a sentence in ESPN sport [closed]
ESPN is kind of pleasant stuff for me to improve my reading, but sometimes, they really freak me out. Here is the sentence:
Arsenal are interested in Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi as they attempt to fill a much-needed spot up front after falling short season after season with their current crop of attackers.
I'm so confused about two "after" in this sentence. Actually, I can totally understand the sentence, but just because I pay many attentions to football as well as Arsenal and other clubs. I dont think I understand this guys without some informations of football. Please explain to me for the two "after" guys.
Solution 1:
Season after season means the same as after many seasons.
"after falling short season after season"
The second "after" means that Arsenal was falling short after the season, after many seasons.
"...they attempt to fill a much-needed spot up front after falling short after many seasons..."
Solution 2:
"Season after season" is a phrase meaning "over many seasons" or "repeatedly".
If you substitute "repeatedly" for "season after season" in the sentence it should be easily understandable.
Arsenal are interested in Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi as they attempt to fill a much-needed spot up front after falling short repeatedly with their current crop of attackers.
Solution 3:
All of the current answers explain that "season after season" can be replaced by "after many [consecutive] seasons", but I wanted to add the origin of this construction.
"[time word] after [time word]" is a very common English idiom, and it takes many forms:
- "Time after time"
- "Day after day"
- "Week after week"
- "Month after month"
- "Year after year"
- (as you have discovered) "Season after season"
This construction is so common and consistent that even a phrase not necessarily ever heard before, i.e. "fortnight after fortnight" would be expected to be understood.
The basic implication is that whatever thing is being measured gets measured approximately every time period that is mentioned and that after every measurement, the results are consistent after many times- "season after season" implying that the sports results really only matter at the end of every season, and that after every season, the results were consistent (bad in this specific case).
Solution 4:
The phrase may make more sense if "parsed" as follows:
"Arsenal are interested in Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi as they attempt to fill a much-needed spot up front after falling short (season after season) with their current crop of attackers."
"Season after season" means "for many seasons." But it is basically a "parenthetical" to the main sentence.
What is not true, (and what you may have feared), is that two "afters" were "operating" on each other, as in a construction like "after the after". The second "after" is basically in a separate phrase from the first one. So that's not the case.