ChrisBlade
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- Aug 20, 2009
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Now I must say that I do not have all that much of an opinion on the possible sale of Nick Blackman. Years of following United have probably softened me up for sales like this one. I see him as an important player. But I can also see the lure in selling him for a quick profit - either because we have an eye on replacements or - more likely - because we do need the money.
I do have one issue though with a lot of posts I read about this potential sale today. I got a feeling that a lot of people are now saying "if we do not replace him, we will regret this in May." Very often, these are the same people who said last week after the Yeovil debacle "we are treading water and are shite. Wait until February 6 and we will be 8th, which is where we will finish if we are lucky."
So in short: We should all decide on the course of history today. If you think that the current squad is too crappy to go up anyway, this should preclude you from claiming after the fully expected eighth place finish that United "sold promotion in January".
Why am I saying this? Because I have read time and time again that, when we sold Deano and JAF on the same day, the board sold "certain promotion." When in truth, we were one of three or four teams vying for promotion and at that stage looked far from certain to go up - far from it.
The worst claim to be made in both instances would be that we "weakened our (more or less healthy?) promotion prospects by untimely sales."
Turning this fairly reasonable argument on its head, sales such as this one should entitle mainly the ridiculous optimists to most of the moaning in summer because they still expect promotion with Blackman in the side - so when we stay where we are or keep dipping further they would be within their rights to draw a connection. Whereas the people who think that we are currently a mismanaged shower of shit should restrict the criticism to such general mismanagement, rather than cite a flagship sale as a reason to miss out on targets they never thought we'd achieve anyway with the current hierchy in charge.
I am sure our learned friend Darren will point out a flaw in my logic, however.
So whether one is of the optimistic or pessimistic persuasion, the least one should do on days such as this one is to stop for a second, then make a mental note of your expectations with the sold player and without - and then stick to those projections in summer. Everything else can easily become a bit of a revisionist double-dip, bending or reinventing history to suit one's argument retroactively...
PS: And just in case - this is intended in a wholly light-hearted manner, not divisively. If I had better technical skills, I would have combined it with a poll of expectations with Nick Blackman and without...
And to stop sitting on a fence and make myself slightly more attackable, Prediction with Nick Blackman 4th to 6th, Prediction without him and no meaningful replacements, 5th to 7th. So I suppose I see us getting in the play-offs either way, but his sale might mean we just miss out...
I do have one issue though with a lot of posts I read about this potential sale today. I got a feeling that a lot of people are now saying "if we do not replace him, we will regret this in May." Very often, these are the same people who said last week after the Yeovil debacle "we are treading water and are shite. Wait until February 6 and we will be 8th, which is where we will finish if we are lucky."
So in short: We should all decide on the course of history today. If you think that the current squad is too crappy to go up anyway, this should preclude you from claiming after the fully expected eighth place finish that United "sold promotion in January".
Why am I saying this? Because I have read time and time again that, when we sold Deano and JAF on the same day, the board sold "certain promotion." When in truth, we were one of three or four teams vying for promotion and at that stage looked far from certain to go up - far from it.
The worst claim to be made in both instances would be that we "weakened our (more or less healthy?) promotion prospects by untimely sales."
Turning this fairly reasonable argument on its head, sales such as this one should entitle mainly the ridiculous optimists to most of the moaning in summer because they still expect promotion with Blackman in the side - so when we stay where we are or keep dipping further they would be within their rights to draw a connection. Whereas the people who think that we are currently a mismanaged shower of shit should restrict the criticism to such general mismanagement, rather than cite a flagship sale as a reason to miss out on targets they never thought we'd achieve anyway with the current hierchy in charge.
I am sure our learned friend Darren will point out a flaw in my logic, however.
So whether one is of the optimistic or pessimistic persuasion, the least one should do on days such as this one is to stop for a second, then make a mental note of your expectations with the sold player and without - and then stick to those projections in summer. Everything else can easily become a bit of a revisionist double-dip, bending or reinventing history to suit one's argument retroactively...
PS: And just in case - this is intended in a wholly light-hearted manner, not divisively. If I had better technical skills, I would have combined it with a poll of expectations with Nick Blackman and without...
And to stop sitting on a fence and make myself slightly more attackable, Prediction with Nick Blackman 4th to 6th, Prediction without him and no meaningful replacements, 5th to 7th. So I suppose I see us getting in the play-offs either way, but his sale might mean we just miss out...
