Football - A lesson in managing expectations?

In sport, there are few examples of cases where so much disproportionate expectation is placed upon the shoulders of athletes than professional football. Sure, growing up I can remember the inevitable surge of expectation that Tim Henman was going to finally win Wimbledon this year, and the exploits of any national team are always closely scrutinised and often criticised for underachievement. The difference here, however, being that generally the expectation of the England cricket team, for example, will play good, attractive cricket and show heart against the Australians during the Ashes, not that they will win every series 5-0. 

Football is slightly different. Of course, there are many examples of clubs who's supporters are more realistic about their situation. One thinks of Stoke City, for example, as I find it hard to believe that any Stoke fan will go in to next season expecting to finish it by seeing Ryan Shawcross lifting the Europa League title. No, instead the superb support they showed in both their solid win against Arsenal (chants of 'Swing low, sweet chariot' being amongst my favourite examples of the tremendous wit of football fans) and during the FA Cup final on Saturday emphasise the grounded nature of Potters fans. They were aware that their team were exceeding expectations by achieving what they have this season, and so Stoke's exploits have been met with appropriate jubilation.

Then there is the other side of the coin. To a certain degree, I count myself in this group because, as an Arsenal fan, the growing frustration at our inability to achieve anything has rendered me furious at several points this season. The Arsenal situation is slightly different, however, because manager Arséne Wenger continues to build the hopes of the supporters every year, claiming that this will be the time his team win something, and so the perpetual under-achievement and inevitable February collapse is arguably a more legitimate source of frustration. Calls to 'get Wenger out', however, highlight the point perfectly that football fan's expectations are often ridiculously high and sometimes unattainable. Arsenal fans need to realise that with the current squad, taking into account the squads of other teams, to expect Arsenal to have won the league is unreasonable. Sometimes, expectations should be more carefully considered. 

Take West Ham United, for example. The vast majority of West Ham fans don't show a great deal of shock at their team's current downfall, in spite of owners Gold and Sullivan's frankly outrageous claims when they arrived that West Ham would be in the Champion's League within ten years. No, instead the fans recognise that with the mismanagement and poor decisions that have been made at the club, relegation was always an unsavoury possibility. This attitude contrasts completely with the delirium that has befallen many fans at another London club, Tottenham Hotspurs, after their team qualified for the Champion's League last year. 

Spurs fans suddenly seem to expect that finishing at least fourth every year is now the baseline, completely disregarding the monumental achievement by the players and manager Harry Redknapp that doing so last season was. For certain fans to boo their team after games this season because they haven't won, or winger Gareth Bale (another prime example of a player who may suffer from the weight of expectation for the rest of his career) is frankly pathetic, and mirrors the actions of a small number of Arsenal fans calling for Wenger's exit. Unfortunately, fans of top clubs are so spoilt that they begin to forget that there is a footballing world outside the top-5 of the Premier League. 

I sincerely hope that the owners of football clubs persevere with courses of action that serve their clubs well in the long term, rather than bowing down to short-term pressures and rocketing fan expectations, as many have done in the past. Some clubs have it right, that's for sure; there has not even been a whisper from Blackpool of the possibility of Ian Holloway losing his job, because the chairman and fans alike have reasonable expectations. Some, meanwhile, have it all wrong, and one can think of many examples of poor decisions made in such climates: Sam Allardyce at Blackburn, Houghton at Newcastle and a plethora of others. Who will be the next manager to fall on the sword of high expectation? While Avram Grant's departure from West Ham is most probably well-deserved, few would be surprised to see Ancelotti leave Chelsea after (shock horror!) not winning the league, or indeed witness Neil Warnock pack his bags by Christmas and leave QPR because his team aren't in the top half. 

Football is undoubtedly big business, and the pressure on managers and players in this environment is vast. I, like many football fans however, would like to see some of the sanity return to the beautiful game.