Growing Pains Written by Watchman on Sunday, 25th May 2014 18:12 So the dust has finally settled and I've sobered up for long enough to collect my thoughts on 14/15. On the face of it a third consecutive mid table finish ( oh the haughty anguished cries of those who proclaim I prefer the Championship to mid table mediocrity) . 12th and a Last 32 in Europa must be classed as a solid season and yet we appear to be underwhelmed by it all! Can it?should it?be that EASY? It was a season with so many frustrations and some lack lustre performances that made the blood boil. Yes some fine performances came and went Mestalla, OT in the cups respectively but the season showed no momentum, maybe an unkind fixture list meant it would always get closer to the wire this time round and so it proved but in the end it all seemed so comfortable. So what have we learned from the difficult 3rd season! well we have grown up and some of those growing pains have been very confusing for everyone that is daft enough to close their emotional handcuffs to this Football Club. We are a mid table Premier League side and every season we stay here the gap between ourselves and those clubs in the Chamionship gets bigger and bigger. It's time we realised that. A recent survey by Deloittes claims that we will soon be in the top 40 richest clubs in the World NOT the UK but in the World. Those involved in the fight all those years ago to save this club and every one of those who have joined along the way now need to think where do we go now? We are not a small club anymore we are no longer a teenager looking for a way in the world, the club is respected and highly thought of across the globe. The only time we really got mentioned as a Welsh side last year was during Derby weeks before, inbetween and after we were a underperforming mid table side that is how we are perceived by others now! we are no longer just welsh. Its about time we realised that we are buying the first pint with our Dad's and it's not being bought for us. Silverware has arrived, Europe has arrived useful and valuable lessons , both, and I am sure the powers that be have learned a lot. Football is a fickle business and it could all go Pete Tong very quickly but it's time to ensure it doesn't! the art of a good business is to improve and add in a position of strength and the club is in a position of strength. No need for the club to be nervous now, let us be comfortable in our own skin and stop doubting ourselves. I want the Board, Trust and any Jack to be able to talk and dream and put forward suggestions of where we go next. Time not to stand on ceremony but to move forward we have, all of us, gone through that awkward coming of age as football fans and it shook us up a bit we became less comfortable but we came through it TOGETHER! and that is the lesson we must all learn! One Saturday night during a mid season break I was travelling back to Swansea and on the train came Coventry City fans and the sense of pride you get when you realise how fans of other clubs see us as a beacon and the respect we hold takes the breath away. We are no longer a Welsh club! WE ARE a Football club, SWANSEA CITY FOOTBALL CLUB. Time to embrace our expectations, and dreams and turn them into a new reality and on to the next level and show the world what we can do TOGETHER. I want the board to stand up and say expansion will happen and not might I want the Trust to be more vocal and ambitious, why should the Trust only be about saving something it should be about spreading the word. I want us to be aiming for more silverware. Of course there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance but we have come a hell of a long way and we have the scars to prove we did it our way no reason why we cannot go on. We should certainly be aiming for more silverware. The board took a big decison mid season and one that has turned out to be correct, it took some courage but hey that is what big business have to do! I like it when we go against the perceived flow. The players were forced to take a look at themselves for the first time in a long while and come up with answers The fans well we became too comfortable time to make some noise again Here is to a summer when we only talk of players joining rather than who the next Manager will be but knowing us Garry will be headhunted by somebody I wonder what the odds are on that! W Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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