Writer: Jod
Business has this system of performance appraisal designed to guarantee failure.
What happens is you start off with some kind of achievable target then every year you hit it the target is made harder. You know you will eventually fail, its just a question of when. As with business so with football, here too, people move the goalposts.
Back when Poch first got us into the Champions League we were punching above our weight, the sixth richest club in the country. People understood that. Since then nothing has actually changed except fans expectations. When you read the comments people seem to think we have some sort of divine right to qualify every year while the reality is we are still punching above our weight.
You have six clubs competing for four spots and anyone who has a bad year will probably not make it. Well, this is our bad year.
I suppose if you complain about not buying imaginary players with imaginary money, are financially illiterate and proud of it, then it makes sense that we should qualify every year. But in the real world it’s not going happen, if we make it this time it will be down to the competition dropping points.
The test is how you come back, Arsenal suffered badly when they dropped out, United and Chelsea didn’t seem to suffer at all. The irony is in the timing. With the opening of the new stadium the financial imbalance is finally going to be addressed. But no doubt if we miss out this season there will be those screaming for Poch and Levy’s heads.