Quote Originally Posted by Kano View Post
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See this is the problem. You keep reverting back to it being dirty. That's your misconception you can't get past. But it also proves my point. People didn't hate Vieira, Edu, Lehmann, Parlour, Bergkamp and his flying elbows and Lauren out of pure jealousy. They were hated like rivals fans now dislike the pricks in the Chelsea, City and (old) Utd teams. Fans will scream out how unfair it is they get away with certain things, exactly the same type of cynical approach we used to employ alongside the better side of our game.

Gamesmanship (we'll call it that now as it might help you) is made up of far more than just sticking your boot in. Playing that card doesn't turn you into Stoke, that is just pure desperation. It comes down to mentality, one of knowing when to do the smaller, uglier things in a game that allows everything else to flourish. I can't think of a team, or a champion in any sport who doesn't understand how important that element is to their game. And no, one player is not going to change the direction of the club. That will only happen when the manager leaves and we can get rid of the deadwood in this squad. It is going to take far more than just one player to change the route we've fallen upon for so long.
And how does that help if you can't score a goal? Or you can't break down a stubborn defence? It doesn't. We're missing more than just a few cynical players and most on here would fancy our title chances a lot more if we had a world class striker on board that could score 30 goals over one or two cynical players. You could swap Kos and Merts for Terry and Kompany and I'd still say we'd struggle on attack and scoring goals.