As another season fades from the memory and progress was almost zero we once again look forward if that’s the right phrase to the rebuilding process of the summer. At least it seems we have some wiggle room this year with FFP but who is doing the recruiting and will lessons have been learned from before.
The problem for me as a supporter of more years than I care to remember I just don’t care, the club have drained the life and enthusiasm out of me I have no expectations for next season because it hurts to much to build yourself up only to be once again deflated by October and knowing its foing to be just another season of mind numbing sameness. Is it the worst I can remember not even close but it’s simply realising that we have regressed 20 years and little excitement on the horizon.
I am tired of listening to managers talking a great game and then watching the complete opposite when the game begins. Managers talking about power, pace and energy and then sending out a side that looks like they have signed up for a walking football charity match. Managers talking about recruiting young athletic hungry players and then signing players who are the compete opposite of what we wanted or needed.
We had moments of real possibilities after the January window closed but ultimately as on so many times before fizzled out like a cheap firework giving only fleeting pleasure before the usual well that wasn’t much was it.
I suppose it could have been so much worse but in the end it was like opening your Christmas present and thinking the best part about it was the anticipation and wishing you had left it wrapped so you could still fantasize about the contents of the box.
The manager has so much work to do this summer its eat, sleep repeat every summer since we were relegated and once again we will have so many gaps to plug in our less than impressive squad. Which unless the manager finds a cohesive pattern of play and players who just click means the season once again won’t start till October as the new recruits find their way.
We need a quality goalkeeper as a priority we can’t spend another season with Jack Bonham between the sticks, no disrespect to him but he’s a decent league one keeper but any side seriously contemplating a playoff push wouldn’t consider him as first choice. He does his best but he doesn’t inspire confidence and that’s half the battle.
Of the loan signings it seems possibly beyond Pearson, none are very keen on returning and in reality if a player doesn’t want to be here then good luck in your future endeavours as the saying goes.
The defence looks threadbare so immediately will require additions because the basis of any real progress is a strong and secure defence. Defenders need time to understand each other and almost building a new defence will be a risky business.
The midfield is basic and if Pearson or a decent replacement isn’t found will once again look rudderless and easy to bypass. Baker, looks like a player who has ability but lacks application consistently hopefully he can find a spark to reignite his form but it seems that’s been said of him for many years now. Thompson is what he is a journeyman squad player but not a first choice in a possible play off push.
The forwards need a focal point again hopefully we have been working through possible targets but we come back to the same recruiting process that has left us frustrated and numb over the last 6 or 7 seasons.
What we need are younger hungry footballers who want to improve themselves and have an ambition to go higher, what we don’t need are players who were good 3 or 4 years ago looking for a final pay day. We have been there so many times lately and with a few exceptions it’s been a money pit disaster.
Ambition to some at the club seems to be finding players with a name that looks good on the back of a shirt but on the pitch just plod around and give so little back for the ridiculous wages they received. The supporters lose any excitement from seeing the name on the shirt if the actual player filling it looks well past his sell by date.
We need to be looking far and wide not as easy as it once was I know but there are still gems to be unearthed who want to fight for their football future and if they can take us up on their way to better things then we all win.
I see some wanting AN gone and if you look at the last 7 games and only 2 points they have some traction but we know it isn’t going to happen so he will be allowed to rebuild this summer and start next season. if he can build the type od side he talks about then we just might see some significant improvements. For a very short period of time we saw what could have been but we have had so many of those false dawns only to fade away and once more that was the case.
I want AN to be the best manager we have ever had because that means we are having a good football experience again but I suspect next season will be very similar to all the others since we were relegated but with all my heart I want to be wrong.
We do have some exciting prospects but they also need to be handled properly if they are not ready for the first team they must be fond the right loans, managers who can bring the best out in them, thankfully they can’t be loaned out to us.
Please show some real ambition to excite the supporters and give us something to be enthusiastic about if we can’t improve on what’s been on offer since the mid-2010s the club is in danger of just stagnating like it did over much of the latter 1980s and beyond. It was so soul destroying as years turned into decades and while it wasn’t all terrible the vast majority of it was remembered for the comedic pain and suffering of losing games to clubs who are now defunct or so far down the league ladder it’s hard to find them.
