Steve Downes article 'Rather we got relegated'...?

[ricardo 7,381]

[quote user="I am a Banana"]Id rather we got relegated and had more of the academy players come through.Just imagine, in a few years are midfield could have been Murphy, Smith ,Adeyimi (sp?), Murphy

Strikers could have beenLoza and MorrisGk can be Rudd.Defence im not sure about!![/quote]Yep, and would probably have just about made the playoffs in league 1 with a bit of luck.

[Beefy is a legend 224]

Ultimately, it all comes down to ambition, and in that respect, Steve Downes has got it all the wrong way round.

Ambition is being determined to stick at it, to strive for ''continuous improvement'' as McNally stated at the fans'' forum last week and as Bowkett confirmed when he suggested we are looking for 10th place this season.

Ambition is about continuing on to improve ourselves as a Club, in terms of infrastructure and players. One thing McNally mentioned last week is that Colney has had very little money spent on it since it was built, and that now the Club is looking to add state of the art training pitches, which it has already done for the first team, that can be used by all the development sides too. What a great help that will be for our young lads'' development as players.

He also stated that replacing the current training building for the first team is in the pipeline, none of which would be possible without being in the PL.

All of those things are real, tangible improvements being brought about by our status. Those who want to ''give up'' and go back to the Championship are compromising those improvements. Those who would rather have relegation and a Cup are making the same mistake.

We are going to have to battle through for some time, but there is no reason why we cannot become a top 10 PL club. Places 7-10 in the PL are within the grasp of a club our size and that''s what we must strive for because once you get to that level, it only takes one season of overachievement, like Everton did several years ago, and you might just sneak into the Champions'' League. That seems fanciful now, but ambition to continue to improve is the only way to get anywhere near that sort of goal.

Obviously, for Mr Downes, beating Manchester Utd, Manchester City and Arsenal last year isn''t enough...

[Jonzey 0]

I''m pretty sure Steve Downes wrote this article to initiate debate, and of course to promote his name through being a bit contraversial. Look how many pages this thread is on already.

 

Sorry Steve, I don''t believe you really would rather see us win a cup and get relegated than strive for midtable mediocrity. But congratulations for bringing your name to my attention. Very astute.

 

Additionally I''d like to point out that since we got relegated originally in the mid 90''s we had four exciting seasons in the lower leagues; when we got to the play offs in Cardiff in 2001/2002, when we won the second tier in 2003/2004, when we won the third tier in 2009/2010 and when we got promoted from the second tier in 2010/2011. The other TEN seasons were utterly mediocre, often sliding well below mediocre into terrible.

 

Sorry, give me comfortable mid table mediocrity in the Premier League over desperate, unnoticed under acheivment in the lower leagues (like the binners, ha ha ha ha). Give me watching us beat Man U, Man City and Arsenal in a single season over beating Doncaster, Bradford and Crewe. Give me watching Fer compete against Ozil and Yaya Toure over Mark Fotheringham struggle against the Yeovil midfield. Give me International class strikers RVW, Hooper and Elmander over Cody McDonald and Elvis Hammond.

[Beefy is a legend 224]

If anyone is looking for a decent piece of publishing on the subject, I refer you the below, which I read just after my last post. Great minds Mr Couzens-Lake, great minds...

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/2013/10/14/whats-important-locking-horns-with-chelsea-and-and-man-utd-or-the-comfort-and-challenge-of-the-second-tier/

[Trowse Map 0]

I hardly ever post on this forum, but today I am making an exception because that article by Steve Downes made me PUKE.

[nu_matik 167]

I''m glad this thread has sparked debate, and glad there are so many in agreement that it''s an article way off the mark, and even if there is an underlying point being made, it''s not a very well thought through one. If we were to go down to this apparent holy land of winning games and excitement, Steve clealry fogot about the ten seasons of medicore football post ''95 relegation, and that this glass ceiling theory at the other end of the spectrum is like hearing someone complaining about being quite well off and secure in a job mixing it with the big guys, but feeling like it was all pointless cause you''re not a millionaire. Another good point brought up is that Steve seems to be missing out the fact that we are improving things behind the scenes all the time with Colney, the ground, the finances being at their best ever..and that will eventually spill over on to the pitch. I think as long as we keep hitting realistic targets we will continue to succeed and grow, and anyway...this ''Dire'' football we have been playing? Did anyone go to the Chelsea, Villa,and Stoke Games? Mixed bag of results but those last few games have seen some very good football from city, but wait we didnt get 3 points or a trophy so it''s all pointless, right?

[nutty nigel 7,527]

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="nu_matik"]I cant get my head round why people have a problem with us simply competing in the worlds best league against some of the best teams week in week out.[/quote]This would be perfectly fine if we were playing attractive, entertaining football and getting some decent results along the way even if we finished 17th in the end, but when you accompany a potential relegation dogfight with god awful football and the realisation that finishing even 9th would be seen as a huge achievement, it does take a hell of a lot of gloss away...I don''t think you''ll find any fans out there who genuinely want us to be relegated, but on the flip side, I do know that you''ll find plenty of fans who are fed up of the dire football on display from us most weeks, which combined with the ever increasing issue in the league whereby to actually challenge for the title you almost need to spend 100''s of millions on new players, then I think you have a developing problem that''s only likely to get worse if we continue in the same vein.Would I rather watch us in the prem - absolutely (although maybe that''s because if we were back in the Championship I''d be stuck with 30 seconds of highlights instead of the 3-4 minutes MOTD give us), but am I utterly bored and frustrated with the type of football we are playing - absolutely.Back when we finished 3rd and had the UEFA cup run, I didn''t see Mike Walker complaining about inequality in finances or resorting to playing horrible, defensive football most weeks to try to ''steal'' a draw, we played for the win and didn''t give a damn how much money the likes of Man Utd were spending on players like Cole etc. I also think this is why so many fans had such respect for Lambert, as he employed a very similar approach and didn''t give two hoots about anything apart from trying to get the result even if it meant playing 5 upfront for the last 10 minutes!From a financial perspective we''re in the best position we''ve probably ever been, but from a football perspective it doesn''t like quite so rosy, and that''s despite having brought in genuine quality players like Fer and RVW...[/quote]

 

I think what would help posters like me and numatik understand the other side of the argument would be if Indy and others like him would say what they realistically expect from us in the Premier League. I have been to six games this season and over all they would be representative of most of the 22 seasons I''ve seen us compete in the top division. The six I saw were a thoroughly entertaining 2-2 draw with Everton. Atotally rubbish defeat at Hull. A hard fought win over Southampton. An entertaining but ultimately disappointing defeat to Villa. An enthralling cup victory at Watford. And a hugely entertaining defeat to Chelsea. If the rest of the season is that kind of mix I fail to see how anybody can have cause for complaint let alone accuse the club of producing dire football.

 

Come on Indy.. take the Pepsi challenge buddy. What do you realistically expect?

 

 

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Good point Nutty.  Especially when you add to that list a comfortable win over Stoke at the Britannia (compared to mediocre 1-0 defeats the last 2 years including the Prem season under St Paul - and indeed compared to many of the top PL teams who have come away battered from a trip there over the years).

[nu_matik 167]

 Now we''re getting somewhere!What do they expect? I have been going to games since the end of the 89/90 season... Only once (?) since then have we been top of the league, and not often sat in the top 4. Why all of a sudden is sitting in the top 10 some sort of boring failure? We had a period a few weeks ago where people were shouting for change from Hughton, and we got it and have played attacking football since, but that''s simply nto good enough for some. Sad!

[I am a Banana 0]

[quote user="ricardo"][quote user="I am a Banana"]Id rather we got relegated and had more of the academy players come through.Just imagine, in a few years are midfield could have been Murphy, Smith ,Adeyimi (sp?), Murphy

Strikers could have beenLoza and MorrisGk can be Rudd.Defence im not sure about!![/quote]Yep, and would probably have just about made the playoffs in league 1 with a bit of luck.[/quote]

That''s not a problem! We would be playing our players, not purchased players!

[WesHoolahansDefendant 0]

His post is absolute nonsense.

We''ve had some fantastic results against some top sides. THAT is what we''re in this league for, if you can''t enjoy it then move to Suffolk, I heard there''s plenty of cold Tuesdays away at Barnsley there.