Losing six games in a row is miserable, the whole Beale saga from start to finish was depressing and, even in this article I’m going to pretend never happened. And, of course, and I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but we haven’t signed a functional striker since 2021.
The thing is, we’re not actually doing too badly. No, honestly, let me explain.
Two years ago, we went for six games without a win. In League One. We lost to teams like MK Dons, Doncaster and Cheltenham. Bolton beat us 6-0. But a good run scraped us into the playoffs and the rest is history.
Last season we got a cheat code, Amad Diallo. Without him I reckon we’d have had 10-15 points less. And we finished on 69, so, the same team without Diallo I’m saying gets 54-59. And I still think we’ll beat that this season. So where we are is not disastrous.
And, by the way, last season at almost exactly this time of year we won one game in nine. We’re currently on one win in seven. And two years on from losing to Cheltenham and MK Dons, we’re losing to teams who could well be promoted and stay up in the Premier League. Losing is never good, but let’s try and keep perspective, we’ve come a long way. But a long way to go.
The most frustrating thing for me is that, while any other team has injury crises, our fans insist it’s the failing of the squad. No team in this division could lose Clarke, Roberts, Ballard (or O’Nien), Evans, Cirkin, Alese, Embleton, Dack and Huggins and hope to get a result against Norwich, Leicester or Southampton. And yet, in parts of those games we looked strong. Not big enough parts. But parts.
The performances under Dodds have got better match by match. He has taken over a squad starved of any positivity for the previous two months, less fit than they’d been in years and has started turning them around. I accept his selections and tactics have been curious (I’m being polite) but I think he’s working the team out and what potential they really have. The win is getting closer, and with fixtures coming up against weaker teams, I think we can get the points to turn this into an instantly forgettable season of player development, but not a bad season.
The club needs to accept that there have been big mistakes made. Beale was a cock up. And there’s only two possibilities. Speakman got it wrong in the appointment or the board said this is your budget and Speakman thought he was the best available in that budget. On the basis Mowbray and Neil were paid more than Beale and, based on the others who were being considered, I’d suggest money was not the restriction.
This, plus the signings made over the last two windows and the lack of a striker, has pushed fans to believe the billionaire owner isn’t prepared to risk any money. Bizarre. Look at the amounts he has spent, look at the accounts to see how much money he’s made available. He’s not flash with cash but thank God for that, there’s a long list of clubs who’ve thrown money at the Championship and got nothing in return.
Ah but his model is failing. Is it? Have we signed players who we can then sell for greater sums while stabilising and getting out of League One? I’d say it’s going ok based on that test. This season is the first fly in the ointment but it’s far from a disaster and, hopefully, lessons will be learned.
The removal of experience to field players who could easily be in sixth form alongside our vastly experienced 23-year-olds seems to take the model too far and doesn’t give any of the young players the structure to learn and develop. We need experience and not only have we not bought it, we’ve given away what we had. But is KLD responsible for signings? No. To be fair to Speakman, I actually rate Bellingham, Rusyn, Aouchiche, Mundle, Seelt, Pembele. I think they’ve a real future, hopefully with Sunderland. But there are key gaps which need to be addressed. And that, like the appointment of Beale, lies on Speakman’s desk.
I think Speakman’s on extremely thin ice. He can reasonably argue that there has been progress since he arrived in all the key areas, that it’s a work in progress and the team are nowhere near ready to go up so, to be honest, finishing midtable does no one any real harm. But he can only argue it once. Next season needs to be different. Not splashing cash, not suddenly signing people over 30, but an acceptance that any plan, any model, needs constant reviewing and reworking. Kyril doesn’t get off Scot-free here. KLD needs to manage Speakman, spell out what is expected and what the framework for that is and keep reviewing rather than trying to patch things when they go wrong. But this isn’t bin everything and start again territory. This is long hard look in the mirror and realise we’re incredibly close to being a very successful club with an amazing squad built mainly (but not exclusively) with young hungry players.
The rest of this season is building to next season. Bringing back some positivity around the place, especially with the players, some fitness and some self-belief. All we can do for now is get behind the lads and not get on their inexperienced backs at the first sign of a mistake. It doesn’t mean we’re happy and it doesn’t mean we accept where we are as our final destination. Over the next two months we need to see the club are learning from their errors.
We need to see a recruitment process for the Head Coach that makes sense and shows the board’s plans are in line with what this club’s potential allows. We need to see KLD managing/running the club. If the wrong people are in positions, they need moving on. If the right people don’t want to come, they need to ask why and deal with the answers. And we need to see evidence we’re building the squad to move towards the Premier League. Not in one jump. Maybe not in two. But…. Well, let’s start with a win on Saturday against QPR and we’ll go from there.
