So, how do WE win the league?

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Originally Posted by GB.

This thread as so many others has moved from it's original and interesting topic to the 'lets all whinge at why there is no point doing anything because Man City spend hundreds of millions of pounds' topic.

Even if you think we face an insurmountable object, surely there are things we as a Club can do to improve our lot, unless you think we have become as competitive as possible with no room for improving our:

-management
-coaching
-players
-tactics
-approach to investment
-utilisation of resources
-ownership structure
-competition prioritisation
-salary structure
-star player retention

Or any of another multitude of things we should be considering. Just whinging at other Clubs spending hundreds of millions will get us nowhere and has become drearily repetitive on far too many potentially good topics on this board.

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:gp:

There are other ways we can compete but it hardly ever gets discussed. Th one thing that has been made pretty clear over the past couple of seasons is that there is room for improvement on the tactical side of things and coaching. Pointing to the bigger clubs with more money is a distraction and papers over Wenger's flaws as a coach.

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Originally Posted by Letters

The topic title is "So, how do WE win the league?"

The answer is we can't because of the way City can throw obscene amounts of money around. Even Utd who have the best manager around failed to do so although they came commendably close.

Of course there are things we can do to get closer though.

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I disagree, we can win the league as we could still attract top players, the trick is to have a group of players that complement each other you don't have to have the most money to do that.

As for Man U, they had it won before they inexplicably collapsed, never seen that before under Ferguson but I don't think the group of players they have is avergae these days, a few years back they'd have won this title hands down, but they had better players in those days.

This defeatist atttidue pretty much goes through the whole club, all we hear is excuses about how other clubs have got more monet etc etc, if you believe you've lost before the game has started you have. It's as if we don't think we can win so we don't even really try, all we do is do enough for getting 3rd/4th.

Of course we can win the league.

We were in pretty much pole position at Christmas in 3 out of the last 6 seasons, and should, given the talent we had on display, have won the title.

And we still can.

We beat City at our gaff. Beat Liverpool at Anfield. Drubbed spurs and milan at home, Chelsea away...

We're short of numbers that can keep that kind of form going consistently, and we require more quality, thus more investment is needed. That is it.

We have a manager who COULD do that for us. Whether he will or not, remains to be seen this summer. I don't hold out much hope....but hope remains all the same.

We can certainly get closer. Whether we could win the thing...I dunno. You look at City's squad and it's miles ahead of ours. We certainly have the resources to narrow the gap, I'm not sure if we can close it completely.

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Originally Posted by AKBapologist

It's funny, people getting pissed off about results against *newly promoted teams* (none of which got relegated btw) and clubs like wigan or stoke who happy out played or out muscled our nearest rivals.

The quality gap between 17th and 3rd this season has been the smallest I've seen, hell, even the notion of city or united going unbeaten was wishful thinking at best even before winter. Teams who massively outspent us like the Chav's and Pool cling on to cups whilst ruefully wondering, what the fuck now? Where's stamford bridge telling us that our manager is holding us back today?

Sure, last summer was fucking unforgivable, and even the nearest hint of complacency with transfers and I don't think he'll have a prayer with the supporters next season - but there seams to be a certain myopic belief amongst that because Wenger isn't SAF, he's automatically shit. He's got strengths and weaknesses, despite what people think, beyond injuries and lack of spending, the squad doesn't suffer the same problems season after season (compare set piece goals conceded with last season for example) - So in the season where Man City have categorically, without a doubt, proven that money is the most important factor in winning *trophies* (In a game incidentally, that followed the same pattern as ours, with similar defensive mistakes against 10 man newly promoted, would be relegation fodder QPR!!!!) - I'm prepared to give AW and the club a little bit of slack, prepared to treat 3rd as a trophy and enjoy all the privileges and bragging rights that come with it, whilst feeling hopeful about the future.

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I like this post - and I made the same point re our/Citeh's performances in another thread.

There's 2 sides to this issue, really. First, it was our early season that did for us in terms of the massive gap between us and Manure. Sort that this time (and keep RVP), and we'll be much nearer next time. Our stuttering performances towards the end were more to do with playing under pressure against teams with no pressure on them at all, and key injuries, rather than anything else.

BUT - and its a big but. If anyone thinks that Citeh will now be beaten to the league in the forseeable future, they are on crack. They will strengthen even further this Summer, and noone - not even SAF - will be able to compete consistently with them. To that extent we will be competeing for second place, and we might as well get used to it.

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Originally Posted by Letters

We can certainly get closer. Whether we could win the thing...I dunno. You look at City's squad and it's miles ahead of ours. We certainly have the resources to narrow the gap, I'm not sure if we can close it completely.

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Bollocks.

There are players that are unplayable. See Messi and Ronaldo. But people get so in awe of other players, and worry about other teams and money etc.

They're all human. And there are plenty of decent players to go around. one club can't have all of them.

We beat them. And should have beaten them on two other occasions this year, but for a bit of luck.

They don't scare me one bit in there current form / shape.

It amazes me how the media can spin it. YES, they can buy players, and YES, they have (to a degree) bought the title. But are they aren't unplayable. And if we sorted our own mess out a bit, and built on what we have this season, there is no reason we can't go and win it.

Utd got as many points as them. And they were fuckin awful this year, IMO.

They're not unplayable in one off games but over the long grind of a season we don't have the squad depth to be at the level we need to be week in week out. That can be improved but not to City's level. That's where over the course of a season they're likely to do better. If we get close enough though then it could come down to a few games here and there though so I guess we'd have a chance as Utd showed this year.

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Originally Posted by LDG

Bollocks.

There are players that are unplayable. See Messi and Ronaldo. But people get so in awe of other players, and worry about other teams and money etc.

They're all human. And there are plenty of decent players to go around. one club can't have all of them.

We beat them. And should have beaten them on two other occasions this year, but for a bit of luck.

They don't scare me one bit in there current form / shape.

It amazes me how the media can spin it. YES, they can buy players, and YES, they have (to a degree) bought the title. But are they aren't unplayable. And if we sorted our own mess out a bit, and built on what we have this season, there is no reason we can't go and win it.

Utd got as many points as them. And they were fuckin awful this year, IMO.

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TBHF, we only beat them when they where without Yaya and Silva.

Squad wise, there miles ahead, with almost 11 players on +100k a week wages whilst we don't have anyone on that much at AFC. That's what matters tbhf.

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Originally Posted by Letters

They're not unplayable in one off games but over the long grind of a season we don't have the squad depth to be at the level we need to be week in week out. That can be improved but not to City's level. That's where over the course of a season they're likely to do better. If we get close enough though then it could come down to a few games here and there though so I guess we'd have a chance as Utd showed this year.

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Utd bottled it. They were 8 points clear. They didn't "hang onto City's coat tails" as you said yesterday.

City are beatable, and can be challenged quite easily next year. It just means our manager has to sort his shit out.

Or course, if we piss about again, sell OUR best players AGAIN, we will never have a hope. It's down to our board and our manager to make that call.

Fans of all clubs need to do their part too. Boo those title buying ****s for 90 minutes every game, sheer hostility home and away without respite all season long. Show those ****s that money can't buy respect and lets have less of this ****ish love-in some fuckers seem to have for anything in sky blue. Treat the fucking enemy like the fucking enemy, we don't understand them, we don't appreciate them, we don't accept them, we just fucking hate them and were going to make that hatred tangible so it becomes the twelfth man on every pitch those classless gypos step on, kicking them in the bollocks all day long.