What a time for an extended international break. Anyone who regularly listens to the podcast will no doubt have been bored of me banging on about how crap international breaks are – but not on this occasion. Safe in the knowledge that our performance couldn’t be dented or diluted by the next fixture for three weeks, we could bathe in the glow of doing the double over that lot. And the way we did it. And how we celebrated. And how they reacted as always – which Anthony Gordon represented on a national scale
poetically.
And it’s been fun, but as we enter the week that ends with our next fixture – that sees relegation-threatened Spurs visiting the Stadium of Light – we can begin to look forward.
We’re on 43 points with seven games remaining – a position where we can watch the title race play out and the relegation places become confirmed from a distance – and that is some achievement in itself.
When I think back to those two seasons under Peter Reid after we were promoted in the summer of 1999 – I’m guilty of this as much as anyone – there is an immediate frustration about what could have been. In both of the seasons that followed there should be more of a sense of pride and achievement at the heights that side actually reached.
I feel it’s the same with this squad during the current season. We might have gone second in the table after beating Chelsea in late October and spent a week or two in the top four, but whatever happens next, we can’t lose sight of what an achievement this season has been – and how much we’ve all enjoyed it.
I said to myself after the final whistle went at Wembley that whatever followed, I was going to enjoy it. Even if that meant going straight back down, then so be it. Our promotion to the Premier League came only three years after beating Wycombe Wanderers to get out of League One, and I was just glad to be there. But the club wanted more than just survival, and they take the credit for being six points behind fifth-placed Liverpool with seven games to play.
There was a question sent in for a Q&A on the pod that – quite rightly by the way – asked if we wanted to qualify for a European competition based on how it has negatively impacted some other clubs in similar positions in the past. Before this season, it might have been a question I would have asked – but not now, not with the people we have running the club and not with their ambition.
Last season was the same deal with promotion – “do we actually want that?” – but the club have embraced the step up and met the challenge head on, and if we did end up playing in Europe next season, I don’t have any doubts they’d embrace the challenge again. From a fan’s perspective, we can’t pick and choose these things so when opportunities come along it’s best to try and take them. For example, it’s been 53 years since we last played in European competition.
But if we don’t qualify for Europe, or even collect another point in the next seven games, we can’t lose sight of how much has been achieved this year. We have grabbed the opportunity that last season’s promotion provided with both hands already. I’m going to enjoy the rest of the season for what it is and what it might lead to. Not thoughts of “what if?” or any regrets. Let’s celebrate where we are and what we’ve done in these last seven games.
