I tried my best to go into this one with an open mind - Despite my best efforts, colour me triggered
The first half seemed to be a thesis on why trophies are stupid and it's not fair anyways so why bother. Wait till Milo hears how "worthless" it is to win a gold medal at the Olympics - Remember kids, if there isn't a huge fiscal reward, it isn't worth doing.
Steff you did bring it back around a few times by saying we as fans do at least want those days out / experiences, I am envious of you having been there for the games you have, they are moments in history that cannot be taken away. And I am with Gareth on how being in the CL at first was a huge thing, but the novelty has worn off. Not on calling Jose's habit of winning trophies a vanity project, winning stuff is literally what he is / was paid to do. Always told that we need CL to take the next step but then the next season when we struggle CL is used as part of the reason we didn't do well because of too many games, the never ending cycle of false promises.
Does a league cup ensure a sustainable future moving into the upper echelons of the footballing elite? Of course not. But what it means is that we would have entered a competition and by the parameters set about by whichever board or football association, been declared the winner of that competition. It's not the be all and end all and we can't expect to win anything, but to pretend it's just a 50/50 chance x by how many rounds their are as opposed to a result of effort, planning, teamwork and of course luck, it's beyond me. If I'm taking that point too literally I apologise Milo but that summary / assertion just doesn't add up - Perhaps I have completely missed the point on that one, I'm always open to that possibility.
If the ambition for the foreseeable is to be a bit more like Arsenal when they weren't anywhere near as good but were still just about clinging on to champions league qualification, to me that's a rather downbeat view. Football should be about hope and joy (and heartbreak and traumabonding), not the main hope being whatever gets us the best financial reward at that time.
As for there being "no evidence" for a club winning a trophy leading them to another, take Sevilla winning 3 ELs in a row. They were good enough to win it once, so the club / players / coaching staff had the knowhow required to go an do it again. Our lot evidently don't have that. When Conte said the board are happy just to be in the mix for top four everyone kicked off but you guys seem to think the same. Ange has a hell of job on if the players have the same mentality, especially given his "winning things in his second season with clubs" which was a fairly ballsy comment to make.
I wasn't expecting to tune in for an hour of Spurs having the tinkle taken out of referring to Son at LB or having Mason in charge instead of Jose for a cup final he had dragged the team into as you are above that but it did seem like some defense mechanisms rather than a real look into it. I am sorry if I have gone in a bit too hard here gents as I usually enjoy the pod, it's of course fine to have different opinions on it and at the end of the day doesn't affect what happens. If this looks like a drunken rant I promise I am sober! However I was doing a bit of painting whilst listening and found a fair bit of the discourse that didn't resonate with me at all. It's a subject that has been done to death and even the would you rather hypotheticals, if only it was as easy as choosing to win something....