Wednesday, February 27, 2008

HatterDon's Thinking Cap

In the great movie, Twelve O’clock High, General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is the new commander of a dysfunctional bomber group stationed in England during World War II. More than just bombing the crap out of Germany, Savage’s group is under a magnifying glass as the key element in proving that high-altitude precision daylight bombing is the best way to rain a little terror out of the skies. The countervailing theory, espoused by Bomber Harris of the RAF, was that night-time low-level bombing was more effective. But that’s neither here nor there. My point in using this movie as the prologue to this editorial is one speech given in it by Peck.

Savage is concerned that his fliers are spending too much time thinking of themselves and not enough thinking of “the mission.” He tells them, “We're in a war, a shooting war. We've got to fight. And some of us have got to die. Now I'm not telling you not to be afraid. Fear is normal. I’m telling you to stop worrying about it...and yourselves. Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves already dead. Once you accept that idea it won't be so tough”

And, in a barely logically connected way, that’s where we all are right now. Those of us who love Fulham and follow the lads, and enjoy the idea of English Premier League football at Craven Cottage, have to recognize that, given the inability of our side to take one point at Middlesboro and the loss today of three points at home to West Ham, we’re done and dusted. We’re Texas Toast. We’re circling the bowl at warp speed. We’ve joined the football choir celestial. We are about to be an ex-parrot of a Premiership club. We need to consider ourselves already dead. Once we accept that idea, it won’t be so tough for us to be getting on with our lives and planning for next season.

Wanna read on? The rest is continued here
[From HatterDon, Fulham USA’s Senior Game Analyst and Writer]