UPDATE 1730: The club and Seedrs themselves have put a response to the Sunday Times article.
Played 2, lost 2…
Well, I guess the season is properly under way again, because it’s another weekend with nothing to show for it.
If we’re being honest, I don’t think we expected much before Fleetwood. But to lose after being 1-0 up at half time (and playing well, by all accounts) doesn’t exactly brighten the mood.
Especially when you look at the goals. To be fair, Mr Championship-Quality took his effort well, and while I wish we’d been able to cash in on him – if he can find the net in our shirt then great.
But both their efforts looked so preventable, and for the second game in a row we’ve let ourselves down.
Mind you, it also doesn’t make your weekend any easier hearing our forward line was looking as impotent as many have feared. We use “strike force” in the same way as we say Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide”.
So, we are where we are, unfortunately.
Walter sounded quite pissed off afterwards, and I think the training ground isn’t going to be an easy place to be for the next couple of weeks.
While it’s undeniable we’re still (literally) paying for the overspend of last season, there should be more of a spine/character being shown – especially as that’s what kept us up to begin with.
I note Tzanev is getting some brickbats from a few, and as said against Rotherham we can’t afford for him to keep flapping.
Yes, he’s young and needs to build up game-winning confidence, but at the same time we may have to make a very big decision in an important area before our transfer window shuts.
It’s times like these when you do look for small mercies. We haven’t been walloped, indeed we’ve looked competitive for at least some of the contests, and as last season proved even a goal difference of just three can make all the difference.
In the four halves of football we’ve played this campaign already, we did look decent enough in two of them.
And this bit may sound like complacency but isn’t – it is just two games gone.
Nobody gets relegated in August. Hell, nobody gets relegated in February, as we should know.
That said, we do need to kickstart things and get points on the board sooner rather than later. Especially in a month when we’ve still got to go to Ipswich and Sunderland.
After we visit the Stadium of Light though, things do get a bit more “normal”. If we can get out of this month without too much damage, we’ll be OK.
A point to ponder, though : do we still have a hangover from last season? It took a lot out of us, physically and mentally, and we’ve yet to be fully “on it” again.
I ask that because your editor was at QPR v Huddersfield yesterday and one of the Terriers players afterwards suggested that very reason for their slow start.
Obviously, it’s a different kettle of fish going down from the Prem rather than staying up in L1, but having the mojo is often hard to regain after pushing yourself so hard previously.
Whichever way you look at it, we need a decent result against t’Stanley next Saturday. If only to get that psychological point(s) on the board…
Yes, I know there’s a certain fixture this Tuesday that could kick us into life (or make things worse). It’s all very low key, not exactly getting pushed by the club, and something I’d rather do without.
A number of people who would otherwise be there aren’t going, your editor included, and it might be a very surreal one for those actually in KM.
The trouble with playing Franchise is if we lose and play badly. That won’t do the morale any good, especially with the need to get into gear becoming ever more apparent.
Of course, a win on the other hand will lift things tremendously. And I’d like to think we’re more than capable of doing exactly that.
The Carabao Cup is one of those weird tournaments that offers more than you otherwise think, despite not having the FAC’s glamour or the Chuckaturd fLeasing.Com** contempt.
** – this works much better verbally than it does written down. Try it.
Last season, lest we forget, we played WHU for the first time at KM in this competition. Even if it’s the fixture against them nobody remembers.
Just as losing becomes a habit, so does winning. And even without the backstory of the vermin infesting the place, it’s worth getting the result for that alone.
We shall see. As we seem to do for everything else right now.
Still, the crowdfunding is now close to £1.575m, which isn’t bad at all. Especially as there’s still under two months (54 days, at time of writing) to get that £2m.
While the talk has been of raising £3m+, it’s better psychologically to know that you’re just about 80% of the way raising £2m than about 50% of a higher sum.
This wouldn’t be AFCW (or the whole NPL project) without a “but”, though, and here it is – Seedrs themselves are after more finance.
It’s not quite what you want to read on a Sunday morning after a defeat, is it? Even if you don’t have a Times subscription.
I doubt if it affects us directly, but this is where there needs to be some reassurance given – both by Seedrs and the club itself.
See, if you’re considering investing in this, especially with a five or even six figure sum, you’ll read that article and then have just that little bit of doubt in your mind.
And we literally can’t afford potential investors to get cold feet because they don’t know what’s going to happen to their money.
The whole issue might get sorted out quite quickly, and I suspect there’s a big chance Seedrs either restructures or gets taken over. Neither of which would affect us.
But this isn’t the time for radio silence, especially from the club. They want peoples’ money? Fine, just don’t let them feel jittery all of a sudden…