As we look forward to our game against Stoke City tonight the injury curse continues to blight us. Laurent Koscielny and Robin van Persie will be missing tonight against Tony Pullis’ clog-dancers.
Personally I’m still a little down from our draw in the East End on Sunday. All credit to Orient for battling back to get a merited draw. Yet again however we were complacent. We strolled around like we were three metres tall and covered in hair. Complacency and arrogance is becoming a curse. We need to banish it. The time to have it large is AFTER you’ve accomplished something. Any buffoon can big it up in the media. Do we really want to be famous for being famous or do we want to be famous for our achievements? I know which I prefer.
I’m also getting tired of hearing Arsčne Wenger complain about how many games we have to play and the fixture pile-up. Mate, you and all your players are very well compensated for your trouble. Just shut up and soldier. I don’t ring you up every day and tell you all my problems, how hard it is for me to afford the scandalously high ticket prices the club charges.
As it happens, I agree with Wenger. I think there are too many games. The problem is one of the reasons for that is the ever-escalating cost of player salaries. The players can’t have it both ways. We either play less football – which I think we should – in which case there is likely to be less money available for salaries; or we keep on trying to get a quart out of a pint pot.
My personal preference would be for a sixteen team Premier League with two up two down to the Football League Championship. I don’t imagine for a moment that that’s within the realm of possibility but it would cut eight League games from the schedule, leaving enough space for the domestic Cup competitions to “breath”, prevent scheduling clashes for clubs in the Champions and Europa Leagues, allow for a short winter break post Christmas/New Year and give players time to slot in international appearances.
The only step I can see is abandoning FA Cup replays. Personally I’m against that. I was against getting rid of replays at the semi-final and final stages of the tournament. I can see the attraction from a fixture maker’s point of view. I also see the attraction to the bigger clubs who regularly compete in Europe. I don’t think we should allow the interests of a few clubs, including ours, to trample over what’s good for the game overall however.
Let’s kick all that down the road though. We need to focus on three points tonight against Stoke. That would cheer us all up I’m sure.
Keep the faith!
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