Archive for the 'Rogue Male' Category

Utterly underwhelmed.

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Wherever you look at the moment everyone is trotting out the reviews of the season. If they are starting now then the season has ended early. For most of us the season has fizzled out long before the death or glory of a final day. For QPR fans the season ended the day Paolo Sousa was sacked, sorry, we don’t sack folk…the day Sousa was ‘disappeared’!

Writing a blog has been hard this year, not just because it’s the first year I’ve had to combine it with a rapidly growing child, but to be frank I’ve just not felt like bothering with the club. If a word can sum up a season then I’d go for embarrassment. Looking through my meagre contributions this season its easy to see how disillusioned I got, and how quickly too!

In August I was faintly excited but worried by our lack of signings to really build on a squad. I was prepared to challenge people who were already getting on Dowie’s back but by September I was taking the micky out of Garath Ainsworth and his role as chief cheerleader…how little I knew!

October exploded with Dowie’s sacking, sorry self-combustion or whatever he did. I thought we’d reached a low point. By November I’d given up only to have my hopes raised by the surprising baby-Mourinho Paulo Sousa. Had we accidentally stumbled on a messiah? No, my only blog since February was a half-hearted whine at Sousa’s removal. Not my finest year to be honest.

If I had any interest in soaps then this would have been a season to savour, but I don’t and it wasn’t. Five years ago I checked the Internet everyday expecting to see that we’d gone belly up or, and I never believed it could happen; a millionaire had bailed us out. Then it happened, everything we wished for had come true and in spades. Not just one millionaire, but three and the last one spelt million with a b! Would I have changed any of that if I’d known what I know now? On balance no, but it’s a close call.

Without investment I don’t believe we could have continued the way we were, bouts of administration and a tumble down the league(s) were inevitable and while our core support was galvanised the last time it happened, you can’t keep collapsing and expect the loyal fans to keep bailing you out.

With investment we appear to be at the mercy of a Gucci-fat megalomaniac with a 1960’s comic book idea of how a football club is run. It can only be the fact that he cant see his feet that stops him lacing up a pair of footy boots (do they still lace up?) and turning out at centre forward…actually now I’ve typed that I can’t help but think his scoring record would be comparable to most of our forwards!

If he and the others removed their backing then rather than a roll down the gentle slopes of the football pyramid, we’d take a straight leap of the cliff edge.

So where are we and where can it end…well here’s the view from my armchair.

For any owner to come in and ever hoped to be remembered as a positive influence at a club, short of buying success like Abramovich, the best way of achieving it is to bring everyone together. Most club buy-outs are fire sales and there’s usually a lot fences to re-build. Our three wise men seem hell bent on destroying everything. It wouldn’t have been difficult to meld us into one unstoppable force. Ray Jones, the depths we had sunk and ten long years of desperate struggle had forged a deep intensity to our faith, yet they appear to want to tear this down.

If Flavio et al are in this for the long haul then he should start at the bottom. Who, Ray Jones aside, was the last player to go through our youth set up and really establish themselves? Richard Langley probably. It’s not exactly a conveyor belt is it? I accept it doesn’t help when Tottenham take our best prospect in years, but if we want to build a solid foundation and crucially become less reliant on our sugar daddies wallets then here is where it must start.

The club must be a club from head to toe; it must be aware of its history but not bound by it. Fortunately our highs are relatively sparse so there’s no weight of expectation from that quarter. Successful clubs try to do the right thing, they treat all who visit as welcome guests and the good feeling this generates is all positive energy to be used to build a feeling that the club is going places. I don’t think our present board understands this, I don’t think the Derby fans being charged £40 to sit in a cramped, restricted pan felt any positive thoughts towards us.

I’m fairly confident that every season ticket holder being asked to fork more and more money to watch less and less entertainment would struggle to muster much positivity.
Over the past few years the turn over in personnel behind the scenes has been alarming, so any change in how the club is run must be made at the top and trickled through every corner of the operation. Hands up if you think Gianni Paladini’s first priority is his own security or the well being of the club? Do I know Mr Paladini personally? No! Do I know the inner workings of the club intimately? No! Do I think my wild speculation is too far from the mark? No!

The only reason he retains such a prominent role is his ability to say ‘si’. If that was all he did then fine, someone’s got to lick Flavio’s arse, who better? But if only half the rumours of his interest in our transfer affairs is true then it is imperative that he is removed as soon as possible.

A year ago we sat in exactly the same place, but with real optimism about what lay ahead, of course it was disappointing that De Canio had gone, but what a foundation to build on. A few judicious signings could’ve launched the season. What transpired was another confused pre-season, a handful of hopeful loan signings and no real quality brought in. We’ve started again this year. No sign of a manager and we are fighting tooth and nail to give Dele Adebola a contract? It makes you want to cry!

Obviously the need for a decent striker is blatantly obvious. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen us really compete for premiership quality, I don’t think our owners, rich as they are, ever will dig that deep. I do however think that there are good options if you look for the disaffected and undervalued. Portsmouth are not holding the funds they once had, unless Tottenham are continuing to launder cash through them? Could David Nugent be a viable target? How many minutes has David Healy managed at Sunderland this year? Both have pedigree at our level; both would be gettable for an ambitious championship team.

Under the same principle I think Danny Shittu would welcome a move from Bolton. I’m glad Damion Stewart was recognised for his efforts, but I’d love to see big Dan back.

If we could get Buszacky and Rowlands fit, retain Blackstock and have the Lee Cook we all remembered, then two out of my three targets would make a pretty formidable squad.

The big question is which three managers do you want in charge next year and in what order?

The club and possibly you would say ‘what right have you to question anything’? Other than I’ve taken the time to compose this blog, no right whatsoever. Other than the 35 years I’ve spent following the club I can cite nothing to suppose anyone should take my views seriously. Indeed there is a fairly persuasive argument that says the vocal Internet interest is an insignificant minority and that the vast majority of fans couldn’t care less if Pol Pot, Fred West and the Cheeky Girls were in charge as long as we were winning.
If that is the case then I’m simply pissing in the wind here. I do honestly believe that we ‘the underwhelmed’ are merely the tip of the iceberg. The steady erosion of the club, if left unchecked, will get to a point where there is nothing left to salvage.

I don’t think it has to be this way. If all our millionaire owners want to do is bleed us dry, then they could manage it with a lot less hassle than the current situation. We are football fans, sheep, happy to go to slaughter. We’ll shell out thousands of pounds, especially if we think we are loved. Flavio and friends, I’m appealing to your greedy, avaricious, self-promoting and self regarding nature. Run the club properly and we’ll happily bend over. Otherwise the only way you’ll be rid of this incessant irritating chatter of discontent is when the last one of us leaves and turns the light off.

May our summer be long, hot and preferably full of good news.

It’s all rather embarrassing!

Friday, April 10th, 2009

I know a lot of the folk on the board are parents and I’m sure you’ve all had that same knot of fear every time you remember that some one depends on you not doing something stupid.

It could be something small like drifting off on the sofa after a long day at work to find that junior is happily trying to pull something twice his size off the nearest table or maybe it’s a something seriously idiotic like trying to adjust his seat whilst flying down a motorway.

So it’s with a sense of real shame that I admit to you all that I’ve done something really, really stupid. I did it with full comprehension of what the consequences might be. I deserve everything that is coming to me.

My son was one last week; I bought him a Queens Park Rangers Football kit.

Why would I, who would walk in front of a bus for him, wish such misery on my son? Why would I think he’d want to have anything to do with a Football Club that is the mere plaything of fat dictators and desperate hangers on?

I can’t change my colours now, but is it right to put this on his shoulders?

Depressed, embarrassed and resigned…it’s no fun being the second richest club in the world!

The season starts now.

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

The transfer window has closed, the sense of frustration amongst R’s fans is as palpable as it was at the end of August. The project is still not finished.

At the end of last season, before the disappearance of De Canio admittedly, there was, for the first time in ages, a sense of contentment. In the space of a few months we had gone from the edge of the abyss to the beginnings of a bright new future. Talk of new stadiums, a 5-year plan and an era of stability allowed us to think of a return to the top flight.

For most the realisation of this once distant dream was not to be an overnight affair, patient building secured by a stable financial base was to be our path. The days of knee jerk reactions and pointless spending to be thrown away.

The team, whilst obviously weak in some areas, had shown an ability and durability through the back half of the season and with a few judicious signings thrown into the mix it looked like De Canio was able to build a team of contenders around the energy of Rowlands and the class of Buzsaky.

Before the season had started that dream was in tatters. De Canio gone and all our squad building hopes seemingly heaped onto the shoulders of a young Spaniard who had no idea as to what he was letting himself in for. To compound this the clubs saviours, once hailed as astute sporting businessmen had seemingly gone mad, intent on alienating the long suffering fan base and suddenly in a rush to achieve their premiership dream.

By Christmas the club was back to its comedic best, only with more money. The Mad Italian owner (think Nero fiddling away) had installed himself as emperor and had the equivalent of an over-enthusiastic red setter in charge of team affairs. Eventually they saw through the madness and appointed what appears to be a decent coach and despite the shenanigans so far the club is sat just outside the play offs.

So here we are, some twelve players better off, yet we are where we were in August, still needing decent full back cover and a finisher! At least three different managers (four if you include Nero) and still the feeling remains that Rowland and Buszacy are the key. Only now you sense that if we fall short it’ll be because both their seasons ended early rather than madness behind the scenes.

Generally, most R’s are happy with the season so far. It would have been lovely to build on the football that De Cano hinted at, but Sousa appears to be a manager who wants to play the right way and there is every chance that we’ll go to Preston in May with something to play for. I’m happy with that.

So why the frustration? Maybe it’s the nagging feeling that our cabal of Million and billionaires haven’t finished meddling. Maybe the softly softly approach in the transfer market is merely a smokescreen. Maybe they are playing at running a football club, something to do in-between Formula one seasons?

Whatever their plans, if what has gone on this season is any indicator, there’s no pandering to the faithful and they’ll not be asking our opinion.

Is it time to embrace the project?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

We’ve all been a little down lately, laughed at, outplayed, humiliated and generally a disgrace. The balanced view is that we should look to a year ago and see what we have now. This is sensible and shows a maturity and clarity of thought that has no place in the common football fan.

We are angry, we have a right to be angry and we have a right to stop being angry for no good reason other than 3 points at home! That is why we are football fans. So we’ve boarded the pessimista express and are hurtling towards our perceived oblivion (or mid table obscurity as we sometimes know it).

But are we missing something here? Yes we have tradition, years of loyal service, a sense of righteousness and hearts that are hoped, but are we in danger of missing out on our one opportunity for a ticket to the top table? Whose to say Mr Briatore isn’t embarking on the correct path?

Fundamentally we had stalled as a club. We were living off a vague memory of life at the top some ten years back, even then it wasn’t great, you have to go back to the eighties for our last decent team. We are not being run badly now, we’ve been run badly for a long time, the laughing started way back.

From his penthouse suite overlooking some lake or other, Mr Briatore pulled his cashmere kung fu style gown tighter to his corpulent belly, lit a cigar the size of a healthy cucumber and ecided…enough! Now we do it my way.

Who is to say that this isn’t going to work, sure it’s not been a great start, but surely this is just a beginning. If a new stadium is out of the question for now, then why not maximise the revenue from the old, 15,000 corporate ‘guests’ all paying ten-year debentures. Season tickets rising to a point where only those using them as tax write offs can afford to go. The newly imagined crest eventually resplendent with Flavio’s likeness in the middle and the white in the current kit replaced by green.
Polite applause will replace those that once booed their own players, pigbag will be replaced by the classic penny whistle and teapot Italian national anthem, supermodels will parade along the touchline before kick off replacing whatever that current mascot is supposed to be.

Why not, nothing else has worked for years. Let him pick the team; let any of us pick it. We’d probably end up in exactly the same place.

The alternative is…? Exactly! No one is rushing to invest in football clubs now. The likes of Steve Gibson only come along once in a blue moon (or maybe even just once!). Let’s give the man his head, lets tell him he looks great, that everyone believes his girlfriends are attracted to his killer personality and the that super new crest will eventually grow on us. Lets go get deluded.

It can’t be any worse than the excruciating slow death we are currently ‘enjoying’.

So lets embrace the ‘project’, enjoy our ‘boutique-ness’ and hope for seventh…can you imagine this shower giver the oxygen of Premier League publicity?

Time for another drink!

fifteen games, eight wins, four defeats!

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Oh well-done, brilliant…what a piece of fantastic forward thinking. It turns out we are exactly the kind of club I‘ve always hated.

  

I couldn’t have written this two hours ago, so disgusted with he club as I was. While being calmer now I still find it so disheartening to read people whose opinions I rate, comfortable with this decision, happy to discuss the next mug to take the job.

  

Well I’m sorry but I’m not ready for that, I’m not ready to contemplate anything other than vilification for Flavio and the other turds that have taken a decision that you’d normally associate with Ken Bates or Peter Kenyon.

  

We all understood that Flavio was a clown, that he had no taste and without money we wouldn’t urinate on him if he caught fire. But at least he was our clown. This season has been one PR disaster after another, what next? Burning down Loftus Road for the insurance money.

  

But its all part of the lesson isn’t it, you don’t need integrity, you don’t need loyalty and if you can’t afford platinum…Fuck off!

  

Tomorrow we go to the form team in the division and in charge, the cheerleader and what was his rally cry… ‘We are, as always QPR together’, really Gareth, is that what we are? Well I‘m glad you are prepared to bend over and take it and I hope when you get shafted you retain your marvellous positivity.

  

I won’t be watching tomorrow, a small and meaningless protest I know but right now supporting QPR is nothing to be proud of!

Wait a minute…

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

I’d like to get down to head quarters more often than I do. Last season I managed only one trip down and that was before the arrival of Rogue junior who despite being photographed sporting the hoops (just in case there’s any argument at a later date) is already curtailing a lot of activities I once considered an inalienable right.

  

My one and only game last year was a midweek game where the clock was well and truly turned back. For 45 minutes saw the R’s produce football that I haven’t seen in twenty years and in truth I’m not sure I’ve ever personally witnessed. Committed, aggressive, slick, controlled and above all intelligent. Buszacky and Rowlands gave a master class in midfield artistry and after 44 minutes a 2-0 lead flattered our opponents. While it’s frustrating that the whistle didn’t blow there and then it shouldn’t detract from the sheer quality of what I’d witnessed.

  

That final minute saw the start of what I can safely say was as good a performance from a forward as I can remember, the fact that it was the seemingly ‘over the hill’ Andrew Cole that produced it was only surprising for that fateful first goal. A dangerous but defendable free kick struck the wall and dropped to the thus far immobile striker…not for long, the blur of movement hurled a missile of a shot post the helpless Camp…in truth I had to watch sky sports news frame by frame to work out how he’d managed it. Notice had been served.

  

The second half was as one sided as the first, shorn of a comfortable lead and Rowlands we retreated into a previous guise and the Cole show took over. We were treated to a master-class of economy of movement, efficient use of the ball and a world-class eye for goal. In the end we were lucky to lose 4-2. Driving back I was, possibly for the first time, amused by Steve Claridge. Hosting that nights phone in, he’d witnessed the first half and having left at half time couldn’t believe we’d been beaten.

  

It wasn’t a classic, bustling centre forwards performance, but it proved once and for all that Cole was a great player.

  

I’m marking by Loftus road debut on Saturday, Home to Forest and guess who’ll be leading their attack…

  

…Andrew Cole!

  

Couldn’t happen again…could it?

  

Rogue Male.

Is this the kind of club we want to be?

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Less than two weeks on from a famous League Cup victory at a premiership ground, one that was considered in most quarters including this messageboard, a triumph of tactics by Ian Dowie.  There is a ground swell of opinion growing that he should go!

 
You can’t be surprised that there is impatience at Loftus Road; football is notoriously quick to jerk the knee. I’m just taken a back by the fact that the fans are leading this little revolutionary act.

 
The past year has seen momentous change at the club, a glance at the table a year ago ought to be enough to quell mutinous thoughts. But where we were once led by desperation we are now mastered by ambition and that’s why I expected one of Flavio’s big dogs to be fermenting the dissent. Maybe they are, but subtlety seems not to be their first weapon of choice.

 
We are rapidly descending into becoming the kind of club that’s easy to dislike. The new owners may be oblivious to criticism but I’m not and it hurts to be considered mean and money grabbing, just as much as it exasperates to be always called ‘moneybags QPR’ when week in and week out we are playing teams that have dug deeper in the transfer market.

 
I don’t think the club is being run badly, in fact I’d welcome a regime that costs everything and demands full value, if this is the price of premiership football then so be it. I won’t be able to go, but I’m sure that given the right product, someone will.

I’m pleased we are not breaking the bank for big names, but even loan signings are not necessarily the answer. Neither Parejo nor Ledesma played in the home game against Burnley last year. For 45 minutes I saw football that I’d not witnessed at Loftus road for 20 years. No matter that we lost, the future was there to see. Is it really Dowie’s fault that the main architects, Rowland’s and Buszacky have yet to flourish this year?

 
I think loan signings; particularly those from a big club like, for instance, Real Madrid come with certain proviso’s…something along the lines of ‘yes you can have him, but not to keep the bench warm’. Parejo has been basically playing where we’d all like to see Buszacky. Ledesma made his own case for inclusion by playing well, but ideally I’d like us to have Rowly and Buzz at the helm.

 
The central midfield problem has never really been sorted out. Mahon looks whole hearted but somehow short of what’s needed and while Legs will always look dangerous it’s sometimes too near his own goal.

 
I think the attacking side will sort itself out, but we’ve got to stop giving away easy goals, especially at set pieces. Fourteen points isn’t bad, only one point off the playoffs, but we should be grinding draws out of games we are losing. Only uninformed pundits and probably the board think we are favourites to go up. If Dowie gets us to the playoffs I say job well done, but will he get the chance.

 
The type of club that makes itself unpopular by hiking up prices and getting too big for its boots will almost certainly be the type of club who will sack their manager every few months.

 
Lets have a bit of patience, give Dowie time and stop dicking around with people’s money. Lets be QPR for a while.

Rogue Male.

Is this the kind of club we want to be?

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Less than two weeks on from a famous League Cup victory at a premiership ground, one that was considered in most quarters including this messageboard, a triumph of tactics by Ian Dowie.  There is a ground swell of opinion growing that he should go!

 
You can’t be surprised that there is impatience at Loftus Road; football is notoriously quick to jerk the knee. I’m just taken a back by the fact that the fans are leading this little revolutionary act.

 
The past year has seen momentous change at the club, a glance at the table a year ago ought to be enough to quell mutinous thoughts. But where we were once led by desperation we are now mastered by ambition and that’s why I expected one of Flavio’s big dogs to be fermenting the dissent. Maybe they are, but subtlety seems not to be their first weapon of choice.

 
We are rapidly descending into becoming the kind of club that’s easy to dislike. The new owners may be oblivious to criticism but I’m not and it hurts to be considered mean and money grabbing, just as much as it exasperates to be always called ‘moneybags QPR’ when week in and week out we are playing teams that have dug deeper in the transfer market.

 
I don’t think the club is being run badly, in fact I’d welcome a regime that costs everything and demands full value, if this is the price of premiership football then so be it. I won’t be able to go, but I’m sure that given the right product, someone will.

I’m pleased we are not breaking the bank for big names, but even loan signings are not necessarily the answer. Neither Parejo nor Ledesma played in the home game against Burnley last year. For 45 minutes I saw football that I’d not witnessed at Loftus road for 20 years. No matter that we lost, the future was there to see. Is it really Dowie’s fault that the main architects, Rowland’s and Buszacky have yet to flourish this year?

 
I think loan signings; particularly those from a big club like, for instance, Real Madrid come with certain proviso’s…something along the lines of ‘yes you can have him, but not to keep the bench warm’. Parejo has been basically playing where we’d all like to see Buszacky. Ledesma made his own case for inclusion by playing well, but ideally I’d like us to have Rowly and Buzz at the helm.

 
The central midfield problem has never really been sorted out. Mahon looks whole hearted but somehow short of what’s needed and while Legs will always look dangerous it’s sometimes too near his own goal.

 
I think the attacking side will sort itself out, but we’ve got to stop giving away easy goals, especially at set pieces. Fourteen points isn’t bad, only one point off the playoffs, but we should be grinding draws out of games we are losing. Only uninformed pundits and probably the board think we are favourites to go up. If Dowie gets us to the playoffs I say job well done, but will he get the chance.

 
The type of club that makes itself unpopular by hiking up prices and getting too big for its boots will almost certainly be the type of club who will sack their manager every few months.

 
Lets have a bit of patience, give Dowie time and stop dicking around with people’s money. Lets be QPR for a while.

Rogue Male.

Save the Cheerleader.

Friday, September 19th, 2008

S’alright, I’ve not suddenly geeked out; I’m still one of the good guys. My focus this time out is the ever-changing role of our self appointed mascot. No, not that drippy Tiger, nor the binned Jude, I’m talking Gareth Ainsworth.

 
Wild Thing, as he is known (probably at his own behest) has had a stop start career. Injuries have wreaked havoc through the years. But fans up and down the land have warmed to his dogged determination to get off the treatment table again and again and again.

 
At QPR he’s become a symbol of our dragging ourselves out of the mire of the third tier. His thirty-yard thunderbolts, tireless determination and dedication to looking like a member of the 75-76 team have afforded him legendary status.

 
Personally, my favourite Ainsworth moment was during a home game where we were dominating but not scoring, with 20 minutes to go he got the hook, rather than sloping off, looking at his boots, shaking his head and half heartedly clapping the crowd, he immediately broke in to a sprint towards the dugout. Not only was it as fast as he’s ever been in the hoops it was the kind of sprint that was last seen in Chariots of Fire, all high knees and pumping fist, head held high as if balancing a champagne flute…both ridiculous and marvellous at the same time and stayed with me for ever.

 
As one who has suffered a number of cancelled contracts and non-renewals, he’s developed a keen sense of positioning during these uncertain times. Always back in action at the end of a season and always a whirlwind of action. Extra years are tacked on to his contract almost as a habit, but when the new money arrived he must have thought the writing was on the wall.

 
Every appearance last season was treated as his final, applauding the faithful, waving, signing autographs…all during the game! But Gareth Ainsworth is a survivor and not as daft as he looks. Come 2008 he’d developed a permanent place on the bench under Luigi De Canio, it was difficult to find adequate football reasons for this given the many new faces popping up at Loftus road. But if you watched the bench at the end of the game…every game mind, there you saw the genius of the man. Win, Lose or draw, who was first to hug, console or celebrate with the boss, Gareth Ainsworth.

 
The limpet like winger has again survived a regime change. His role had developed, even to the point of securing a coaching position. But the real value to Rangers is again seen on the bench, during games.  He’s become Dowie’s stress buster. During Sundays live outing against the hapless Saints, every goal or major incident was the subject of a close up of our bench as Dowie, punched, patted, hugged, squeezed or playfully mussed up the hair of our hero, who reacted pretty much the same way that the six month old Rogue Junior does to such attention.

 
I don’t begrudge him this Indian summer; indeed, if we continue winning the sight of Dowie absent-mindedly battering him will become a focus of much mirth and jollity amongst the regulars. Lets hope things don’t go wrong though…I’d hate to find the camera panning round to catch the lifeless form of Ainsworth, dragging along the cinder track, as a frustrated Dowie wrings his neck in frustration!

When did we become big time?

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

To many at Loftus road this has been a disappointing start to the season, only six points from three games and progress to the 2nd round of the Carling cup.

 
On the face of it, 5 more points than last year and reaching a point in the cup that some young fans will never have seen is a fairly alarming improvement. But it would appear that there’s a certain section of the fan base that will find anything less than total domination of the league unacceptable. They’ve bought into Flavio’s dream and are happily wearing the rich mans intolerance of failure.

 
I’m sure that to make it big in any walk of life you need to have a streak of ruthlessness, an ability to make difficult decisions quickly and to set very high standards.

 
The Observer has a neat little round up of Championship games; you get a quote from both managers and then one from a home supporter, probably a mate of someone on the Observer payroll or possibly a local fanzine contact.

 
This week, under a good report on the Doncaster game we were treated to the thoughts of one John Baker. He’s a Flavio man and he’s had enough of Dowie…I quote…

 
…I’ve really got no faith in Dowie-he was a bizarre appointment-and a 2-0 win over Donny isn’t going to change when Fitz Hall went off, but it’s really hard to get too excited.

 
I don’t think Joe’s alone, for as much as I’d like to think the general opinion would be, lets build something, lets do it carefully, correctly and with a view to ten, fifteen or even twenty years in the future, I’m afraid that there are too many Joe’s who want it all right now. 

 
Dowie might not have been my first choice, but at least he’s prepared to work and build something. Many of the names bandied around when De Canio departed were blokes who only work when there’s money to flash around. I don’t want someone to buy everyone; I want someone who’ll buy the right players.

 
There was obviously mistakes made in these first games, Sheffield sounds like a mare, but this is a newish team, lots of young foreign players experiencing English football for the first time and our best two players, Buzz and Rowly were sidelined. I think 6 points is a damned decent start.

 
I honestly think that an ideal situation would be a good competitive year, maybe a shot at the play offs? Get used to winning and playing together. Next season I’d expect us to really push for promotion, that way, should we be successful we’ll have a good solid base to build on, a real chance of surviving up there.

 
Dowie might not be the man to lead us in the prem, but there’s been precious little to suggest he’s not the right man right now. So until we are ‘big time’, lets have a little perspective, lets remember where we were a year ago and enjoy the relative calm of sound financial waters.