Takeover Hangover
Whilst the harsh disappointment of Friday night’s defeat by Hull City still lingers, the reality of the current situation at our club couldn’t be clearer. In a nutshell, the club needs looking after. No fancy, complicated theory or psychoanalysis required. John Eustace and the squad work to their capabilities with tight numbers, leaving the dreaded thought of injuries never more than a tweaked hamstring’s moment away.
Since the supposed “takeover” collapse two weeks ago, the club has stuttered and almost stopped moving forward. Both physically and mentally. Most Championship sides appear well settled right now, and reasonably confident as to their paths ahead, whereas we in B9 rise in spirits one moment and fall off the pedestal the next.
Success on the pitch is what matters to us supporters, but off field business relating to the ownership of the club is still key. Defeats by Burnley and Hull have hampered genuine hopes of the upward thrust wished for by year end, and depending what result the next game against Middlesbrough brings, the new transfer window will need to be shrewdly operated.
Supporters know what is required and what positions need to be strengthened but with a higher than normal points survival target looking likely to be required this season, those pulling the strings at St Andrew’s needs to act quicker than ever. Survival first is again the priority now. Strikers are needed and never more so, as amazingly there don’t appear to be any youngsters coming through the ranks which simply beggars belief.
However, this article is not about chucking blame around and getting at anyone, but simply trying to understand why we get deflated after only a short time of hope.
The recent excellent piece from Almajir and his report from Hong Kong was both interesting and informative, and raises more questions about what the future might hold for our club. Weird to say but from my point of view the quagmire surrounding the ‘will we or won’t we’ be the subject of a takeover in the near future gets ever more thicker. The club appears stuck and uncared for which leaves supporters at the mercy of people who seem interested in only throwing enough crumbs to get the club through yet another season.
How long this might last is impossible to imagine. That’s why my hope is for early wins in 2023 which might get the investment that John Eustace deserves and a push for the big money lottery only achieved by end of season top six. Still possible providing injured bodies return, with the added attraction of the pacy striker so desperately needed.
Mitchell Bray
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An excellent article by Mitchell. He sums up the position and plight the club is in and until new wealthy owners takeover who support our very good head coach we will continue to struggle.
Agree we are not in a very good situation and not able to do much in the Transfer window as we have our full quota of loan players but we could send Placheta back and get another forward in.Unfortunately we are continually papering over cracks that have been with us for a number of seasons.In the short term we can hope that Gordon,Hogan and Hall are ready to comeback because we were woeful on Tuesday.Bacuna and Hannibal are overrated so let’s start James who should have been regular starter anyway.Hopefull a 4 at the back will be used tomorrow as we need to ditch the 3 at the back for sure as we have been overrun in midfield of late.
Blues have been ‘light’ in the striking department all season and with Hogan being out for a few games we were always going to have problems. We clearly need to find another striker in the January window as do half the clubs in the Championship. Almijar’s report indicates that on the financial side of the club nothing much is about to change in the short term . It wouldn’t be a
very wise thing to do however for the current owners to signal that they are actively seeking to sell for financial reason’s. The last thing they would want
is to indicate that they are holding a ‘’fire sale’
Watching the Middlesbrough game we are well short of quality bacuna needs to be refreshed the big juke is finished without any new faces we will be lucky to survive confidence has been shot to me trusty and Colin are will end up at bigger clubs for sure
Problem we have is that two loan players are hazards in my opinion. Longelo cannot really defend, Hannibal too much of a liability and again cannot defend. Bacuna not dependable or consistent. Desperately need competition up front even if it means bringing Cosgrove back.
Full credit to the manager for what he has done in the short time he has been at the club but has I have said in the past the chain around the neck of the club his the listing of bshl on the hkse,I would assume that any enquiry that is made for the club this will always crop up because we are part of a company portfolio .One thing that is concerning is the lack of anybody in the 23s cannot step up in an attacking position Chong has done his best but a forward he isn’t and leko doesn’t show that he can step up either we keep hearing how good the academy is but nobody in forward positions oh well happy new year to all and kro
I think Peter is right about the lack of strikers but this applies to the Championship in general. With PL clubs now allowed 5 subs surplus strikers seem to be kept at their parent clubs and any half decent strikers from lower down the league are being snapped up too.
Yes agree that there never seems to be a out and out striker coming out of the Academy,it’s always midfielders.We have talented young midfielders but it always seems to me that successive Managers are reluctant to give them a descent run in the Team,Hall before he was injured should have been a regular starter because the pace he has is game changer,James was blooded last season but has been relegated to a permanent place on the Subs bench and Bellingham gets the odd minute.Williams the full back who started a couple of games at the start of the season and looked a really good prospect has disappeared from the scene.Bacuna and Hannibal are continually picked for what reason l do not know as their end product is zero.All in all our midfield have contributed 2 goals this season,1 from Bacuna,1 from Hall and that is not good enough.But going back to the youngsters no wonder they leave the Club as they simply do not get enough playing time in my opinion.
Without any takeover over 100 million in the red to me is a question of time how much longer can this club survive, with a small squad Eustace has worked miracles but for how much longer? Have supported this club since 1969 am worried
Yes Debt,Loan players,cannot buy any players without selling our assets,recipe for disaster.
Feel compelled to come in here and back up one of our loyal contributors. Today on another ‘Blues’ site has run the possibility of Hannibal and Sanderson being lured away from their loan spells. This woolly, flimsy notion doesn’t feel appropriate nor helpful in our current situation. Tracey Tyler has responded perfectly and with sense. Why release such unsettling and fake gossip. We are trying hard to galvanise supporters of our famous 1875 club- not destroy with tacky nonsense. John Eustace needs all the support he can get without an unwanted piece of unsettling tittle tattle.
Good points well made by Mitchell and Tracey. But unfortunately we are now well into the silly season with regard to the transfer window, so we should expect more of the same until the end of the month. I’m sure every player and his dog will be linked with a move somewhere.
Despite the disappointment of the last two matches I’m looking forward to the game today. Will be interesting to see what Eustace does with his team selection to counter the injuries, illness and likely fatigue after two games in very quick succession. Three defeats in less than a week…? Let’s hope not!
Happy New Year everyone.
Oh dear! Woeful. Absolutely woeful…..
That club is going nowhere with those owners till they go we have no hope could go bankrupt.please could someone come and save us.they did VILLA.
Michael. Almajir reported on his visit to HK that we are very small fry not really taking up much importance. They appear disinterested in selling so this is the real unpalatable conclusion- until they run out of money funding our position in the Championship then we carry on not really being cared for, or they decide should we drop a league that it’s the appropriate time to part company. Dropping to the dreaded 17th spot in the Championship is always the ‘kissing goodbye’ to a better season than before especially after the Xmas period. Injuries the problem with the hamstrings taking centre stage again but overall a very depressing situation for a club with wonderful supporters but without caring guardians.