Winning can definitively change everything, especially on Boxing Day.
The morning after a victory, the sun shines brighter than ever – even if it’s cloudy, coffee tastes spectacular and even the common chores seem a happy moment as you think about the highlights of the previous day. At work people might wonder why you look so happy. Well if they do, it probably means they don’t know you well.
In the past few days I have finally given up the idea of the playoffs and I’m trying to adapt to the fact that we are no longer promotion contenders – unless a miracle happens, and they do happen in football.
For now the rational side of my brain tells me that being a mid-table team doesn’t seem so bad, sadly.
Things can change, of course, as they often do in football, but for now the further we are from the relegation scrappers, the better. Put on a nice little run and maybe we can aim higher, but for now facing reality is the best course of action.
It seems clear to me that the club is not in the best of positions in regards to the decisions they have made in the past year or so. I would compare it to an entrepreneur who is in a precarious financial situation and wants to give it one more try, mortgaging everything from house to family members, scraping all his savings together to try to make his final shot at glory.
It is such a high risk move and the club have gone ‘all in’ with this ‘move’, and paying compensation to a full foreign coaching staff seems a high price to pay for the only short term course of action possible, which is basically sacking them. Of course, when a team is doing badly, and supporters are crying to owners for change, things will never end well for manager.
My mind has also been busy trying to understand the reasoning behind why two of our best players are out of contract in the summer and still we hear nothing official from the club. I am talking about Alex Tettey and Tom Trybull of course.
It’s delightful to watch a tandem of defensive midfielders with well oiled engines who are highly effective at shielding the back four. Is the club willing to allow them to walk away, are negotiations ongoing or are their wage demands are too high to meet? That could be the case with Tettey but surely not Trybull.
One final thought. When managers try to prove a point, things never end well. Be it Carlos Carvalhal playing the £10m underperforming Jordan Rhodes over other in-form strikers, or Daniel Farke trying to make things work with Mario Vrancic in the middle. We know the fate of Carvalhal of course. And I do think Vrancic is a decent football player, but Alex Tettey in his forties will still provide better cover for the back four than Vrancic in his prime (now). This is with regards to the Brentford game, of course.
Hope you had a happy Christmas, and enjoy the holidays.
Note to Tuckster: phenomenal job covering the club this year and keep it up for next.
OTBC
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