Both pre-season and your editor’s attempts to leave the country.
I’ll be off later today until next Wednesday (the 10th), and hopefully I might actually be allowed on the plane this time, but if there’s another hand-wringing update on Thursday you’ll know what’s happened.
And speaking of potential tales of woe – the players are back in training.
Apparently they were back last week, although social media footage only surfaced yesterday, so it’s a couple of weeks playing “spot the newbie”.
As I was about to press Publish on this writeup, it seems that Lee Brown has rejected our offer we made to him.
I can only guess he’s had a better deal elsewhere, or he feels that his Indian Summer at the end of last season is a good time to bow out.
If he does go – and I expect he will – he would be the last link to the Mark Robinson era. Which seems a long time ago…
Helpfully, the club did sign somebody yesterday, so welcome to AFCW Alistair Smith.
He’s on loan from Lincoln, though in the last year of his contract there, a centre-midfielder who was at Sutton before he went to Sincil Bank.
Judging by what Imps fans have said, he’s decent enough if you actually play him as a CM, although more of a defensive one than attacking.
And judging by Colchester fans too (where he also was once), they’re gutted we’ve signed him but they haven’t.
It’s an interesting signing, and on paper not a bad sounding one. Like similar signings this close season, he’s not a why-have-we-signed-him figure
He’s also another one who has slipped well and truly under the radar.
It’s been quite common recently that we sign players without all the ITK types announcing their arrivals before they’ve even signed.
The only one with any sort of gravitas for this sort of thing is the SLP (see the Lee Brown news).
And that’s because they will have proper links to not only JJ (from his Charlton days) but others at the other three south London clubs and their respective agents.
They’re trusted, and in that line of work trust is a very important thing to have.
Plus, with the lack of ITK fans being, well, ITK, it’s obvious whoever at the club is leaking to their mates who then leak to the wider AFCW world has been made to shut up.
This club still has cliquey and incestuous pockets, although it’s not nearly as bad as it was, and I’m in no doubt in the past some have abused their position to give their “outside” contacts some kudos.
To quote somebody once involved, you might as well broadcast some private negotiations live on the internet.
Tightening up the loose lips increases the professionalism and we always need more of that. Just as we still need some more signings.
We’ve made five of them thus far, and yesterday we also signed up Sasu with a two year extension as well.
I’m really not worried about needing more in. I expect we’ll get them long before the first game of the season, and now contracts have expired the transfer window is only getting going.
Indeed, by the time you read this we may well have added one or two more. Although we’ll likely have to add a new left back to the list.
While you obviously want as much done as you can before the first pre-season friendly, it’s easy to forget the window shuts at the beginning of September.
Even my lousy maths tells me that’s two months.
We also have something resembling a transfer policy these days, so on that score I’m definitely not concerned that we’ll panic buy.
Though it would be nice to have a keeper or two before we head to Benidorm.
Finally, the fixtures came out last week, and you can look at them yourself. But the first away game and the Carabao Cup game being Bromley at Hayes Lane appeals as much as a kick in the gonads.
Come to think of it, we get Franchise in SW17 out of the way early too.
Opening against Colchester at home isn’t what I would have expected, and indeed we don’t get to face them at all over Xmas.
Newport on NYD sucks a bit, although we were at Forest Green Rovers the first game of 2024.
Other than that, no fixtures really stick out. Though the sharp eyed will have already twigged we’re at Grimsby the last game of the season.
I’m sure we went up to Blundell Park first game of 2023/24, and it was the last fixture of the season before that.
I know fixtures are semi-random, but it is a bit odd that we get the same game at the same venue at such milestones.
Can you make bets on what fixtures are when? If so, maybe somebody should be checking…