I have on more than a few occasions posted my support for SP, and I still believe that he is the right man for the job when compared to what we have had in our recent history. Also when you consider how poorly the likes of Spurs, Man U and Chelsea are run, I believe we are doing ok.
That said SP is in charge of the running of our club and I am concerned how far we have fallen off over the past two and a bit seasons. It was not that long ago when we had Olise, Eze,
Guehi, Lacroix in the team and we were beating all comers including 4-0 against ManU and 5-0 against Villa as some of the highlights.
Now in defence of SP we will always be a selling club, but so are all but a few clubs that have to comply with the various financial restraints imposed to keep the cartel at the top.
It also doesn’t help that players suddenly think they are bigger and better than the club, and then throw their toys out the pram.
People moan that we have wealthy owners so they should splash the cash, but we have spent money. We have just brought players that are simply not up to the level required. What is clearly a big problem is our poor recruitment over the past couple of years.
Now this is where I have to question SP what is going on, and who is responsible for this. I know we should not compare ourselves to others, but that is naive. You should always keep an eye on similar sized competitors (in all walks of business) and compare how you are doing in relation to them. So when you see Brentford, Bournemouth and the Weed consistently selling their best players, but already having better replacements lined up, you have to worry about what is going on with us.
I don’t think it is as simple as saying we lost Freedman, and replaced him with Moody then Hobbs whom both seem to not know what they are doing. Because I don’t believe that the decision to buy a player is simply down to one persons. There must be a whole team doing due diligence, so why do we keep getting it wrong of late?
Ultimately SP has to sign off any player purchase, and I am concerned that SP gets distracted when he is dealing with major infrastructure projects. He was very focused on the academy, and now the new stand. So I wonder if he has taken his eye off the ball, and what I mean by that is that we have been so poor with recruitment for a while, why has he not addressed the situation with the people that recommended the players we buy?
I believe we can still recover this season as there is time to do so. We just need to adapt to the players that we do have. (They’re not all bad) This may need a new manager to be more pragmatic, or Sage maybe able to change what he is doing. What is clear is that SP needs to get on top of this and worry about the here and now, and not worry about a new shiny stand that will likely be half empty in the Championship.
England
