Well, I knew that these next two games really are shit-or-bust, but I have to be honest, I didn’t expect Steven Gregory to return.
Obviously the AFCW car park is looking better these days.
First things first, it’s nice to see him back, even if it’s just for three months. Clearly, AFCB weren’t giving him too many opportunities, and he was one of the post Playoff Final players who it would have been nice to keep.
If any of those players who departed back then were likely to “make it”, it would have been him. OK, we can take the piss over the comments about the parking facilties at Dean Court, but it was a step up and I don’t doubt we got a bit of dough for him.
So it was quite something to see him down the pecking order there, to the point that he’s come back to us. I have to confess, I can’t quite remember how he played for us, all that people are mentioning are his wayward shots 😉
More importantly, let’s not pretend otherwise about the motives for this – it’s last throw of the dice stuff, as far as TB is concerned. We know the drill now, lose on Saturday and the change has to be made. At least, if the Football Club board wants to retain its credibility. Even a win will only give temporary relief if (and likely when) the next run of bad results come.
For this and the Torquay game though, the thinking is quite simple – get back one of the Playoff Final squad and just hope that camaraderie rubs off immediately.
That’s why I find the length of three months interesting, as though it’s as much a signing for the next stage – whatever that turns out to be. A loan for that amount of time is pretty much an admission that you’re not going to get much more time at your parent club, and given how the club made great noise about how well we got on with AFCB during signing him, perhaps it’s try-before-you-buy before the January window?
There is another word of caution to be made here, before anyone gets over-excited – in the past year, we’ve had two old favourites return (JE and Pim), and both didn’t/haven’t hit the spot second time around. Euell in particular seemed a panic buy to placate the fans, and I couldn’t even begin to describe why our Dutchman isn’t nearly so flying now.
Will Greggs suffer the same fate? We’ll wait and see, which is why after the intial excitement of him returning, we need to think why he has actually been re-signed beyond yet another short-term measure.
And let’s face it, it’s yet another loan signing even before September is out.
How many have we got in now? About five, isn’t it? And three of them aren’t guaranteed to stay beyond this month. Not to mention they were brought in to replace players who we already signed in the summer. Unless there’s going to be some big upheaval before too long, and Greggs knows the lie of the AFCW land…
If nothing else, it makes an interesting game against Rochdale even more intruiging. To be honest, I doubt if winning on Saturday is going to be the godsend some think/hope it will be, and my views on what really needs to be done haven’t changed one iota even after today.
But at least I can get to see low flying aircraft under threat again…