Yes, our fans are very passive. It’s a quality that we have a supportive fan base that isn’t completely knee jerk - at least in the stadium - but there’s also an acceptance of utter mediocrity that creates an environment that doesn’t demand excellence. There’s no cauldron of pressure to succeed here, like there are at some top clubs. That’s not even debatable. Some see it as a quality, others as a deficiency. That part can be debated all day, but what is true is that players and managers have been supported well by match going fans, long past their poor performances deserved it. That has its own rewards and curses.
In Fergie’s time, the insistence on excellence in everything, came from within the management structure. Next season it’s going to have to come from the new technical and executive structure. Wherever it comes from, it needs to come from somewhere. You can’t have a passive and supportive fan base, and a passive and supportive management structure. Somebody needs to take accountability for exacting the highest of standards.
Personally, I’ve always liked having a supportive fan base, but once we had endless shite on the field and endless shite in the dugout and in the executive suite, it ceased to work as a benefit for us.
I will say that I can’t abide this repetitive insistence every year of needing 7, 8, 9 etc new players. It’s just a way of shifting the blame for failure onto whoever fits that person’s personal agenda. The failure is collective and systemic, and to change that, you need reform at the very top. Specifically, a top class coach, and a focus, intelligent and driven football structure. With that in place, two to four astute signings and getting the best out of what we already have, should be more than enough to have us competing again. Any structure or coach who can’t accomplish that, under those parameters, has no business being here. There are teams competing with much lesser squads than the one we have. A great coach should always be able to make a team much greater than the sum of its parts, and the response to failure can’t always be that we need to replace all the players. That’s just lazy bollocks.