Stewart Donald recently claimed that the club are being “patient, not complacent” in an attempt to calm fans amidst the slow close season progress. This being said, with the clock ticking fast how much can we rely on the current chairman to get the required business done in time for the start of the new season?
First of all, the takeover is surely hampering our chances of signing anyone. Although Jack Ross has supposedly been given the green light to sign players, potential signings may well be put off coming to the club while there’s in a state of confusion regarding ownership.
The longer the takeover goes on, the more fidgety fans are getting and rightly so. It is so frustrating to see us repeat the same mistakes as last summer, not getting out of the blocks quick enough to sign marquee players.
With other teams strengthening already, it leaves us one of just six teams in the league who haven’t done any business at all this summer. Bolton, Wycombe, Lincoln, Bury and Rochdale are the others. None of these teams are expecting the level of success we require.
Doesn’t this say something about us? We aren’t exactly keeping great company in this list, as well as rivals Rotherham breaking their transfer record on Plymouth’s Freddie Ladapo and Ipswich signing League Two’s top scorer James Norwood, from Tranmere, on a free.
Additionally, it’s recently been reported at that the takeover may not even take place at all! This would be a massive blow because Stewart Donald has previously stated that he doesn’t have the funds to take us forward, hence the reason for takeover in the first place.
On the other hand, I do understand that we need to be patient. SD needs time to complete the deal and if the takeover ends up being completed soon then hopefully the new owners already have plenty of deals lined up and the funds at hand.
Ultimately, much like the majority of the fanbase, I am getting pretty nervous and it certainly doesn’t help that other rivals are also strengthening. The sense of panic was also apparent in January, when we let Josh Maja go and paid well over the odds for Will Grigg.
Hopefully there is actually more of a plan than there seems to be and as soon as the takeover is complete players start arriving through the doors at the Academy of Light.
