Right this has been bugging me for months without end now.
Frankly I'm sick and tired of everyone bashing Bill Kenwright and the Board. I know there are others out there who are more willing to spend than this lot, but look where it's put them. See Newcastle, West Ham, Manchester City before Sheikh Mansour, Portsmouth, and most likely Birmingham City, for example. West Ham, down. Portsmouth, down. Birmingham, down. Likely, were it not for Sheikh Mansour, City would be in a similar situation as the other 3, Sinawatra was a total disaster for them. Surely, if things don't change, Aston Villa will follow them.
The point here is whilst our board may not be taking us anywhere, they aren't soft. Thankfully they have more sense than money, unlike the gentlemen that bought out these aforementioned clubs.
My own personal strategy for "being ambitious" is showing a bit of ambition on the pitch rather than our money-throwing skills. It's maddening how we can seemingly always do well against good sides but lose to lesser sides. To some extent one can look at tactics but there's absolutely no excuse for playing 8 defenders and a striker who hasn't scored since dinosaurs roamed the Earth against West Brom.
I respect David Moyes as much as the next man, his patience and ability to find total bargains is second to none. However his tactics somehow manage to piss me off and bug at me on a regular basis. I'm all for having and excellent defence and that right, but at the end of the day, we've got to show some attacking intent. If needs be get rid of players and reinvest to do it, I know who I'd sell off right now if they don't buck their ideas, messrs Arteta and Rodwell, I swear they were both pre-occupied with passing the ball sideways this season.
It's all well and good playing the best of the best and beating the best of the best, but all that good work is undone when you drop points against lesser teams. It could easily be argued that we dropped a good 30 odd points against sides that finished in the bottom half of the table, with 15 coming from the bottom six. Really Moyesy? Really?
We can't even blame injuries this year, we were ****e with our stars and then became good without them, surely something isn't right here. Oh and who can forget that shambolic FA Cup defeat at home to Reading. I remember looking at that lineup and thinking, "Who will supply Saha?". I received my expected answer: Nobody. We had chances to, I remember Arteta choosing a sidewards pass to Seamus Coleman rather than a through ball which would've put Saha in on goal, and it's that sort of negativity that bugs me. Story of the season, summed up in one massively frustrating moment.
So we can bitch and whine and moan about the board and their supposed lack of investment all we want, but it's not going to change the way the team plays on the pitch. I'm annoyed by the continual frustration with this side, we all know they have the potential to win the league, but I'd like to see it. I see no reason why we can not just try and attack, but apparently that's not happening.
