Good job we had a spare weekend seven days ago to recharge and reboot, eh?
After yesterday’s latest defeat to Wigan, we’ve got to admit to ourselves we’re now in a slump.
A slump that, the longer it goes on, becomes harder to get out of.
Had we’d held on for a draw yesterday – hell, even have won it – we would have at least stopped the proverbial rot and felt a bit better about ourselves.
As it is, it’s a pretty shitty weekend again. And any of our fans who support England cricket may need to be checked on at the moment.
Perhaps one can start looking at the edge of platform 6 at Wimbledon station…
Anyway, it’s shit. And it’s not even been gallant losses. We were dumped out of the FAC to a Gateshead side who have since been toilet in the National League.
The less said about Peterborough the better, although that might have been one of those games.
Yesterday though feels like a proper teeth kicker, not helped by knowing we went ahead but then giving Wigan their first away win of the campaign.
So why is it going so wrong after going so right? Maybe we’re being found out, in which case there needs to be some on-field changes.
Orsi is definitely the bete noir of the current team, and he’s already giving Aaron Presley/Josh Davison vibes. And not in a good way, either.
I assume we needed to sign somebody – anybody – in the close season, as we decided to let out Josh Kelly on loan.
I’m starting to wonder if we should have keep him instead, although I’ve noticed he’s scored three times since he got sent to Woking.
There seems to be a bizarre fetish for starting Sasu right now, which really isn’t helping matters.
He wasn’t even that good in L2, let alone L1, and if JJ is making a big mistake right now, it’s putting him in the first XI.
Can we really not start anyone else in his role?
In fact, I’ll go further for Huddersfield next week – drop him, one or both of Lewis/Johnson and put in Bauer to tighten us up at the back again.
Drop Reeves too, if we can. If we can’t, then maybe tweak things in the middle.
We just need to do all that for one game, just to let the players know that they’re not undroppable.
Earlier in the season, you wouldn’t have even had passing thoughts about not starting any of those (bar Sasu), but the facts have changed now.
We have a fair bit of credit in the bank, and right now we have enough points for this to be an issue and not a crisis. But that can change quickly too if we don’t try and address it.
I do make it almost a ritual to read JJ’s post match comments when doing these Sunday morning updates, and in this I think a picture says a thousand words.
You don’t even need to scroll past the headline to see the all-round pissedoffness (?) vibe that snapshot generates.
Anyway, the words pretty much match the main photo, and for him this must feel like his first season with us at times.
Perhaps having that very good start has backfired on us a bit? Raising expectations, generating a false sense of competency, that kind of thing.
I don’t doubt it can be reversed, and even a draw can help things. But JJ and co need to start doing the unpleasant things now.
We’re also getting close to the transfer window opening, and this with the backdrop of the club admitting a couple of weeks ago that it’s hard up.
I didn’t bother doing an update on the latter because it’s nothing you didn’t really know. And it’s nothing I haven’t mentioned in more than a few updates in recent months.
Before I continue – I’m in no doubt the current DTB members, and a fair few of the current PLC board would love nothing more than to keep the current funding model as it is.
They’re implying they want 50+1 purely because they’ve seen what it costs to operate an EFL football club these days, and have gone a bit cold.
Remember the John Green consortium’s cash injection that got so many excited? Didn’t seem to last too long, did it?
Your editor still thinks that equity sale will go through, even if it’s this time next year with a gun pointed to collective heads.
I especially believe that if there’s a proper this-is-where-we-stand-and-this-is-what-it-will-entail communication from the club. Though I accept “communication” and “proper” are difficult words at the club a lot of the time.
Don’t forget, over 70% of voters backed it the previous time it was proposed, and that despite no information about it whatsoever and a concerted campaign from non-backers against the DTB at the time.
The rank-and-file have pretty much proved that the whole “if everyone at the game yesterday spent £5 extra we could buy another Daniel Orsi” approach never works.
If it did, then every club with relatively decent crowds would be doing it. But ask yourself why they never do…
It’s not an ideal backdrop to a transfer window that might become another important one after all.
If we need reinforcements, that’s what we’ve got to prioritise with the money we do have. It’s our core business, after all.
Should we decide to cash in on somebody like Hackford, I can’t imagine JJ and Cope in particular being happy that they can’t get a replacement.
And both of those could go to another club if they’re feeling the rug is being pulled under them.
We might get £1.50 for certain players, and if somebody offers anything for our current ones out on loan we would be best to take it. Even Kai Jennings, if he’s not going to make our first XI.
With the honourable mention of Matty Stevens I’m struggling to think who we would get reasonably decent money for in January.
The last four games illustrate we can’t weaken the side any further than it is – we’re clearly stretched, we’re struggling to score goals right now, and there’s still five months of the season left.
And the performances on the pitch are what matters most, to the point where it dwarfs everything else put together.
There’s a quote that I forget where it’s from, but sums my attitude up to that perfectly – how are you going to keep them on the farm when they’ve seen Paris?
Good luck trying to get people to accept they must watch a lower level than even L2 because that’s what our ownership model dictates.
I’ve seen that bandied about a couple of times in the past couple of weeks, although ironically doing that will hasten administration more than anything…
Back to the present. Anyone who comes in with a cash injection between now and the vote will be welcome, because needs must, but they’d be wise to do so with strings attached.
Maybe they could be preferential bidders if significant equity comes up for sale? If I had that sort of money, that’s the sort of thing I would insist on right now.
Anyone who bails us out within the next month will likely have a lot more clout and influence than at any time since 2002, because when you’ve exhausted every other revenue grab that’s the end result.
Or to put it another way – not needing to start Sasu and Orsi in a League One fixture will be a small price to pay…