Look, it’s supposed to be shit after the season starts, not before.
Looking forward to Luton in less than a week’s time? Me neither, and it seems there’s a lot of us about.
I know pre-season friendlies aren’t necessarily the best indicator of future progress. The players aren’t going at 100% pelt, there’s still an air of it-doesn’t-really-matter, and it’s solely about fitness.
After this week’s fixtures, though…
I gave Southend a massive swerve, a trip to Essex with an early start for a friendly didn’t really appeal for some reason.
117 or so of us there yesterday, roughly. All of whom forgot to read the memo.
I have to admit, I also gave Millwall in the week a wide berth for non-disclosable reasons, but both times I’m glad I avoided them.
Couple those two humdingers with Sutton last week, and it’s been a pretty bloody awful seven days of pre-season.
And at the worst time, too. Lest we forget, the next fifty or so games actually matter.
Which might explain JJ’s post-game comments yesterday. Or outburst, if you want to go full-on tabloid.
He’s clearly pissed off, and not just with the Southend no-show. His post-game quotes at Millwall show somebody utterly fucked off with little transfer movement.
I don’t doubt he expected it to be trickier now we’re in League One, but you have to sense something has gone wrong over them.
The rumour mill was suggesting Britt Assombalonga was training with us, but he no longer is.
I think he’s the new Carlton Cole, somebody else who just needed a local(ish) club to train with. And some of our more, ahem, excitable fans convincing themselves he was going to sign.
Those sort of players never usually sign up anyway, and value for money wise you can do a lot better.
The loan market was always going to be our best option, and I think it’s here where JJ has become utterly pissed off.
He was clearly promised at least somebody (as much as a loanee can ever be “promised”) last week, and it hasn’t happened.
When Jackson mentioned a “snag” for tomorrow’s probable non-arrival, I wonder what he was referring to. Or indeed if it was aimed specifically towards something/body?
You do have to wonder, especially as the cash situation is becoming more obvious. Is the club struggling to agree the percentage to pay for a player, which is how loans often are?
If a parent club is seeing we’re not coming up with the readies, then they don’t have to loan to us.
That might explain why certain players who the rumour mill have suggested are featuring for their parent clubs still.
And if that is the case – we really are in shit.
Last Tuesday saw Lee Brown make a cameo from the sub’s bench, and I think that made the penny drop for so many people.
He’s been retired a year, his legs were going in League Two, and while this club has a known obsession for re-signing old players it was a reunion too far.
He didn’t feature anywhere at Roots Hall, which might have been the best thing from yesterday. I don’t have anything personally against him, but his presence against Millwall rang some alarm bells.
Was JJ trying to make a point to the club’s decision makers, that they have to find some more money to even get loans signed?
I expect there’s been some sheepish phone calls to some of our wealthier fans this weekend (or even after Millwall) for just that one further bail-out.
Yeah, I know. But right now, it’s needs must. Because the mood is dark, the expectations are rapidly going south and with good reason too.
Not least from the individual currently in the manager’s chair.
I do expect some new signings before Luton, or if not then certainly before Lincoln. Especially if we get a gubbing at Kenilworth Road.
It’s not ideal that we’ll have to blood them when the competitive fixtures start, but that’s the close season transfer window for you.
We need them in before the end of August, and in truth before the beginning of the month.
The question is, why has it gone so shit so quickly? We looked all right for the first couple of PSFs, and even at Sutton we just needed a goal and we would have won it.
Having Lewis and as of yesterday Marcus Browne on the injury list hasn’t helped. We miss the former, certainly, and conceding early goals has been a bad feature of pre-season.
Our goals have fallen way off the radar, and one suspects that’s the priority loan wise. It needs an injection of something, whatever that something is.
But it’s odd that this side that won promotion so admirably at Wombley just over two months ago now looks so poor.
Before Southend kicked off, Sky were showing our Notts County semi-final first leg. And we’ve only lost Tilley, Goodman and Ninetowns from that starting XI.
We’ve kept a lot of that squad together, and it should be good enough. But it’s looked lethargic and undercooked this pre-season, and it needs an injection.
I’m referring to a couple more new signings, though Ozempic might not be a bad idea. Or heroin.
Anyway, that’s the phoney war done. It all starts properly again in front of the Bedfordshire lights next Friday, and we sold our allocation within about thirty minutes.
It’s what we worked all last season for. It’s just a shame it seems promotion is not something we’re allowed to enjoy…