Claudius wrote:
I’d rather we set a crazy stretch target and failed at 2nd position. Than went with the old school approach of CB only chasing 4th and tumbling to midtable. How do you think that disappointment tastes?
Leicester's target the season they won the league was to avoid relegation. Ranieri kept repeating it well into the spring.
I think "Aim for the moon and reach the tree tops" is self-help bullshit for people who have never competed themselves. Ambition doesn't work like that in my experience. It's about doing everything you can in the present and then see where it gets you. Naturally there are also things like structural planning, youth development, etc, but there's no real reason why we can't win things next season if we sort out our attitude.
We need players who are up for it 365 days per year like Speedy says, who'll treat every training and every game as important as the next. Football is a soft sport compared to almost every individual sport I can think of. The players train less, eat worse and live more careless than any swimmer or runner could ever do. That's why the few real athletes around, like Zlatan and Ronaldo, are in their late 30s and still outperform guys in their 20s. If they keep playing they'll be superior well into their 40s too. That's how soft and spoiled football players are.
Gasperini has spoken at length about this regarding Atalanta. He said he never takes a player if he doesn't show the right work ethic. He has zero time for people who won't willingly train twice as much and run twice as hard as their opponents, and he has built the fittest side in Serie A despite several key players being well over 30. Simeone does the exact same thing at Atletico Madrid.
The one really promising aspect of Arteta's management, to me, is that he seems to share this view. Dodgy/negative tactics aside, his attitude towards hard work is spot on. If he actually commits to it I reckon he could be going places with this team.
