03-11-2016, 20:19
HRK - Quite right in many respects.
We were, a few seasons ago, just concerned about maintaining our Premier League status and being sick to the teeth of the yo-yo reputation. I can recall when TP was appointed, sighing in relief and having friends (at the golf club) tell me that we were safe as houses. Back then I really wanting to believe them and loved it when we stayed up - I was proud of JP/TP.
5 Years on we are a more stable, albeit, mid to lower league but we are an established Premier League team and I doubt many of you really fear relegation this season - surely not?
Naturally now we look less down at the trap door to the Championship but are more looking up at 8th to 10th place as a measure of success.
It might be one or two seasons too soon. Many teams have fallen out of the Premier league when it took to gamble and pushed for higher places with more expensive players and exiting new managers.
The younger of you might not remember the pain of relegation to the Second Division (now Division 1 equivalent) and the heartache of watching the club over seasons slowly regroup and regain its pride. I do (many of us do). I still feel that pain but weirdly it made me all the more passionate about the Club than I had been before the nose dive.
In years gone by I would have berated you (young person) for not appreciating what the club has achieved. What Sir Gary Megson did to make us proud again and also how the tightly run ship, under Jeremy Peace, should be appreciated rather than criticised.
But today, we are settled in the Premier League and I am another few years the older and I find myself more aligned to the younger fan that I expected to be. I too want to see the club 'give it a go', get a swashbuckling young manager in post and let him buy young promising players and give it a big push for glory.
If it goes belly up, so what!
I am a few years away from retiring and I'll switch sports to rugger, play more golf and learn to play dominoes (not for a few more years yet) and let others cry in their beer if we happen to sink in and through the Championship into League One.
We were, a few seasons ago, just concerned about maintaining our Premier League status and being sick to the teeth of the yo-yo reputation. I can recall when TP was appointed, sighing in relief and having friends (at the golf club) tell me that we were safe as houses. Back then I really wanting to believe them and loved it when we stayed up - I was proud of JP/TP.
5 Years on we are a more stable, albeit, mid to lower league but we are an established Premier League team and I doubt many of you really fear relegation this season - surely not?
Naturally now we look less down at the trap door to the Championship but are more looking up at 8th to 10th place as a measure of success.
It might be one or two seasons too soon. Many teams have fallen out of the Premier league when it took to gamble and pushed for higher places with more expensive players and exiting new managers.
The younger of you might not remember the pain of relegation to the Second Division (now Division 1 equivalent) and the heartache of watching the club over seasons slowly regroup and regain its pride. I do (many of us do). I still feel that pain but weirdly it made me all the more passionate about the Club than I had been before the nose dive.
In years gone by I would have berated you (young person) for not appreciating what the club has achieved. What Sir Gary Megson did to make us proud again and also how the tightly run ship, under Jeremy Peace, should be appreciated rather than criticised.
But today, we are settled in the Premier League and I am another few years the older and I find myself more aligned to the younger fan that I expected to be. I too want to see the club 'give it a go', get a swashbuckling young manager in post and let him buy young promising players and give it a big push for glory.
If it goes belly up, so what!
I am a few years away from retiring and I'll switch sports to rugger, play more golf and learn to play dominoes (not for a few more years yet) and let others cry in their beer if we happen to sink in and through the Championship into League One.