The Inexperienced Surfer On The Big Wave

[YankeeCanary 0]

Of course, it''s been a quiet downtime for the past number of weeks on this forum and I have happily been enjoying summertime activities. Whenever I have taken a peek I detect very little concern from many other posters as to how we will fare in the upcoming season. While I support cautious optimism I do see far too many who already have us finishing in the top ten or twelve without either having seen the ability of the newcomers or a single ball being kicked. Admittedly, there is still time for us to make a couple of defensive additions to raise confidence on that front. However, I have watched re-runs of some of the games from the past season with not a little concern regarding our defensive weaknesses. I found myself conducting a mental edit of the opposing players in the video, deleting those who were actual participants and replacing them with some of the current Premiership players to see how we would stack up. More than once the almost subliminal image that appears in my head is of an inexperienced surfer out on the ocean trying to tame the big waves. The crowd is on the beach willing him on to a good run, but out there on the horizon are waves that, when they hit, will bring the crowd back into the land of reality.

I''m excited about the upcoming season. I hope we all remain happy and enjoy the ride, but for those of you who find themselves getting prematurely confident I would advise taking a dose of reality along with the rest of your high spirits. It''s going to be a long, grinding season attempting to avoid relegation with a few heavy defeats along the way. Many of us know that. This message is for those of you who appear not to.

 

[Yobocop 1,096]

Just so you know I am under no illusions as to what next season will bring.

One thing is for sure, I don''t buy the the defensive weakness argument, it wasn''t a problem last season as we finished 2nd, the issue for me is the way we setup to play must allow for not too much cover for defence

I''m sure Lambert will change this to suit our needs this season as you are right, if we play like that next season we may get punished.

It''ll be the points we pick up at home with the likes of Blackburn, Wigan etc coming to town and hope our excellent away form is carried on into this season.

I would be happy with 17th place this season, I know that lacks optimism but it is a damnsight more optimistic than those who are saying we are planning for relegation by the way we''re signing players.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

The interesting thing for me Yankee is the way PL is going about it. He has acted promptly to have players in ready for pre-season - admirable by him and McNally.

Lambert has selected players on the cusp of things age wise and career wise; he has not gone down the usual route of looking for the odd big time charlie or ''experienced. player.

Lambert has kept his core of characters together and everyone has the same chance.

I agree we need another defender and possibly goalkeeper cover but all in all, if Lambert pulls this off he will have invaded a league filled with multi-millionaire players - many of whom are from overseas - with his own group of second-chance home countries players and, for a national team struggling to find a pool of players to choose from in our top league, he will have done a service to English football.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

Interesting post as usual Yankee. I see where you''re coming from but most fans, deep down, don''t do cautious optimism. Deep down most of us rarely consider defeat. We go to every game thinking we can win. Of course none of us now believe we will win all 38 games. But as each game comes we will be full of reasons why we can win it. Even when we go to Old Trafford, Anfield, Emirates and the like we will cling to the straws of optimism, believing we can win. We leave the reality to the pundits and then glory in triumph when we beat Man Utd and they are left with egg on their faces.

 

Dare to dream [Y]

 

 

[YankeeCanary 0]

I''m with you totally Nutty but that''s because what you are expressing is one game at a time optimism. My comments on "cautious optimism" were directed to those posters I''ve observed seeing us already at the end of the season in a comfortable position. I liken it to my golf game. I will never be a scratch golfer but my best results ALWAYS come on those days when I can navigate my way around the course one shot at a time. On those days when I get ahead of myself and see a score in the high 70''s materialising......it never does.

I agree, also, with your observations Rudolph. The only thing I would add is that, even if Mr. Lambert does not pull it off, he will have still done a service to English football.

[The Fish Seller 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Interesting post as usual Yankee. I see where you''re coming from but most fans, deep down, don''t do cautious optimism. Deep down most of us rarely consider defeat. We go to every game thinking we can win. Of course none of us now believe we will win all 38 games. But as each game comes we will be full of reasons why we can win it. Even when we go to Old Trafford, Anfield, Emirates and the like we will cling to the straws of optimism, believing we can win. We leave the reality to the pundits and then glory in triumph when we beat Man Utd and they are left with egg on their faces.

 

Dare to dream [Y]

 

 

[/quote]This post should be printed off, framed and hung on the wall.

[scrappy33 0]

Coming from a yankie i''d have thought you''d have i bit more fight in you.

[Ruddygore 0]

[quote user="scrappy33"]Coming from a yankie i''d have thought you''d have i bit more fight in you.[/quote]

 

lol ..... a bit more than an ''ot dog, know what I mean?

 

Yes, thank you Yankie Canary, what you have posted are our private thoughts, our fears that we don''t want to verbalise except for in the middle of the night when we wake with the cold terrors along with such thoughts that PL will get an offer from Barca or that Rory Delap will make mincemeat of us with long throw ins.

 

In the daylight we remember how City did the seemingly impossible two seasons running and then the good dydreams surface along with a bit of optimism and a bit of fight in ourselves. We don''t look forward to losing, we look forward to quotes like "Fortress Carrow Road" from Hanson and the likes...

 

Christ, I never knew surfing could be so depressing.