Indeed not...

... But having such a thin squad was asking for trouble: we all knew that last summer. And one injury leads to another, which leads to another - because the lack of quantity in the squad means we've been forced to pick a number of players who weren't fit and were carrying knocks.

There's that old saying that you make your own luck. When we had poorish squads lacking in real quality in 97/8 and 99/0, we had terrible injury crises (remember Bellamy, Eadie, Mulryne and Jackson all being ruled out in quick succession early in Rioch's second year in charge?). Whereas when we at last spent some real dosh, and suddenly had a squad which looked top 6 material, we got relatively lucky with injuries in the play-off final year; and again when gambling (or really, adding the final pieces to the jigsaw) in 03/4.

Coincidence? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong here: I hardly think the footballing Gods just smile benignly on those who've spent money, while kicking those who don't firmly in the gonads. But the better the squad, the more you can rotate players, resting them when necessary and not becoming over-reliant on anyone - and in general, to complain about injuries is to miss the point. It's up to the club to legislate for this sort of thing beforehand, instead of leaving us totally exposed to the hand of fate. I mean, if we didn't learn that when failing to bring in a proper replacement for Gunny midway through 94/5, there's just no hope for us.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Feb 25, 15:01:01