The Last Time We Won Something

Photo by Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash

The last time Arsenal (the English football team I support) won the Premiership trophy was in 2004. It was the greatest title triumph in the history of British Football as that Arsenal team went the entire season undefeated - a feat no other team in modern football has achieved before or since. 

It was the icing on the cake of years of continuous success and the expectation of us fans was that it was only a matter of time before we would win the trophy again. In subsequent years, we came close: the following year, we finished second and in the decade or so afterwards, came in 2nd, 3rd or 4th. 

Each year felt like it was only a matter of time. If we bought this one player, or if we strengthened the defence, or if we got that defensive midfielder, we’d get there. But for a variety of reasons, we never quite made it. And here we are, almost twenty years later, still without another Premiership trophy. 

Of course, the club is trying, some may argue not as effectively or as efficiently as they should, but the objective is there every season. The results, though, haven’t been. So, a change is made over here, a shift is made over there, to tinker with the strategy and tactics and try and get us over the line. Little by little. It’s a tough road for the club and us fans.

But it’s also a part of life. 

Every club goes through cycles - it took Liverpool almost 30 years to win the title after their last win in the late 80’s and Manchester United have gone almost a decade since their last triumph. (I’m excluding clubs involved in financial doping, as my focus is on those teams who strive to live within their means i.e. like most of the real world.) That’s frustrating for the fans, for sure (some will say infuriating) but it is what it is. 

It’s also an analogy for life in general. We will all go through cycles - hopefully not to the timeframes above, but cycles nevertheless. Periods of great performance will be followed by times when we try different things but just can’t hit the mark. We’ll see natural ebbs and flows every now and then. 

So what should we do? Well, we should act: shift a tactic here and try a new strategy over there. Push this button and pull that lever (metaphorically speaking). We should try different things.

And that’s the entire point. We can’t simply sit still. We can’t simply wait. We need to do.

Of course, it helps to have a goal and an underlying vision/mission, a north star you can be guided by (and yes, even at a personal level). What are we about? What do we want? Where are we trying to go? What are we willing to accept? What are we willing to give up? How hard are we willing to fight for what we want?

And once we figure that out - even directionally - we need to move. Take action, many small steps and actions. Positive forward movement - of course, accompanied plenty of times with a few steps back. But move, we must. Try and fail, test and learn. And as we learn, we adjust and we progress. 

Again, that’s the point. Because sitting still is pointless. We have to keep pushing. 

Much like the clubs we support, it doesn’t mean we’ll get there all the time - we certainly won’t. But the worst thing we can do is accept our lot in life and sit still. 

So long as we see positive momentum, so long as we see incremental results, we’re on the right path.

Keep going.