It's been a season of "Ying and Yang" for Gentlemen's Practice supporters. After last season success in winning the illustrious Xpert International in an emphatic way they now find themselves pitting their wits against the best from the rest of the other Xpert Eleven leagues in the Xpert Champions League for the first time.
Well, they top group H, unbeaten and have managed to qualify for the knock out stages with a game to spare. However, the defense of their league title couldn't have started any worse with 4 losses from 4. Fans rightly so are split on what to think. Is it true that manager Gareth Phoenix is too focused on X11's holy grail?
Phoenix: My answer to that is no. Obviously, every single manager that has ever played this game wants to win the XCL but we have in no way sacrificed our league form. The results have been crazy and on another day been very different but we continue to fight on and as a club and team, we're looking to turn it around.
Obviously, after last years success, we have lost the element of surprise and even now have a target on our head in the Xpert International and rightly so. That being said the results aren't good enough and as a unit and team we all agree and we're all devastated that we likely won't be able to defend our title already after 4 games. I would like to personally tell our fans that we will try our upmost to turn this around and get out of the position we are in.
In regards to the XCL, well it couldn't be any more different. It's no surprise to me and it's not because we prioritize that competition over another but playing 3 games a week since day one will take its toll on any team! We're delighted that we are through to the knock out stages and we're looking to win the group but it will take ANOTHER titanic effort against another incredible team to do so. We may be out of the league title race but we will battle to rectify our position, we're still in the XI cup and will try to win every game we play in as we will with the XCL.
We are Gentlemen's Practice and we go out to try and win every game we play in and that will never change.