A real sliding doors moment
I cannot stop thinking that last night was a 'sliding doors' moment for us, and needless to say we have stepped (more like pushed) through into a room that is so dark it is difficult to see where we're heading.
The only thing i will say about last season is, from being so far in front in 3rd place and then still only rescuing 4th place in the last 4 games of the season, does in anyones eyes look a bit of a f*ck up. I will not go into player or manager assasination, or pick holes in individual games, i think thats been done a thousand times over, but the total of everything did add up at the seasons end to another good top 4 finish. But.
Of course this wasn't the seasons end for us, two other teams were gonna play out a CL qualifier on our behalf.
So many elements of Chelsea's win tinkles me off. Obviously just the racist/chavvy/plastic fans for starters, the ridiculous owner, and captain c*nt. The way they won it was a joke (i think Greece won Euro 2004 playing better football), i fully went along with the 'its written in the stars' line, just sat there knowing they were gonna pull it out regardless of how high the odds were against it happening.(of course this scenario kicked off long before the final, think napoli etc) It was like a ridiculous Hollywood feel good/against adversity script that only a B list film studio would believe in. I even called Robbens penalty miss and Olics' miss in the shoot out, too the Mrs who looked at me as if i was watching this on Sky+. When Mueller scored i was 'get in there', at last the break through, but it was always there, a strong feeling that it didn't matter, they were gonna pull through. This feeling wasn't there because of our involvement, but as luck would have it we were right in the way of it
This result really puts us in a difficult spot. Holding on for players for starters. The obvious two, bale & modders (i fully expect modders to go, in fact chelsea may as well of held a pitch signing last night) but maybe some others will start bleeting and really keep the club too busy on the trying to keep players side. On the other side of trying to attract players, how attractive do we look now? offering the Europa lge as bait is like fishing with just a hook (for the record i like the europa lge and would love us to take it seriously, the final was amazing this year) the majority of modern players (of a class standard) all want CL. I wonder if our target list has been blown to pieces.
Sadly the game is about money, and we must of lost a bucketload last night
We are on the verge of a new stadium, every penny counts. We are a young Top4 side, next year in the CL would have cemented us in peoples (think top players, top managers) minds, the ball would have kept rolling and the upward curve continued. I have a real uncertainty of how things will play out. Even with HR, imo HR does think the most important thing is himself and does he wanna be in the CL? 'for sure', BUT does he wanna be in the EL 'not a chance'. Remember at our club all he gets to look after is the team, no behind the scenes stuff, wheeler dealing etc to keep him engaged, his and levy's relationship is strictly business. Hopefully he has got the focus and enthusiasm that we all want our manager to have. But i have my doubts, it may just fizzle out next year.
Of course our loss is enough teams gain. Chelsea have effectively jumped to 4th place and are safely, along with the other 'real top 4', neatly installed in the group stages of next years CL. Even arsenal have come up smelling of roses in 3rd, we should have easily submitted them to our fate last night, no CL and RVP jumping ship. Now we are just EL heavyweights, but i pray we are not a carcass of a talented team waiting to be picked over by the 'big boys'.
I am very nervous about what that one result last night has done for us.
Luckily the sun is shining next week and life will seem good.
