Does this thing still work..?
Well, it’s been about a month now since SW19 updated, and up until about this time last week there was nothing much going on.
No signings, no fixtures, not even a dodgy rumour or five to keep us going.
There wasn’t really much point doing updates, it’s my close season too, and I don’t think I would have been popular talking about my trip around ex-USSR states.
Like, getting properly sunburned after less than 24 hours in Yerevan, or taking a photo of this unidentified stadium.
Or a Guess The Stadium for those with IQs of Franchise fans.
Or the slightly surreal conversation with my taxi driver in Baku (in broken Russian) informing me how much to pay coppers for bribes, inbetween getting me to say hello to his Tajiki wife because “он из Лондон и он прилетал из Тифлис”.
His words, not mine. Seriously.
Or indeed, wax lyrical about some football tournament Stateside, like just about everyone else is doing.
I have to admit, hearing Steve Clarke leaving a month after signing a new contract for Scotland sounds like something we would have done when MR was in charge.
Thankfully, the fixtures came out last week. And we’ve even got some new signings too.
We can now kiss close season goodbye and look forward to pre-season. The players are back in training properly tomorrow, and things start motoring again.
I wonder if players get to the stage where they just itch to return to training after the break? Though imagine if you’re one of the ones out of contract at this time of year.
If you’ve got an offer of more money elsewhere (which apparently Seddon and Lewis have), that’s one thing. But if you haven’t…
Still, there’s the PFA training camp which starts tomorrow, and perhaps we’ll be one of many clubs looking to see who’s available for a couple of Werther’s Originals and a warm Naris cola from 1987.
That’s for later, and we’ve actually made three signings.
Well, one who played for us last season, another who “played” for us many moons ago, and one genuinely intriguing signing.
Welcome (back?) to Dan Sweeney, Zack Nelson and Steven Sessegnon. Two defenders and one goal-getter.
A quick one on Nelson – he was somebody filed under “promising youngster”, maybe had a tougher time than he should have because of our slump in form, and it wasn’t a surprise that he returned to us.
Indeed, when Luton released him, it almost seemed inevitable he would be back in our shirt next season.
Who knows what he’ll be like with a pre-season campaign under his belt?
Dan Sweeney, who trained with the AFCW first team squad in 2012, is now back in it fourteen years later.
Given his time at St. Evenage, he’s obviously got something about him at L1 level – something I think we lacked at times last season.
Maybe being 32 will work against him, although he’s a potential upgrade in an area of the pitch that needs massive work.
As is the guy we’ve already called Sess. And yes, Ryan at Fulham is his brother.
That one was a bit of a surprise, although there were the usual “transfer exclusive” types on social media predicting his arrival.
He’s back in south London, which is something that can’t be underestimated, and he does seem happy to be with us if the video clips are anything to go by.
It’s another boost to that area of the field, and I suspect this isn’t the last of the incomings. We might have to be a bit patient for the next round of cheesy “Welcome to Wimbledon” announcements, but come they will.
The question now is, who’s going out?
As said above, the rumour mill is suggesting that Seddon is mulling over a higher value offer elsewhere, ditto Lewis, and Hippo is still earmarked to be departing.
All three of these I can see happening, though Seddon leaving will make some rush to their nearest motorway bridge.
To be honest, I don’t really care if any of them leave, especially if they’re defenders. It’s not 24/25, and it’s clear already we’re prioritising the back line.
I’d like Seddon to be with us next season, but I’m not going to get massively upset if he isn’t.
Why? Because I have this niggling doubt in the back of my mind that we saw the best of him last season, and this is the same player who underwhelmed in his second spell with us.
If that puts me in a minority of one, so be it. I’m used to it – after all, I was one of very few who wanted JJ to stay on after his first season.
And yes, that’s a bit of snark. The first occurrence of 26/27, and we haven’t even started pre-season properly.
Also, while I don’t think the club have announced that Dave Reddington has left (is he still going to Everton?), we’ve got Michael Morrison in as his replacement.
He’s had a decent career, just retired after helping Cambridge get promoted to our division, and has had some glowing tributes from Reading, Birmingham City and Charlton too.
And it was at the Valley where he was the team-mate of one Mr J. Jackson.
He’s got the coaching badges, although I would have preferred someone with a bit more experience.
That said, everyone’s got to start somewhere, and as somebody elsewhere said – it’s most important for a coach to communicate, and apparently MM is good at that.
He’s a former centre back as well, so maybe he’ll know something about defending set pieces? And if he does, his first test in his new career will be telling our players…
Anyway, the fixtures came out, and I’ll be honest and say I’ve only just sat down to look at them whilst typing this.
We could have had a bit of a nicer opening fixture, ditto Boxing Day. I think I believe those who reckon they mixed up us and Franchise’s games around that time.
Seriously – Leicester away the day after Xmas Day? And that assumes it doesn’t get Skyjacked so it ends up being 11am or 8pm.
Speaking of the circus, we’ll have to defumigate PL in September, which just so happens to be on the same day as Millwall v West Ham.
Knowing the Met, they’ll probably insist on both games kicking off at the same time. Hell, why not just play both ties at Wembley, and let everyone do thousands of pounds worth of improvements?
We go to Stadium:MT in late April, which is enough time to get the bad taste out of your mouth.
Midweek wise, Burton, Mansfield, St Evenage and Notts County away are ones for the hardcore (though I think we’ll get a decent turnout for the latter), although I think we were half-expecting Sheffield Wednesday or Leicester to be one of them.
Oh, and we play the Foxes at PL on Easter Monday. Which will be a culture shock for them.
It’s not too bad a fixture list, apart from the obvious one, and controversially we’ll play each side once at home and once away.
You can’t really predict a week where we should get points and a week where we’ll likely get gubbed, but our first priority is to make sure we don’t let any in next season.
We can make a good start with Newport in the Carabao Cup, which is the first game of the new campaign.
Their manager has just departed, by the way. Or for the obvious pun, their manager Fuchs off. It should be a good start to the season for us, but of course it never works like that.
To prove how little I’ve paid attention, I’ve just realised this game is on the Saturday rather than the midweeker.
It’s actually not a bad idea, it means a bit more than the final PSF at somewhere like Woking, You know, the one you try and get excited for (and fail).
I reckon this will become the norm from now on, even if it came about by accident.
Finally, I even allowed myself to look at the pre-seasons, and we’re off for the traditional pissup training camp in Marbella a week tomorrow.
I still miss the days when we went to Germany for them. And yes, I know we only did it once, but Spain doesn’t appeal one bit to your editor.
Maybe one day we’ll do the kind of trip I take, and go to somewhere like Armenia? I know a little bit of Russian so I’ll probably end up doing the translations for everyone.
Closer to SW19, we’ve got the traditional curtain raiser against Sutton on the 18th, an intriguing (OK, weird) one against Norwich – yes, that Norwich – before more predictable ones against Charlton and QPR.
No Premier League ones this year, although the World Cup probably ensures that, and oddly enough no L2 ones either.
Still, it’s something to look forward to, perhaps, and by the time 3pm at GGL arrives you’ll be glad you’re back.
And when we go 1-0 down after a minute there, you’ll wish we had another two months without any football again…