In the words of Frank Skinner, when seeing his mum sobbing watching a movie, you can tell how good a film is by the amount of Kleenex you get through.
Promotion. It never gets old, does it?
That sense knowing what an on-field achievement you’ve seen, that (for the next 12 months at least) you’ll look at the fixture lists on a weekend and realise you don’t need to go any further than the third set of them.
You’ll probably even get into a lift during the summer, hear the robot voice say “Going up” and automatically reply with “We are…”
Just make sure nobody else is in it at the same time as you are, unless you want to be considered a weirdo.
Before I go on – SW19 is now going away, I’ll be back from the 13th June, assuming I’m not thrown in an Uzbekistan jail for doing the above in a lift.
Or end up what happened to this poor bugger in Bishkek.
Or have my passport stolen at Heathrow like it was this time last year. Or just get turfed out because my Russian speaking skills are awful…
I do intend to do the usual “That Was The Season That Was”, and I don’t doubt you’ll enjoy reading it.
As for now, there’s still a fair bit to say a few days after our latest Wombley success.
It’s still not sunk in, and perhaps it won’t. It’s odd how the post-promotion experience has been a bit matter-of-fact, that it doesn’t seem a big deal like 2016 was.
Maybe it’s because we know what to expect in L1 a lot more now, that most of the teams in our division are ones we’ve played before in the AFCW era.
We mention Cardiff, Reading and Huddersfield, but there’s also Blackpool, Bolton, Wycombe, Leyton Orient and St Evenage.
Along with the other three teams whose supporters will be doing the “Going up” thing in a lift this summer as well.
At least most of them should bring more than a couple of hundred to games next season.
A day or two ago, the released list was, er, released. Although it’s put in a nicer way than I’ve just done it.
Nobody on there is a surprise, to be honest. Morgan Williams departing will sadden a few, as they felt he was our next big thing, but perhaps us going into L1 did it.
There’s still a decent nucleus of ones we’ve retained, although I notice both Ryan Johnson and James Tilley have been offered new deals.
That they (and Ninetowns) haven’t re-signed yet might be ominous, as their stock will be at its highest.
I also note that we’re still “in discussions” with Browne and Hutchinson. The latter might decide, health wise, that his on-field heart attack comes with too much of a risk now, although he does seem grateful at us rescuing his career.
Browne will go if he gets a better deal elsewhere, and I expect we’re going to have to make more signings than originally planned.
It’ll be a shame to see the promotion team break apart almost as soon as the final whistle goes, but that’s the realities of football at lower league.
And to be honest, I think the squad will need a revamp anyway.
I didn’t see his comments, but Troy Deeney got a few backs up after the final by suggesting that Joe Lewis and others may need to be squad players next season.
While his managerial career at FGR was, ahem, sub-optimal, he has a bit of a point,
Lest we forget that our mean-as-fuck back line was against some ordinary L2 forward lines, that it got quite easily breached against Port Vale too.
Add to the horrible stats of our forwards, against some pretty ordinary L2 defences, and having to get half a new team in isn’t the worst thing.
One wonders if JJ’s approach next season will be a slightly different one.
The style he employed did what it set out to do, and did it superbly well. But it worked with that particular group of players, and things will be different come August.
Budget notwithstanding** we will need two new keepers and at least one new striker, probably another centre back and maybe more experience in other parts of the field.
** – I note in his CEO corporate-mission-statement-speak address, Mick Buckley talks about giving JJ the “most competitive budget”, although on past form that’s not the same thing as increasing it…
He probably won’t get exactly who he wants, so he’ll need to adapt. That might not be the worst thing in the world.
That said, I do have a bit of faith in JJ simply because he’s managed at L1 before and knows what to expect.
I’m also less apprehensive because we actually have a scouting and recruitment structure that is worthy of the name.
Notice how it’s Craig Cope doing the bon mots for departing players and not our current manager?
At least it’s not the avant-garde approach the last season in the third tier, where our scouting was done via a cracked copy of Football Manager and some crystals bought in a vape shop in Holloway.
So, there’s a lot to be done, and the transfer window opens this Sunday. For ten days while this bizarre Club World Cup is on, before it closes and then reopens on the 16th June.
JJ says we’re two weeks behind everyone else on their planning, although I suspect we’ll be getting in players the back end of July.
Who comes in remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if it’s more of the same – promising young keeper from a Premier League club, a couple of old heads from a recently relegated L1 side, one of the best players from the Conference and somebody off the PFA training camp.
Although the last one did give us Browne, Hutchinson and Romaine Sawyers this season.
This time of year is always best known for the dodgy transfer rumours. You know the kind of thing, a social media account called “Leegue Won Transferz” guesses that we’re signing Tim Shitt of Chortlington Railway and it’s treated like the Gospels.
We’ve been linked with Callum Johnson from one of these accounts, who is helpfully described as a sicknote by Bradford fans.
Whether it happens or whether it doesn’t, I’m sure he won’t be the last name mentioned.
I suppose it’s done out of boredom, but cursory glances elsewhere suggests that budget will be an issue for a fair few clubs.
I haven’t checked, but apparently two Doncaster players have turned down new deals there. And they went up as champions.
Next season will be a struggle at times, but as said after Monday, I don’t see why automatic relegation is a certainty.
Like last time, you can stay in L1 relatively comfortably if you have a strong structure, a well defined style of play and with players who are capable of playing in it.
The third tier is an undeniable step up from L2, but it’s not that massive a step. The players are a bit quicker and sharper but not significantly so.
A lot of clubs spend a lot of money on a lot of ordinary players in the division we’re now in, and next season isn’t likely to change.
Don’t forget, we built an absolutely awful squad the year we went down, and yet if Mark Bowen had been given just a couple of more games, we might well have stayed up.
Of course, we struggled too much in the seasons before then, but the way we were set up is far different now.
We actually have a set-up, for starters.
It could still go wrong, but I have a bit of faith in our current management over planning for next season. Not necessarily the decision makers, though.
Finally, as somebody emailed your editor this week commented, isn’t it nice we don’t have to face Franchise in the league for the next twelve months?
I know we should ignore them, and us beating them more often than not these days is a welcome change, but even the one or two reactions from them I’ve seen are classic.
They really are hurting, aren’t they?
Yeah, we might go down this time next season and they might go up at our expense. But we’ll cross that bridge when (if?) we come to it.
It’s a shame that they didn’t go down this campaign just finished, but that will be the ultimate successful season and that just won’t happen.
Of course, we’ll get them in the ex-JPT, the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup again, because that’s how it works.
But perhaps we should have seen what season we were going to have when we went to Stadium:MT, got a draw and they celebrated like fuck over it.
Wonder which one of our ex-players will end up there next season?
Anyway, enough of them for now, and enough of this place for me until the 13th June. Feel free to enjoy the post-promotion glow for a little while longer.
And remember to being a bit careful when going into a lift in the near future…