Monday, April 05, 2010

We Can All Smile Again Now

No, not even Newcastle United could cock up this kind of lead. As Neil Farrington put it, "For the Magpies to blow promotion now – with five emphatic straight defeats – would take capitulation on a scale beyond even a football club which specialises in epic disappointment". All we need is for Ashley to sell with promotion confirmed, £40 million or so to spend on the team, and we'd be able to pick up more or less where we left off: beating Sunderland, losing to the Big Four, the occasional run in Europe, and the old sneaky feeling that this just might be our year for one of the cups.

More realistically, we have a squad that does at least understand the meaning of the word team, as good a chance of survival as Birmingham or Wolves, and a club to support that doesn't run the risk of going belly-up in the next six months. These days, that's really something special.

3 comments:

this too will pass said...

indeed, but not good enough to secure safety next season without a decent budget for sensible purchases. All credit to Chris Hughton who has done a great job.

Bryan said...

The euphoria of promotion may only last a few hours or a few days. But I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

Michael said...

The budget's £25 million if you can believe what the papers say. We were absolutely awful last season and we still only went down by a single point on the last day of the season.
We're better than West Brom and whoever gets through the play-offs, and there's enough dross already in the Premier League to keep us up if we add a few decent signings and maintain our team spirit.
It isn't going to be exciting, but then the Premier League rarely is.