Well, the new season tickets offers are starting to come out encouraging supporters to continue to support their team in what promises to be a better season next year than the one that has gone before.
You've got to admire their 'spin' and confidence clubs have in themselves not to recognise that it is a 2-way street and supporters now require a bit more in the execution of such promises.
At one time it was Arsenal and Man Utd who disregarded certain Cup competitions as they thought there were 'bigger fish to fry' so they fielded basically a 'reserve team' in these fixtures, confident that they had big enough squads of quality players not to warrant punishment by the authorities. Man Utd proved anything was possible when they decided not to take part in the F.A. Cup at all.
Now we have supporters of Aston Villa travelling for a mid-week match, in the quarter final of supposedly the most illustrious cup competition in the world, against one of the contenders for the Premiership title and the manager puts out a weakened team.
Poor Villa - but don't blame the dour Frenchman for this one. Easy surrenders are something of a fashion for Randy Lerner's men and this time it does not involve the Cleveland Browns. Martin O'Neill did the same to these supporters as they went out in the 1st Round of the Europa League last season.
Within the last 7 days we have also seen a lack of application from teams with undeniably better players than their opposition but not the will to apply their superior skills on the day. Both Everton and Arsenal again left their fans bewildered as to why they had been let down yet again when they know how their team have performed entirely the opposite in recent weeks. David Moyes said he understood why the fans felt disgruntled. If Moyes is seen as a something of a moral compass in the game then it shows exactly how hard it is to gear a team of millionaires up for a game ... oh if they arrive on time. Investment may be the only answer for clubs like Everton and Arsenal struggling to make good on their varying levels of expectations - of only it was so simple.
As if things on the pitch are not bad enough - 2011 is a time when you have to watch your back. What happens across that white line is not even the half of it. The issue of club ownership, whereby the club supporters have taken into their life - it is a part of them, like a marriage - yet such loyalty can be sold to an outsider and dismantled in front of a fans eyes - just ask those at Portsmouth and Liverpool.
In this time of austerity, paying to watch your team is a luxury that is afforded because it alleviates the daily grind and is a part of your life. However, you want to be treated as an intelligent onlooker who wants to see, for every game, the best available team at the manager's disposal and those highly paid athletes at the club turn up on time for the game giving their honest utmost whilst on the pitch and not cheat us.
We know that players and managers will come and go and that their is no loyalty any more by these individuals but we also know that it is OUR club and we deserve better than we are getting at the moment.
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