Elvis sang “wise men say only fools rush in but I can’t help falling in love with you.”  Apparently he was right, we might be fools for being in love with our Black Cats.  Elvis was also superstitious. 

I’ve seen it elsewhere and I’ve written about it but something incredibly serious is going at our beloved club.  We have been taking on water for years and many of us have been pushing the panic button to deaf ears.  When is someone going to listen?  Something has to give.

Unlike Elvis I’ve never been superstitious and I don’t think Black Cats are bad luck.  A few years ago the best cat I’ve ever had died, a female black cat named Madeline who was a rescue.  She was found in a shopping cart outside a drug store because someone decided the best thing to do would be to leave her there, I’m guessing either to be adopter or eeriely to die.  Whatever the reason Maddy was an amazing cat.

They say (who is they anyway?) if a black cat crosses your path it’s bad luck but if you adopt a black cat it’s good luck.  But what about if you adopt one and it crosses your path?  Anyway if I was Elvis and I believed in such things maybe I’d believe we were cursed.  Maybe it has to do with our furry mascots.  Did we adopt them or did they cross our path and we thought “oh hell, we better put them on the kit.”

No I know I’ve heard the story of the cat in the pocket.  But this seems like a clever reason for why things are headed south because to be honest with you there have been so many attempts to fix it I don’t know what to do.  I take that back, I do have ideas and they aren’t ones that are going to be easy to swallow.

1. Cast off dead weight – even if it means eating some salary
2. Youth movement – not calling it a revolution those things don’t work they end up causing shrapnel to be lodged in all involved.
3. Take whatever consequences – if this means time in the Championship then so be it.  What’s the point of playing relegation zone football every year anyway?  Just to say you are in the Prem?  Yearly visit to Old Trafford?
4. Get a manager who isn’t going to blame the players/referees/fans in consecutive weeks.  Just take the loss on the chin and roll with it.  Let’s pick up the pieces put them back together and move forward.
5. Give the manager players to work with!  Stop selling everyone who has a clue.  Does this need to be said??  You get down in the weeds and have no imagination and creativity or spark cause you sell all those guys.  Or the heart of your club isn’t there.
6. Set realistic goals.  Can we stop thinking about Europe for at least 5 years?  If these plans aren’t put in place I’d say it’s closer to 10 or longer.
7. Recruit the youth using the facilities.  The Academy of Light is great, what is stopping kids from coming here?  Find the problem.  Fix it.  Give kids a chance to play, I mean hell what’s the harm?  
8. Focus on one game at a time.  Easier said than done.

I’m sure that given enough time I could come up with more ideas but hell who is gonna listen anyway right?  Besides the club it’s cursed, it’s those two big fluffy black cats running around in front of the players all the time.