Where do we go from here?
Thursday, April 30th, 2009The team is managerless, the players appear to not give a rat’s arse and the supporters are divided about whether or not our superrich owners are up to the job. Hmmm… can we sink any lower?
About the only positive from that lot is the word superrich. Take that away and we are doomed (feel free to assume a dodgy Scottish maritime accent at this point if it makes you feel better). What worries me is that by frightening off Briatore and co, we could really screw this club up, as in this financial climate, who is going to want to buy a football club that’s got £20M in debts? Briatore has his faults, but at least he is prepared to keep the club going. Is it a case of better the devil you know? To me this next season is the crucial one; mistakes have been made – will they be corrected or will we continue along the same path? There is so much potential at the club, but the current path leads to oblivion rather than the Premier League.
So I have a three step plan. Some of it might be obvious, but sometimes the obvious is also the most difficult to see:
1 – Appoint a manager and stick with him for the whole season. If he doesn’t improve the club’s league position, then fine, sack him; but lets base this on results, not style of play, personality or what appear to be petty legal squabbles.
2 – Try and bridge the widening gap between club and supporters. The POTY was a PR disaster, the season ticket prices have been a PR disaster. More spin comes out of the club than No.10 when Pete Best has come along for a sing song. Now I appreciate that the days of full openness are gone (Bill Power was a one off), but lets get a few basics right - be honest, give a little more information on things going on at the club and actually give an honest opinion on goings on – i.e. explain why. Otherwise the internet message boards will go into overdrive on rumour and speculation, which only makes things worse.
3 – Get a scouting team together. We are only one or two players off really challenging – and that deserves a hell of a lot of credit. We’ve come a long way in 2 years. But we need professional help identifying players, as our current method seems a little hit or miss. We need another striker and depth at full back, plus perhaps another keeper. That’s probably only 2 first team players away from challenging. But a proper scouting team will do a better job in the long run than doing things via friends and colleagues say so. Even the great Brian Clough had Peter Taylor to do the scouting for him.
So that’s it – 3 steps from becoming a team we can all get behind, enjoy and rediscover our love of football and all things hoppy in a blue and white way. Most of these don’t require a huge amount of money either, but will provide value for money.