Urgh.
It’s a good job that we’re not likely to even trouble the relegation places** this season, because the arse has fallen out of us now.
** – this assuming we haven’t failed to properly register a player in January. And let’s face it – you wouldn’t be surprised if we fucked that up.
I think what makes yesterday worse was how predictable it was.
We go ahead via the goal machine that is Ali al-Hamedi, then our back line decides it can’t cope with beastly professional footballers and lets one in.
It then sets off PTSD in the whole group and it all plummets at a rate of knots after that.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat until the end of the campaign.
The post-mortems are no doubt going on even as you read this, and you can’t help think there’s been too much disruption in the squad again.
We could do little about Towler and Assal going, we’ve got in players who are all right but lack the spark that could have pushed us upwards.
Although if it’s given us the Iraqi Scouser then it’s a successful window after all.
And it’s interesting that many are saying a number of our players are struggling with fitness but are having to play.
Pearce had to come back in, when ordinarily he would have been re-introduced slower. But we can’t rely on Nightingale or Pierre.
When you lose Brown and Biler too, that really doesn’t help.
Yesterday does also seem to highlight the difference between our forward line and a team that is legit playoff contenders.
We haven’t scored many goals recently, and when we do it’s only through one player.
Before yesterday, the last time we lost two on the trot was in October (which led to that reaction after Sutton).
We’ve now lost three in a row for the first time since September, although that was part of a gruesome little run where we suffered four losses in a row.
This isn’t even our worst run this campaign, in other words.
But we have to arrest the slump PDQ, if only because season ticket sales depend on it. And I’m not being hyperbolic either…
I have to admit, the thought of yet another end-of-season with us freefalling doesn’t appeal, although this time round it’s just deciding who goes in the summer.
I guess JJ himself is starting to think the same way, considering he’s told players they’re playing for their futures.
You would assume most if not all of the loanees will go back, although he might be looking at who’s currently injured and therefore needs a backup.
Pell is currently out, and we need another one of him in the summer. Ditto another Pearce or Towler or Biler.
And yes – I am making the reasonable assumption that JJ will be here come 23/24.
Granted, he might end up getting poached by another club, which is something the previous SW19 update touched upon.
If we want to make the same mistakes that we have done in recent years, then we should sack him.
Doing so will do absolutely nothing for long term planning, not to mention the cost of having to pay him and Skiverton off.
We need a direction most of all, and our current management should at least be given the chance to put us on it.
If this happens again this time next year, then make the change at the top. But sacking managers is a damaging habit if you do it too often.
And we’re getting too close to becoming a “sacking club”.
JJ is not Mark Robinson. Nor is he Glyn Hodges and Walter. Some will argue he’s like Ardley, although he got more time than anyone else.
This might dismay a couple of kneejerkers this morning, but we’re not going to do too much better in the manager position than the guy currently in charge.
Our problems lie in whether we give him enough money to match the lofty ambitions the club publicly states.
It’s definitely telling since we lost yesterday that the first questions of crowd size versus budget are being voiced.
The club may not wish its punters – sorry, “owners” – to know why. But it might have to.
There’s still a lot of crap within AFCW that needs shovelling into a bag and taken to the local refuse tip.
JJ himself has had to deal with a club that has been relegated, a squad rebuilt in August then re-rebuilt again in January.
The last couple of games have highlighted the weaknesses still within the camp.
If one is to compare Jackson with Ardley, it took the latter a good couple of seasons to turn the latter TB days around.
Indeed, it might be closer to the period between 2014 and 2016 than you might think…