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OUT BUT NOT DOWN 18-3-05
Losing with dignity and going out with style just doesn't do it for me. Maybe some of us are pleased with the way that we performed last night as we were forced out of Europe and happy that we gave a good account of ourselves in Lisbon. Personally, I would rather be a lucky winner.
Yes, we did our best but as Sean Connery said in 'The Rock', 'Losers do their best. Winners go home to fuck the prom queen.
Everybody knows that if our full strength first eleven could have taken the field last night, we would have won at a canter but we shouldn't be making excuses. Instead, we should be looking at what more we could have possibly done to have prevented our exit from the tournament.
And can we pick ourselves up in time for Sunday and the first of our final nine Premiership matches/UEFA Cup qualifiers? With a little help from everybody who has anything to do with the club, those on the inside, writers, commentators, supporters alike, then we can if certain parties adopt a different attitude.
There was a comment in last Friday's Gazette and I quote;
"But, as this was men against boys at times, every young lad who was thrilled by the action in the final ten minutes will tell you that we've got Sporting on the run."
Well all I have to say to that is this. "I would rather be a young lad who supports my team with a passion than a grumpy old bastard who only gets behind them when things are going well."
Certain journos at The Gazette should be taking a long hard look at themselves and asking which one they are and I'll give you a clue. They're the grumpy old bastard and they're a pack of lazy sods as well.
Do they realise that the articles they write are read by people who support Boro and that they become ingrained into their subconscious? That they could give this team an extra 10 points a season by simply being positive and giving the team maximum encouragement?
If they don't, then it's time for them to shut their negative mouths, bail out and make way for journos who do care about this team and do want to do the little that they can to help it's progress.
Every negative word that is printed is a hurdle for the team to cross. Every back-handed insult to a bad performance is a 'come on' to the boo-boys and they should be ashamed of themselves for not getting behind our team in the way that they could have done.
I said at the start of this season that collective spirit and belief would see us through a lot of difficult times during this campaign and what a shame that we never got to see that method in action. And our local paper could have done so much more to help the cause. What a shame that they didn't.
'Being realistic' will be the defence to that accusation but that can be countered by asking 'did you do enough to help stem the flow of negativity that has held our club back since the dawn of time' and 'what are you doing for that particular cause, other than encouraging it?'
There are some journos at The Gazette who do stay positive most of the time and yet still manage to remain realistic. They are the good guys but it begs the question, 'why can't they all do that?'
We will continue to shout loud and hard for Boro, whatever situation we are in and we will continue to champion causes that are maybe futile, for example Boro winning the UEFA Cup. That may make us unrealistic but I would prefer to be that way than to adopt the negativity that threatens to unravel all the hard effort that out us in Europe in the first place.
Anybody who writes anything about the Boro is in a position to help the cause and if they continue with the 'glass half empty' approach, then they are simply lazy and unproductive when instead, they should be using their position to help spur this team on to unprecedented success.
There is no doubt that this morning's papers will revert to that old English habit of hailing the gallant defeated. Well it's not enough and it won't really do the team a great deal of good.
For the sake of Middlesbrough Football Club, we need total and unwavering positivity during our nine UEFA Cup qualifiers and if it makes us unrealistic, then so be it. Football is not a realistic world and if you don't do your bit for the club, then you are the loser.
You can believe anything that you can see but if we can get into a way of thinking where we can see anything that we believe, then all of this year's fantasies about winning the UEFA Cup can be resurrected for the next campaign.
But only if we can first achieve that collective spirit and belief because its absence was one of the biggest factors in our failure this season.
Deep in my heart. I still believe. We shall overcome.
Until next week.
Steve
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