“It’s always by way of pain that one arrives at pleasure”
Strangely, the Marquis de Sade didn’t expound on his idea in the context of football – surely the one place where his thesis is most evidently true.
So I guess the task falls to me.
At least 85 per cent of football fans will finish this season frustrated and angry. Television will show celebrations from across the leagues, but the norm is actually despair, recrimination, and calls for managers and/or boards to be sacked.
I sometimes read bitter and twisted tweets assuming they’re from Norwich fans, only to realise they’re from supporters of Villa, Fulham, Arsenal or many others. The language is remarkably common (in all senses).
Ipswich fans make an admirable effort to be angry, but these days their hearts aren’t even in that.
For some, next season will bring pleasure that’s all the sweeter for the earlier pain. For most, it won’t. It’s a thought for us, perhaps: even if we suffer the agony of relegation this month, we’ll have had five outstanding years out of the last seven.
Though we’re in the heat of a present battle, for a number of reasons my thoughts have been drawn back to the Eighties.
First and foremost, of course, to Hillsborough. The 27-year battle, and ultimate vindication, of the families has truly shown the best and worst of Britain. The dignity and perseverance of the campaigners has been inspirational; if honours mean anything, a few should be heading their way.
On the other hand, for years they received nothing but scorn from parts of the establishment, including some of those currently waving Union Jacks and trumpeting their patriotism. The lies, and the high-level predisposition to believe and propagate them, are a continuing stain on our country.
City’s current situation also turned my mind back to another part of the Eighties – specifically, season 1984-85. It was a relegation season for us, and perhaps the most bitter of all. We’d won the Milk Cup in March, and despite a bad run our top-flight survival seemed assured when we finished our season by winning at Chelsea.
However, it wasn’t quite over. Coventry had three more games; technically they could overtake us by winning all three, though it looked highly unlikely. Of course it happened, culminating in their victory over champions Everton three weeks after our last game.
No consolation for us, but that farcical situation moved the Football League to change its rules and stipulate that everyone’s fixtures should be completed on the same day.
Am I dwelling on the bitterness of our relegation that season? Actually, no. Like Sunderland in 2014, the message lies in Coventry’s performance. Written off by many of their fans with three games to go, apparently not good enough at either end of the pitch, they still had a team spirit that – when it came to the crunch – propelled them to the wins they needed.
It was a happier outcome for City the next year. Despite going down, there was no question of sacking Ken Brown – and for the second time, he assuaged the pain of relegation by leading City to bounce back at the first attempt.
One tangential fact of that time, illustrated by season 1985-86. These days it’s rare for a player to be ever-present; in our current season, for instance, no City player will have appeared in all 38 games. In the 42-game season of 1985-86, though, we had four ever-presents: Bruce, Woods, Watson and Phelan. (Interestingly, none of them won Player of the Season that year, an honour that went to 41-game Kevin Drinkell.)
Having set myself up on this forum as something of a voice of culture and reason, this is probably the last thing I should admit. But – as long as it’s on the pitch rather than in the stands – I’m not averse to a bit of old-fashioned aggro.
Watching Chelsea-Spurs on Monday night was terrific. Apart from the unaccustomed emotion of wanting Chelsea to win, it was a brilliant spectator experience – not least because some of the tackling was a throwback to the Seventies, never mind the Eighties. Not sure what de Sade would have made of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was also a reminder, even if he’s not to everyone’s taste, of what an excellent referee Mark Clattenburg is.
Going back to 1985 and Coventry’s survival, I suspect you’ve figured out the point that struck me. I saw no shortage of commitment and belief in City’s performance at The Emirates. On the day we weren’t clinical enough at either end, just like Coventry before their three final games.
But our final games will come down to team spirit and determination. City showed that for 90 minutes at The Emirates and they left the pitch with heads high, not bowed.
This isn’t over yet.
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It is over. Stop giving yourself wayward hope. Coventry in the 80’s didn’t have martin, bassong and ruddy. I win. Besides, I find it very difficult to listen to a man that rates Clattenburg! That has to your oddest claim yet. Excellent sentence on Ipswich though.
Jeff – This is a platform for opinions. Just accept others don’t always share yours. I’m less optimistic than Stew of our chances but if we do go down I certainly won’t perceive it as winning! Now *that* seems odd.
Jeff (1) – As I say, it’s not over yet.
I did expect some pushback on Clattenburg. But if you compare his consistency and composure in the Battle of the Bridge with the performance of Jonathan Moss in Leicester-West Ham, I know which I think is the top-level ref.
Cov played Everton on the last day; Everton had won the League and been celebrating heavily…
Jeff, it’s wayward hope that keeps us going. If we don’t have that, we don’t have much. If we looked at things with absolute realism no one should be surprised at our league position; third in the Championship last season means that we started off as the lowest ranked team in the Prem. Wayward hope means the ground is sold out every week.
I think we’re second favourites to stay up/go down. I’ll keep some hope, wayward or not, until we have no hope. While I’m living with a bit of hope, I guess Jeff will have given up and be going round B&Q.
Clattenburg was excellent the other night and is generally the best of a not very good bunch.
The most frustrating thing for me this season, just like our last relegation – and unlike the Worthy relegation – is that we’ve actually spent the majority of the season outside the bottom three, only to plunge in with a handful of games to go.
It’s that feeling, “we should be alright here – just” which rapidly disappears, knowing that we’re unlikely to “dig ourselves out” once 18th, or lower, becomes reality.
Gary – we may not have spent long in the bottom three but we have been flirting with it all season and have hardly ever been out of the bottom five or six.
I think the lack of goals and habit of defensive mistakes were engrained by January, and it’s rare that a club can transform that mid-season, or for successive three games at the end.
Three wins (which I think we will need) is certainly possible – probably less than the magical 5,000-1 !!
I keep reading comments like Jeff’s especially on Facebook where the City posts are responded to with endless bile and on Twitter.
Ignoring the obvious attempts at superiority in the “I know better than you and you are a fool for not realising it is over” message, I really wonder what the point of these end of the line comments is intended to be?
Should we not play our last three games if they are hopeless and the question of relegation is resolved? If it is truly over then what is the point?
I suspect that we are obliged to fulfil the fixtures so we have to turn up. In that case, why not try to win? It is hardly fair on anyone to concede defeat.
If we are going to try to win, why not hope to win and encourage the team as best we can? In another forum, I challenged a Jeff style doom merchant by asking for his tickets for the last three games. I am still waiting for a reply.
Spot on Gary (5). That’s really the story of our season: do OK for most of the time but run out of steam as the season wears on; exactly the same as we seem to run out of steam the longer each game wears on.
How many late goals have we conceded? How many errors do we make in the last 15 mins of a game? How often have we seen exhausted players lose their tactical shape during the closing stages?
This highlights what I’ve been ranting about all season: our team does not seem as physically fit as other teams in this league. Our problem is at Colney, I sincerely believe. Maybe we have become too scientific. Maybe we should re-examine the Ron Saunders’ boot camp philosophy of training.
Laugh if you like, but Leicester have just pulled off a freak of nature by using 70’s philosophies of brute strength in defence, kick and run in midfield, and chase-every-ball twin strikers. Good on ’em!
OTBC
Spurs v Chelsea, great full-blooded game. Had we been playing it I suspect we’d have had a couple sent off! I think you could make a strong case for it being very poorly refereed by Clattenburg – how Spurs had 11 players on the pitch by the final whistle beggars belief. Had he been refereeing Stoke v Norwich O’Neill would have stayed on the pitch and we might have won. I know if pigs could fly…. If we go down (and sadly, I think we will), it will be those 1-0 losses and not turning up at Bournemouth, Villa and the like that does it – also not taking our chances
Pab (6) I understand what you’re saying. The likes of Palace and Swansea have also, at various stages, being looking nervously over their shoulder.
The tenancy, for many is to look solely from our perspective and fear the worst irrespective of what others are doing. To prove the point, I actually work with two fans who support Newcastle and Sunderland and I can tell you that both, for 2/3rds of the season have both been adamant they are going down.
Which just goes to show, you can be pretty rubbish for the best part of 30 games and still survive, as we proved under CH during his first season!
Let’s be honest, we’re all sadomasochists for following the Canaries but in-between the pain comes the occasional burst of pleasure. A win (and the double) against Man Utd would be orgasmic. I’m sure ‘sexy Sade’ would have been a Canary.
Clattenburg is a little arrogant for my tastes but he was trusted with the 1st leg between Atletico and Bayern, so must have something going in his favour.
Impressive that Kevin Drinkell (not the slightest of figures) put in such a big shift that season. Squads were smaller of course then and the pace/intensity of the game not as demanding as now. Alas, our forwards this season have been in and out of the team due to poor form rather than fitness levels.
It’s been a season of unexpected outcomes – maybe one final twist is in store as we defy the odds and stick two fingers up to all the pundits. OTBC
This piece has made me think twice about my refusal to go to the Utd game / own up to my own shortcomings as a supporter who puts her hands over her eyes and pretends none of it’s happening (!).
I’d like to see Bamford start all three remaining games. He’s the most natural striker we have and he might just be what we need next season, whatever division. But if we don’t play him we’ll never find out.
Thanks for everyone’s comments – a thought-provoking mix as usual.
Yes, it was a bit bizarre that Spurs finished with 11 on the field; the one clear mistake I thought Clattenburg made was not showing a second yellow to Dier. That aside, though, he surely deserves praise for his management of a high-octane game.
Actually, I was reminded of the point when he first went up in my estimation. It was October 2104, our home game with Leeds when Jerome believed he was racially abused by Bellusci. The officials didn’t witness it and Clattenburg therefore couldn’t take action – but he showed he recognised the sensitivity of the issue by speaking at length to the benches and sympathetically to Jerome.
He did a similar thing on Monday with the Fabregas/Lamela incident. Other refs would have simply waved players away rather than take time to explain the officials’ situation. He treated them as adults.