While gorging on this weekend’s opening round of the Barclays Premier League, a friend and I discussed how soccer is the sport of optimists. There’s usually a silver lining, if you look hard enough.

Take a club like Portsmouth last season. Mired in complete financial disarray and staring total insolvency in the face, Pompey was a club that — never mind simply being relegated out of the Premier League — was certain to lose all of its recognizable talent in an attempt to recoup short-term funds, its identity as a viable operation and most, if not all, of the respect it had built up. But on the field, it’s eleven against eleven, and Portsmouth ground its way to the FA Cup Final last year. Mighty Chelsea finally struck them down — and no one was shocked, of course — but there they were, in shambles, yet only ninety minutes away from glory.

Sadly, sources of optimism appear more difficult to pinpoint for a team with one of the club’s most beloved players of all time, Ben Olsen, attempting to save them from totally drowning on the field and club management admitting that they “need players to step up and write a new history,” as the greatest link to the team’s legacy of success, Jaime Moreno, quietly slinks out the door.