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Dearest Mel,
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I do not know if you have been made aware of this but there is a substantial score of Club supporters who are getting pretty exasperated with the intransigence and reluctance of young “Miss Guardiola” to play you in the starting XI. Especially, if one considers that you did play under her so often last season. Speculation is rife that you are being “mistreated” by her.
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I could perhaps understand if she was of the mind that you are not technically gifted enough for her overly-idealistic brand of “pseudo-Tiki-Taka football“, or simply in order to properly build up offensive play from the back-4. But it’s plainly obvious for all to see, that the team would benefit from having you in there instead of Carolina.
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Bruna’s well enough a decent player but she could certainly benefit from having a more experienced partner by her side.Plus, this team is full of fidgety “midgets“, and they could really use some height, muscle, an ample shoulder girdle, “sharp elbows” and athleticism.
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At this point, straightforwardly “speaking”, I would even have a fat (and inebriated) Abby Wambach (spectacular hairdos and an inexhaustible assortment of 1970’s style leather jackets…) in our central defense instead of the habitual combo of… “light-testicled” and “heavy-footed” (and “burdensome assed”).
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Keep your chin up, the fans sympathize with you. If not under her command, you’ll most assuredly play for whoever comes afterwards. Hopefully, you’ll stick around beyond the end of the season.
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I also know, Mel, that you are grateful for the supporters backing, as I know how much and near a dear they are to you, and in how high-regard you value them and their unwavering encouragement. Frankly speaking, you’ve behaved more in a manner similar of a man, than that “Madeiran fella” sobbing about Ten Hag disrespecting him.
In all honesty, I’d much rather not to write any further in this prose about “people of Madeiran extraction“… Although, a reference or two is bound to pop up in regard to the vascularity in Fátima Pinto‘s very impressive hamstrings.
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In the meantime, what are we to make of all this “midgetball“? Are we to just grin and bear it? Sociologically speaking, I’ve never cared much for social experimentation, so need I expound on how very, very tiresome this “footballing experiment” of her’s is becoming?
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I like poetry and philosophy as much as the next (creative) guy (or girl), and I like Football, I just rather have them in different “plates” all together (uh, that sounded lyrically fine, yet… distinctly like an oxymoron).
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“Coach Guardiola” keeps “shoveling” her midgets on to the pitch, Lightweights, check it, featherweights, flyweights… If a strong gust of wind materializes and off they blow into smithereens. They lack brawn and experience, and yet, the coach expects their technique, positioning and passing ability to render them capable of winning with the apparent effortlessness of deities. A dreadful bore, that’s what it has been.
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I can only assume that “Miss Guardiola” yearns for victories just as much as you or I do, and yet, we rejoice not in something hitherto unimaginable… sporting collapses, and quite a few of them. At the end of another day’s defeat, the poor assistant coach keeps being trotted out as the “face of failure“. Is that why he was brought on? To take the mediatic brunt of all Guardiola’s (persistent) “missteps”?
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And frankly, I bitterly resent anybody that is suggesting otherwise. It’s been a gruesome and fastidious season. I get the sensation that there is a “scuffle” between the gaffer’s pride and the section’s pragmatism for victories, and up to now, the pride seems to be winning. Well, at least somebody/something is winning…
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For myself, and of myself, I can bare it in all candor. I am Portuguese, first and last, as well as I’m a Club supporter, first and foremost. But thus far (into the season) I do question if the way that “she” has handled you cannot be considered a serious and grievous misallocation of resources? Why were you brought in to the Club? Why are we paying you? If not to field you, and let you do what you do in first-rate fashion for your National Squad? Were you not signed at Miss Guardiola’s behest?
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If you are indeed at Guardiola’s beck and call, only for you to be “suppressed” so that the “teacher’s pets” can play, then… dare I say it, that this “underfooted management” is a “policy” which will not be particularly conducive to the fostering of the team’s morale. After all, after a bit of “maltreatment” and possible “discrimination” (based on?), it would be human of you to ponder about the coach’s overall sense of honesty and fairness.
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“She” has remained single-minded in her apparent headlong pursuit of what I may suggest is some sort of individual glory, by attempting to prove the validity of her paradigms. For the past year (or so), she has concentrated wholly on instituting some kind of “cavalier” and “romantic” brand of football. Were I to be interested in any such things, I’d simply go 15 feet to my right and pick up of the shelf a book of Sir Thomas Moore‘s authoring…
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But this is where I’m afraid our paths diverge. She might even fancy herself as the clearest-thinking football coach in the country, but in reality, she’s been running us aground, at the very least since January. If you’ll pardon the metaphorical pretentiousness of it all, the supporters feel like they are being “keelhauled” by an “obsessive” manager.
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Some Club patrons have even gone as far as branding her as a strutting (unsuccessful)self-aggrandizer an out-and-out “traitor“. And you may ask, what form does this disloyalty, this betrayal, take? The running theory is that of a woman who has perhaps lost sight of some of those ideals that they (the fans) hold so profoundly, such as winning, leading, overcoming and adapting.
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Frankly, I see more of the same, month after month, game after game, “inflexible pigheadedness” after iron willed “pigheadedness”. Steel her mind and harden her resolve she might, but like any other “produce” out there, there is an expiration date, and her’s might be drawing awfully near by season’s end.
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I’m certain that she’d rejoice in our triumphs (I have increasing difficulty casting my mind… that far back) as much as we, and I do upbraid her without ever decrying in any way her achievements, the majority of which happened well over a year ago.
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As I write this, dear Mel, there is a growing suspicion within the Club’s “bosom”, that her “perversity” has come to be seen as an unassailable obstacle to what we perceive as a spirit of loyalty, comradeship (not of the MARXão sort, I do assure you…) and mutual responsibility between the institution and one of its employees.
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Yes, you can rightfully assume that I am acutely grieved with all this “midgetry” and “fat darlings” bumbling about “cosplaying” as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. I’d be ecstatic beyond all measure if we were to robustly win the odd game or two against a top 5-6 team in our league.
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I’m also of the opinion that the “high-lord of tactical culture” would not feel slighted in the least were “she” to opt for a more… commonsensical approach to the sport of football. ‘Till that day comes, away with my bothers! As I care not to feel inordinately aggrieved with all this “flowery football” and this variety of “Tippy Tappy malarkey” of her conception. If one is in a quest for balladry, there is a plethora of municipal libraries abound…
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“She” seems well and fully convinced that she is going to reinvent the wheel or re-split the atom. I know of no value of higher importance in sport other than winning. If she looks backwards into the stands, she’ll find our faces “leering” back at her. Although I am not writing about the Club as a whole.
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We’ve been led to believe that the overarching idea of this project was to strive for titles, the “big ones”, and for all I care and can see, there’s more “experimentation” proliferating about… than a closeted lesbian in her first 6 months of College studying fashion design and retail marketing…
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Try we must to find some common ground with “her”, although, rightly or wrongly, I get the notion, that like most “wide-eyed Platonists” of her generation, she keep’s treasuring individual values (her’s) above the communal values, or in other words, she seems to be assessing her personal goals as weighing more than the Club’s (and fans’) ambitions to win titles.
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I mean, within reason she has shown demonstrative displays of public affection for the institution, yet her actions on game day seem to value “other loyalties”(…) much higher. Nonetheless, I think even her most ardent of critics today still consider that she gave us a sturdy benchmark during her first 3-4 months in office.
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We had all in good faith hoped that her appointment would act as a catalyst or accelerant to benefit the modality’s implementation in this country. But those early figures and triumphs now seem awfully and deeply misleading as to her true qualities and overall competences.
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Anyway, we daren’t “rummage” for moral high ground (is there such a thing in modern football?). In due time, we will most assuredly present our case for her immediate dismissal and further on down the line, they’ll pass whatever judgement they deem fit on her “legacy”.
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Time has a way of clarifying all of these “misty” bothers, and time helps filter away misrepresented facts and misstated facts, where often (“underhanded”)”intermediaries“(…) come across like 3rd rate press officers attempting to protect their “darlings” market value. We’ve had enough of “darlings” when Jorge Jesus spoke of Darwin(Núñez)…
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We remain fully confident in this project’s potential as a “transformational vehicle” for the country’s female sports industry. And there has been some constructive criticism that we have all taken on board. Has everything gone smoothly? Methinks not!
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Were we to ask Guardiola’s “intermediary”, her views would be “skewed” in some people’s eyes. Like all honest(…) people she might be able to point out some rather salient points. And have there been other coaches who have failed without anything like the furore that’s been kicked off about this one? It is all a matter of opinion, and I’m certainly willing to entertain contrarian viewpoints.
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But the most important aspect to keep in mind, is to criticize without saying (nor writing) crass observations, nor to give away to the pressure of “censorious hijinks” of those (exceedingly ugly and… “Chercheuses d’or“) who still support her. It would be nice if after she’s gone if there were room for some fulsome apologies and contrition, but I will not hold my breath for any of it, even though I see our coach as a woman of solid backbone and upbringing.
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Keep your weight down, keep your conditioning up. Sooner or later, your chance will come, with her, or with some other pronoun in charge before July 1st. I am certain of it. At uncertain times such as these, perchance you should ponder… what would that “smart-alecky” Masa Babic do in situations such these…
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Wallack’s Point, Connecticut.
Friday, the 2nd of December, 2022,
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Text: Ronald William Miller
Image: All rights reserved.
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