Bard
With our first trophy in nine years tucked away in the cabinet, our thoughts inevitably turn to next season. Are we going to 'kick on' as the cliche goes or will it be more of the same, a token effort to compete followed by inglorious failure plus or minus excuses. Watching the CL final got me thinking what kind of club we need to be. The last two finals have featured Dortmund and Atletico. Neither club is a massive hitter in the transfer market. In fact, like us, they are selling clubs, but they have a very clearly defined ethic. They have a very close bond with their fan base and they also have a team ethic defined as the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. In other words they always punch above their weight because of the ethic and the players they buy.
We seem to want to aspire to be one of the big hitters without either having the financial means (City have just paid £20m for Sagna who will most likely spend a lot of time sitting on the bench) or the requisite ambition and tactical nous. The fans are treated with distain by the club by and large; we are just punters to be fleeced at every available opportunity. This delusion feeds the discontent that exists around the club.
Would it not be a more successful strategy to model ourselves on Dortmund or Atletico? Maybe we should accept that we cannot pay the stratospheric transfer fees and wages instead of peddling the line that we can compete. We all know this is a lie. Accept that we are a selling club. We know one more terrific season from Rambo and he will be offski. Rebuild/strengthen the relationship with the fans so that the E******s becomes an absolute fortress. Start buying players who will buy into this 'fortress mentality' rather than the physical and mental lightweights we currently buy, players who on their day can look world beaters but too often go missing in action. Atletico came within two minutes of winning the CL. It can be done.
