Remember that short-lived week around March 2022 when everyone was pondering whether there was there more windows or doors in the world?
A whopping 223,347 people replied to a survey from The Guardian with 53.6% guessing there were more wheels in the world.
Of course, the joy is not in finding out a definitive response to such a question, more the pondering of it, perhaps because all too often in this modern world, we eschew thinking and nuance in favour of offering a definitive response which we think will somehow validate us and our existence. If our response garners clicks and further debate, preferably ire and opprobrium, then all the better.
But pondering is good for us. The ancient Greek philosophers walked around and pondered. They even had special places and buildings set aside to ponder, most famously, the Lyceum just outside the east wall of Athens. Skill in debate was prized and respected and seen as something to be practised, honed and developed.
On the internet, in the pubs, and on the concourse at Tottenham, the question of this week was, ‘Which would you choose between a place in the Champions League or winning the FA Cup?’
No doubt we all had our views, and it remains the case that there is no correct response.
But such a question is framed in a way so as to demand only a binary response, as if there can be only one. If we were living in the Highlander universe of Connor Macleod and The Kurgan, that is very much the case. There can really be only one in this fantastical realm and to be the one, you have to kill the other Immortals by beheading them. Fortunately, this is not the universe in which we reside.
But qualifying for the Champions League or winning the FA Cup are not the only two options on the hypothetical table here.
Perhaps a better way to frame the question is to ask which would one prefer? Champions League or the FA Cup? This way, both options remain on the table, available to grasp.
When we look back at the trophies won by Forest in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the League Cup Final defeat to Wolves is an unsightly thorn on an otherwise unblemished trophy tree. It would have been so very nice to have claimed that trophy. But at the same time, if it meant not winning retaining the European Cup in the same year, one would imagine we would all accept the League Cup loss and keep the European Cup. Yet by thinking this way, we fall into the trap of accepting that winning one trophy or another is a binary situation.
We do this all the time. It’s perfectly natural. No doubt we all left Tottenham being grateful to have won that game rather than have won the Everton game and lost to Tottenham, yet we could have won both. Maybe it’s a mental survival strategy which allows us to accept that there are higher forces at work deciding what we get and don’t get. Accepting that we can only have one thing and not the other rescues us from the alternative, that we ourselves are in charge of our lives, a thought which could mentally cripple us.
Regardless, we have all pondered it anyway. The heart may say the FA Cup. This would be something tangible, something to put on a t-shirt, a stadium, inside a trophy cabinet. You imagine the day we would have, the moments we would always have and the relief of being nowhere near the bottom of those pompous lists detailing when your team last won a trophy.
Yes, it would be glorious.
But the head perhaps leans towards the Champions League. The argument goes that in doing so, the long-term benefits for the club would be enormous. Let’s break it down.
· The chances of retaining the services of Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo significantly increase.
· The financial rewards are bewildering, allowing the club to continue to strengthen the squad and pursue a whole range of other developments.
· Look at Aston Villa and Newcastle. They seem to be pretty established as clubs that will compete in the top six and for the Champions League each year. And in doing so, they will improve every year and pull away from the middle class of the Premier League, even if they might not quite enter the stratospheric level of Liverpool, Manchester City and Real Madrid, etc.
· With the current footballing economic climate as it is, a Champions League place would elevate the club to a whole new level, if not guaranteeing sustained success, then certainly establishing the club as a top half Premier League team.
Would a place in the Europa League or Conference League do all of this? Probably not. While recent history and English clubs’ success in such competitions suggests Forest would go deep in either, doing so doesn’t appear to be as seismic or have the longer-term benefits of what a season in the Champions League may bring, especially should they successfully navigate the league phase and make it to the knock-out stage. A glance at the current progress of West Ham, Manchester United and Spurs seems to confirm this.
Of course, there are many mitigating factors and the current success of Newcastle and Villa against the languishing of West Ham, Manchester United and Spurs is no accurate barometer of anything. Next season could be very different for all concerned.
But the Champions League does seem to represent the best chance of building a platform from which to sustain this current success. This is not my rule, but merely the current cutthroat economic reality of modern football.
It is worth remembering that there is no mysterious law dictating that we can only have one or the other. Although unlikely, we can actually have it all: the FA Cup and Champions League.
Or at least, in reality, it’s nice to ponder about having it all. There is nothing to prevent us doing just that, if only for a little while longer.
One of my books, ‘The History Boys: Thirty Iconic Forest Goals’, has been reprinted in paperback, with a lovely review quote on the front cover. Click here if you fancy buying a copy.
I have almost completed the 92. Here are some observations from visiting lots of football grounds over the years.
If you don’t know me, I am the author of ‘Reds and Rams: The History of the East Midlands Derby’ and ‘The History Boys: Thirty Iconic Forest Goals’ (both available in the Forest club shop). I have written pieces for Mundial magazine, Football Weekends magazine, edited two award-nominated fanzines and was a columnist in the Nottingham Forest programme for eight years.
If you do know me, I’m truly sorry.
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