Everyday when I wake up I go online hoping for good news or any reason to be excited about this football club. Of late, every day I am disappointed. I feel like Ben Affleck in “Good Will Hunting,” hoping every morning when he went to pick up Will for work that he wouldn’t be there.
After such a sullen season that can’t end soon enough it feels as though there is a cloud hovering around the club. Results have been poor, the football has been even worse for the most part, and fans have had enough. After recent displays even national pundits are taking notice how poor we are.
I have been measured in my analysis of the manager. I may have overreacted to the highs and lows but that’s what a fan does. I fully admit I was overly enthusiastic about the few rare high points this season, deluded by the notions of this team playing to its potential.
There have been injuries and wage reductions, but this team has still underachieved. Coming to the end of the season it is the time to fully assess the season. What has transpired on the pitch has been by and large unacceptable. Staying the course doesn’t mean an acceptance of mediocrity because mediocre would be an improvement on what we have been subjected to.
No club is entitled to success. Given the way the board has run this club this is likely what they deserve for such rank incompetence. Last summer it was critical that they get the appointment of a new manager right and they got it wrong.
The club desperately needs stability but there comes a time when you have to let the dog die. Disillusioned fans will not accept the status quo. The players will never admit it but I am sure they know this can’t continue. Players want to know that the club will give them the tools to succeed. What message will it send to the players to not give them the proper direction on the pitch and on the training ground? What message will staying the course send to potential summer targets?
On a positive note if the board were to make a change they could appoint anybody they want and the new man would be welcomed with open arms. A managerial change has taken on a feeling of inevitability. Even if McLeish comes back the fans and media would have the knives out if the club starts out in the same indifferent manner that they have shown most of the season.
The team that takes the pitch in August will be drastically different than it is now. Unless McLeish can turn things around quickly he won’t, or at least shouldn’t, be long for his job. I have seen little to indicate he is capable of doing so. There is no reason not to start the process of starting over yet again after the season.
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