At the risk of getting my head bitten off at this depressing moment let's look at this from Ramos's standpoint. This is not what I think and I don't necessarily agree with his attitude if indeed it is his attitude. I am a flimsy supporter by nature, depressed one week and elated the next though I continually exhort my fellow fans to be positive and supportive at all times. What's the point of living if you are not. But that's only a point of view and I find it hard to maintain in real life. I manage to get it all under control only when I sit before my keyboard.
He is prioritising cup games because when they come up they have to be won. This particularly applies to the Uefa cup because that again offers us the chance of qualifying for Europe whatever our league position.
We have made a disastrous start but with over 30 games to go he will believe that this can be turned round and mid table if not better is still achievable. He is drawing attention to penalty decisions at Portsmouth and his mindset at the moment is that although we have not played well we are in the midst of a run of bad luck and bad form by many of the squad.
He will also draw attention to injuries,Hutton,Bale and Modric which have worked against his game plans and the need to nurse his captain and talisman Ledley King through the season.
He will also believe that at this early stage he is right to try different combinations of players and tactics. This has been forced upon him by the late arrival of players and the late sale of others.
He will say that to prioritise the league at this early stage is to leave us by Xmas possibly out of all competitive competitions just as we start to pick up league points and leave ourselves with nothing to play for.
If he is sacked he will blame bad luck,injuries and Comolli for failing to produce the players he needed and Levy for playing management games when he should have been signing players.
He will leave with his reputation tarnished but with a several million pound pay-off and with open arms by several Spanish clubs who will be only too pleased to commiserate with him.
He will maintain this stance until at least the end of October,and maybe November, by when things will have improved and us panicking fans will be made to look rather silly. If they have not he will be sacked if he hasn't been already by Levy who is just as flaky under fire as me.
So what's my point. My point is that although this kind of start was not quite what he had in mind his perspective is longer and wider than ours. We want good performances and wins and we want them now. If things improve over the next few weeks he knows that he has at least a season to shape the team and its progress his way. The short term is not his priority and if it doesn't work out he is well covered in his own mind and it won't in the long run affect his future.
He will chalk it up to experience: he had a go in England, it didn't work out, he returned to Spain. Its not his club, its not his problem and he doesn't live and work with Arsenal and West Ham fans day to day and he can loftily survey the scene from above.
Now comes the positive me: I do think that it will improve and that over the longer term he will be proved right. I don't understand his team selection, substitutions and tactics most of the time and defer to his judgement as the man who works with the players day to day. He must know a lot that we don't know and there must be a sensible reason for selecting Gilberto before Modric.
The negative me questions his failure after the Carling Cup to motivate the team and lead us to our worst start for half a century and to a points ratio that's worse than Christian Gross.
He is prioritising cup games because when they come up they have to be won. This particularly applies to the Uefa cup because that again offers us the chance of qualifying for Europe whatever our league position.
We have made a disastrous start but with over 30 games to go he will believe that this can be turned round and mid table if not better is still achievable. He is drawing attention to penalty decisions at Portsmouth and his mindset at the moment is that although we have not played well we are in the midst of a run of bad luck and bad form by many of the squad.
He will also draw attention to injuries,Hutton,Bale and Modric which have worked against his game plans and the need to nurse his captain and talisman Ledley King through the season.
He will also believe that at this early stage he is right to try different combinations of players and tactics. This has been forced upon him by the late arrival of players and the late sale of others.
He will say that to prioritise the league at this early stage is to leave us by Xmas possibly out of all competitive competitions just as we start to pick up league points and leave ourselves with nothing to play for.
If he is sacked he will blame bad luck,injuries and Comolli for failing to produce the players he needed and Levy for playing management games when he should have been signing players.
He will leave with his reputation tarnished but with a several million pound pay-off and with open arms by several Spanish clubs who will be only too pleased to commiserate with him.
He will maintain this stance until at least the end of October,and maybe November, by when things will have improved and us panicking fans will be made to look rather silly. If they have not he will be sacked if he hasn't been already by Levy who is just as flaky under fire as me.
So what's my point. My point is that although this kind of start was not quite what he had in mind his perspective is longer and wider than ours. We want good performances and wins and we want them now. If things improve over the next few weeks he knows that he has at least a season to shape the team and its progress his way. The short term is not his priority and if it doesn't work out he is well covered in his own mind and it won't in the long run affect his future.
He will chalk it up to experience: he had a go in England, it didn't work out, he returned to Spain. Its not his club, its not his problem and he doesn't live and work with Arsenal and West Ham fans day to day and he can loftily survey the scene from above.
Now comes the positive me: I do think that it will improve and that over the longer term he will be proved right. I don't understand his team selection, substitutions and tactics most of the time and defer to his judgement as the man who works with the players day to day. He must know a lot that we don't know and there must be a sensible reason for selecting Gilberto before Modric.
The negative me questions his failure after the Carling Cup to motivate the team and lead us to our worst start for half a century and to a points ratio that's worse than Christian Gross.
COYS
