Quote Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur View Post
I defy you to draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline. We once won the league with 78 points. We’re on the decline. You can’t measure the performance of a team in isolation without looking at the competition and growth in the market. Nobody does that. What was good enough 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t mean it’s enough for today.
Current league position or league position at seasons end

I made the point a few months ago that between 1998 and 2005 we finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd

Then there was a decline to a lower tier between 2006 and 2016 where we finished 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd

Now arguably we’ve fallen down another step

So Letters is right in the sense that it’s largely been stagnation, and you are right in the sense that eventually fail to push forward has slowly pushed us backwards.

The graph would read a steady line followed by a short drop followed by a steady line

Rio Ferdinand is right in the sense that we are going backwards, in the sense that our points accumulation is much the same as it ever was but we are being pushed out by forward thinking and ambitious clubs.