Ultimate objective

Catching up with some bits and pieces I missed over the weekend including these poignant words from Andre Villas-Boas pre-Swansea. ​

"Our ultimate objective is Champions League qualification. If we don't achieve it we have to consider what has been achieved this season as steps forward.

The circumstances, players, leaders, training are different. So at this moment, it has nothing to do with past experiences.

Obviously it can happen. We have to reflect on it like on the late goals we suffered this season. The more you work on it the more you will get out of it. It has happened before, but it doesn't mean it will happen again.

Our ultimate objective is Champions League qualification. If we don't achieve it we have to consider what has been achieved this season as steps forward, which are positive for the club and the team going forward, bearing in the mind the players the team lost.

But it's not up to me to judge. If you want to move forward, you move forward by qualifying for the Champions League."

​I said poignant (ironic joke) but they're simply obvious statements, balanced with the long term in mind but respecting the impact the short term can have (on the long term). Make sense? Would still be bitterly disappointing to fade away now. But if we do it's because of tangible (fixable) reasons rather than smacking into a brick wall without a clue on how to climb over it.

I completely agree that this is a different team/mind set than to the one of last season. Which is why I keep repeating the fact that we always recovery from a blip. ​I should ask Andre to guest-blog. I'm positive his grammar will be an improvement on mine.