… Jason Euell.
I’ll wait until you pick your jaw off the floor before I continue. Don’t worry, the pain of it hitting will be worth it.
Well, if that doesn’t cheer people up, nothing will. Even the most deluded of happy clapper would have admitted that up until now, this month has been a pretty frustrating one. Rumours of signings, then when none actually happen you start looking down towards the foot of the table with a heavy heart and even heavier bowels, and you start picking holes in the use of phrases such as “hopefully” and “potentially”…
Suddenly, the mood has changed, hasn’t it? You can almost feel the elation coming from TB during his comments on the OS, although I hope that he didn’t crash his car whilst clearly beating himself off over it.
Of course, Euell can’t do it all by himself, and more on that a bit later, but the only doubt I have right now is the length of it – TB is saying it’s an initial five week loan but Charlton are saying he’ll be back with them after the Northampton game. I hope that TB hasn’t gotten too excited over the signing if Charlton are right, because it will be a little bit deflating if so.
Needless to say, even if we do only get him for five weeks, that’s a shot in the arm we so desperately need right now. You can bet that right now many a Womble is hitting various train websites to get up to Stoke (and if anyone is driving….), and for those with longer memories – remember when Vinny Jones returned to WFC and made his (re)debut at Ipswich? Apparently we made more noise than Liverpool did that season…
Most importantly of all, what can he offer? Apart from the psychological boost he obviously still knows where the net is. As the Mick Harford signing from the 90s proved, class really is permanent. And like Marcus Gayle joining us in the RP season, his experience and knowhow is bound to rub off on some of the more, ahem, naive members of the squad.
But as said above, Jason Euell won’t single handedly keep us up. We still need some fresh faces to, er, freshen things up. As even the Official Site acknowledges, we’ve got George Moncur on an initial (youth?) loan from WHU. He seems quite popular with the average Ammer, and apparently he’s not a physical lightweight either. Not to mention he apparently isn’t afraid to get stuck in.
Him and JE are but two players, and the rumour mill is spinning like it does at this time of year. Reports earlier today suggest that we’ve got another loanee, this time Byron Harrison, although that’s not been officially confirmed as of yet. His stats suggest he knows where the net is too, although how he would fit in with Euell (and I wouldn’t have thought I would be writing that an hour or two ago…) is anyone’s guess.
Oh, and apparently he’s a Wandsworth lad, still lives over this way and could be another GG/C-Mac type loanee-to-permanent deal. But we’ll wait and see, because he might be crap. And he might not even come…
So, what is the club’s thinking with these potential and actual signings? It’s good that they all appear to either have genuine Football League experience and/or grounding in a highly regarded academy (I include C-Mac in this). Although this being SW19, I am contractually obliged to be churlish and suggest this sort of thing should have been done in the summer.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s decent fresh blood. Moncur is likely to be better than the five we released (remember them?) put together – remember that to even get offered pro terms at a Championship (or ex-Prem) club proves you’ve got something about you. If you can ever find a copy of Football Icon, where some youngsters went through the Chelski youth, then you’ll see what these clubs look for.
Does it matter if they’re just loans? As long as they’re mostly until the end of the season, then no. We know what our priority is this season, and we can sort out the short-termism during the summer. Where to be honest I expect the club will take on board what has gone right and wrong this season and start to develop as a Football League club.
Yes, I would prefer a couple of permanent signings too, but right now I just want to win games again.
We’re not alone in this – after the Charlton game on the 2nd Jan, Uwe Rosler said that Brentford were only going to do loanees because of cost. I’m sure you can find other examples of this at other clubs, so what we’re doing isn’t exactly unusual.
But if you’re tempted to moan, lest we forget how utterly horse cock we have been in the last couple of months. Sentiment has gone, and patience has truly worn thin. If we just show a bit more, well, anything at Vale Park on Saturday, then we can finally start draw a line under the crap we’ve been served up. Even signs that we’re about to turn the corner will be better than anything we’ve endured.
Of course, we will need to follow that up with some points at Gillingham, not to mention finally turning Theme Park KM (the place where all visitors leave happy) into something resembling an advantage for us. But if you play well to any degree of consistency, the results are going to go your way sooner or later.
Yes, TB’s job is still under threat, but he made it a bit easier today. He can make it even easier still with the remaining 21 days of this month left, and it’s likely there’s more to come. But barring Dave Beasant coming out of retirement, nothing is going to quite match the player we got in for at least five weeks this afternoon.
I just hope nobody reads back to what SW19 was saying about him before he left WFC…