What If.......? 07/08 Season

[sunningdalered]

GJ wasn't a shrewd enough tactical manager to make it in the prem, and if we had brought in higher quality players he would have struggled.

Don't forget towards the end of his time, we were playing terrible footie as well.

Anyway, it would have been a straight back down scenario, probably bottom, but **** it, along the way we would have made some bunch of overpaid ******* look shit, and that would have made it all worth it. Plus that ******* **** Lardass wouldn't have been able to celebrate, Christ alive I hated him before the game and even more after. Frankly, the rest of the Hull side and the fans I felt quite positive about, but he was a gold-plated shit sucker and I laughed my balls off when he didn't kick a ball in the prem.

Agree re GJ's tactical nous + he seemed to have problems managing a minor celebrity like Trunds (or MM) so god only knows how he would have got on with a hatful of prem attitude!

The Lardass point is hilarious - I bet he didnt see that coming On a similar note, I did wonder at the time how some of the city players viewed possible promotion to the prem, seeing as it would most likely have spelled the end of their career at the club (or certainly as regular starters). Think this might have affected any of their performances on the day?

[And Its Smith]

Milner is so average that he's played for England under three different managers and has an FA Cup and Premier League winners medal.

Seriously, some people.

[sbred]

The facts are we only won 2 of our last 12 games that season, I believe.

So did the players choke or did other teams just simply find us out?

Bottled it, should of bought players in jan and went all out like stoke did.

Look at stoke now compared to us, they did it properly.

That was our once in a lifetime chance and we blew it massively.

[Coxy27]

The final position would, in part, have depended on the type on new players Johnson would have brought in. This is where I think it would have gone wrong as, from memory, he was talking of getting a few foreign players. This was not his strong point and I fear we would have got a few more like Peter Styvar / Álvaro Saborío.

I think Johnson was a fantastic lower league manager, good at Championship level, but would have been found out in the Premier League.

Saborio is actually a really talented footballer, it just never really worked out for him here. I've seen him play many times since, and he's usually been excellent.

As for the OPs question, it's impossible to say really, but like Monkeh says, I imagine we'd be in a much better position now than we currently are.

[Timbo7]

Ready or not / investment or not - you can only take an opportunity when it presents itself.

My thoughts that Spring evening in 2008 were:

1/ it could easily be another 30 years before we get this close again; and

2/ I probably won't be around to see it

However character-building the experience of failure might be (and I for one think this is overrated by a vocal majority of failures) - success, however short-lived, would have stuck with us all for the rest of our lives. Nothing good came from our defeat that day, it was simply the end of something good and the beginning of something bad - it is the end to something bad (and when it will happen) which is now occupying everyone's attention.

[Wardie]

I'm actually getting a little bit teary reading this thread. I think to myself so many times what could of been (even if it was only for a season) and where we are now. That game was probably by lowest point as a City fan to date, never felt so deflated in all my life. I'm sure our chance will come around again soon

[ashtonphil]

I remember saying at the time that our success would depend on Johnson's ability to manage premier league egos... He struggled with Stewat Bridges and Trundle, so really not sure what would have happened. Sure would have loved to find out.