the problems aren't at home. Because those games are seen by far more fans, who pay plenty of dosh to do so. Of course endless 0-0s and 1-1s are gonna get people down. It's natural.

But... work in progress, folks. Work in progress. It was always absolute nonsense to think we could go overnight from a technically awful team and squad to challenging with the complete opposite style of play. It does take time. Defensively, we're really rather good now; that makes a change, to say the least. And however pathetic this might sound, I feel pretty happy whenever I see the possession stats for this division. Not because I think possession is the be-all and end-all - it's not, it's what you do with it that counts - but because it provides a reminder of how much we're trying to change things.

Even when we were in the Prem, we never had a side anything like technically good enough. That's like trying to play football with one hand tied behind your back. Yet I'll never forget watching Rodgers' Swansea side in the Prem. You couldn't get the ball off them. It was scary, hugely impressive, and very effective.

Well, that's what we need to become ourselves. Many a long term project have started out looking like a shambles; and managers building a football team often look like they don't know what they're doing until most of the pieces are in place. We're still only just starting with this: it's a 3-year-plan, minimum, maybe even more like a five year one. Clear progress is what I'll be hoping for next season, nothing more... and if we sell Maddison, what we do with that money will have an enormous impact on whether this works out or not.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Mar 6, 22:41:30