Mike Ward At Large

Curb Your Pessimism

As an Albion fan, I hate to have to say this but I think there’s a chance we may get promoted to the Premier League. At the end of this current season, I mean.
I hate to have to say it for two reasons. First, because obviously it’s tempting fate, which only a blithering idiot would do. And second because, well, if we really do go up to the top tier, I’m worried that it may not be much fun.
See, that’s what always happens with me. The moment things are going well, football-wise – which it’s fair they’ve been doing for most of this season – my mind starts racing ahead and thinking, yeah, great, but sooner or later, some day in the future, it’ll go kind of pear-shaped again, your mark my words, it always does, that’s football, blah blah….
Not that I’m not entirely wrong, of course. For example, it wasn’t all that long ago, at least not in my world, that Nottingham Forest were the champions of Europe, two years on the trot. And where are they now, eh? The Sussex County League, that’s where. No, hang on a second, that can’t be right. Let me check and get back to you on that one…
But what I find annoying is that I can’t just live in the moment. I can’t just savour the satisfaction of a win, or just enjoy us being so high in the table, without then thinking, yes, but if we go up we might really struggle, so maybe it’s best we just stay where we are, right? For ever.
Obviously I’m not as pessimistic as my mate Daniel, who sits next to me at the Amex. Nobody on the planet is as pessimistic as Daniel. Daniel is the sort of bloke who’ll insist we’re going to lose even when we’re 107-0 up and four minutes into stoppage time. But even so, I’m pessimistic enough. And believe me, it’s not a condition you want to live with.
So all I reckon I can do for now, by way of a sort of New Year’s resolution, is fight it by over-compensating. Not just by telling myself we’ll go up, and that we’ll stay up, and that we’ll establish ourselves as a Premier League side for years to come, but that we’ll go way beyond that, absolutely definitely, and end up winning the UEFA Champions League. Two years on the trot.
Actually, on second thoughts, make that three. Oh, and I’ve just remembered, stupid old me, that the Albion and Nottingham Forest are actually in the same league. But we won’t be for very much longer, right? See, I’m learning.
Happy New Year.

Mike Ward is the TV Critic of the Daily Star and the TV Editor of the Daily Express Saturday magazine. Hear him every Monday afternoon with Guy Lloyd on Brighton’s Juice 107.2
Twitter: @mikewardontv