Ignoring the issues of squad and management and ownership for a few seconds, I wonder if another reason for restlessness within the fanbase is down to disillusionment with the league, and football in general?
As the title suggests, it probably comes across as feeling sorry for oneself, but it can be difficult not to when every week you come away from a game and a match week feeling like the cards are rigged. I'm sure every team feels unlucky, but I do think we get more than our fair share of ill fortune.
For right or wrong, we probably have the 'nicest team' and manager in the league in terms of not engaging in the dark arts/haranguing officials etc, but that doesn't ever play in our favour.
We (and other smaller teams, I concede) are 100% refereed differently to other teams. Many times you just have to imagine situations reversed: if Endo had made that tackle on Hughes in the build-up to a Liverpool penalty, would VAR have interfered? No chance. Would Alexander Arnold have received either of the yellows Ayew got yesterday? No chance. Would Eze have been awarded the penalty Son got today? No chance; he'd probably receive a caution for diving instead.
When referees are sent to the monitor, they basically always reverse the decision - referees have stuck with their original call on a tiny number of occasions - it's happened on less than 0.4% of occasions or something like that. Yet it's happened to us twice. Even punditry on decisions for or against us seems different that if it's Liverpool or Arsenal or whoever being discussed.
When Newcastle or Spurs have a few injuries at once, there's hours of discussion about it and sympathy about their plight. When we have an injury crisis - which relatively is more impactful as our squad is smaller and the players involved are seemingly always our best and most crucial - it's a footnote at best.
We seem to disproportionately face teams when they are in good form, rather than in a rut and/or affected by injuries - for instance Newcastle this week. We also always seem to play teams when they welcome back key players from injury - Allison yesterday, for instance, who won them the game.
Again, for right or wrong, we seem to be one of the only Premier League teams who try to keep within our financial means, but it doesn't benefit us, as everyone else seems to get away with pushing the boundaries (I even include Everton as the points deduction will be irrelevant this season, whereas last season it would have sent them down).
One of the contributing factors is that we're just not fashionable I guess, and I always feel like a lot of people look down their noses at us, and feel we don't truly belong here, as a traditional big club like Leeds or Sheffield Wednesday or whoever should have our place. Even in our most successful periods in the last decade, and/or when we've been an exciting team to watch, it's always felt like we're not spoken about on TV or radio or podcasts, and when we are talked about, it's rather brief and begrudging.
Perhaps I'm wrong, and I've got a complex, but it does feel like our face doesn't fit really.
As the title suggests, it probably comes across as feeling sorry for oneself, but it can be difficult not to when every week you come away from a game and a match week feeling like the cards are rigged. I'm sure every team feels unlucky, but I do think we get more than our fair share of ill fortune.
For right or wrong, we probably have the 'nicest team' and manager in the league in terms of not engaging in the dark arts/haranguing officials etc, but that doesn't ever play in our favour.
We (and other smaller teams, I concede) are 100% refereed differently to other teams. Many times you just have to imagine situations reversed: if Endo had made that tackle on Hughes in the build-up to a Liverpool penalty, would VAR have interfered? No chance. Would Alexander Arnold have received either of the yellows Ayew got yesterday? No chance. Would Eze have been awarded the penalty Son got today? No chance; he'd probably receive a caution for diving instead.
When referees are sent to the monitor, they basically always reverse the decision - referees have stuck with their original call on a tiny number of occasions - it's happened on less than 0.4% of occasions or something like that. Yet it's happened to us twice. Even punditry on decisions for or against us seems different that if it's Liverpool or Arsenal or whoever being discussed.
When Newcastle or Spurs have a few injuries at once, there's hours of discussion about it and sympathy about their plight. When we have an injury crisis - which relatively is more impactful as our squad is smaller and the players involved are seemingly always our best and most crucial - it's a footnote at best.
We seem to disproportionately face teams when they are in good form, rather than in a rut and/or affected by injuries - for instance Newcastle this week. We also always seem to play teams when they welcome back key players from injury - Allison yesterday, for instance, who won them the game.
Again, for right or wrong, we seem to be one of the only Premier League teams who try to keep within our financial means, but it doesn't benefit us, as everyone else seems to get away with pushing the boundaries (I even include Everton as the points deduction will be irrelevant this season, whereas last season it would have sent them down).
One of the contributing factors is that we're just not fashionable I guess, and I always feel like a lot of people look down their noses at us, and feel we don't truly belong here, as a traditional big club like Leeds or Sheffield Wednesday or whoever should have our place. Even in our most successful periods in the last decade, and/or when we've been an exciting team to watch, it's always felt like we're not spoken about on TV or radio or podcasts, and when we are talked about, it's rather brief and begrudging.
Perhaps I'm wrong, and I've got a complex, but it does feel like our face doesn't fit really.
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