No speculation is usually characteristic of the worst sort of window, the kind where you know nothing much will happen because you haven’t got any money to spend. Unless it turns out you do. Around the halfway mark, though, with Robbie Keane having started his brief loan spell, all the talk is basically about outbound players. Which, you never know, might end up equaling having some money to spend.
I don’t really know what to make of the Petrov and Collins to Sunderland stories. It’ll either make you laugh or cry or both, but knowing O’Neill, it’s ludicrous enough to be true. West Ham keen on Delph…that would makes some sort of sense. But i can’t seen us letting go of both Petrov and Delph on permanent deals in this same window unless we’ve got someone lined up. If Delph is unhappy/homesick or some such, a loan move back to Leeds would benefit him. The playing will benefit him. If he’s not going to make the grade, we need to get him some more games to find out. Regardless, we need more than just Herd/Clark and Bannan to call upon. I don’t think Heskenbauer is the answer.
Now, I know most of us think we could do better than Stan and James. And likely, for the money they’re on, we can. While Collins would seem to have a ready replacement in Cuellar or Clark, Petrov is one who, while we know he doesn’t have 90-minute legs anymore, is well regarded, plays hard, and does keep things ticking over when we’re playing well. He’s got a good football brain on him, does simple things well, and has nicked some goals.
He can be replaced, but given the lack of leaders in the squad, replacing him in a couple of weeks in January might not be as easy as one would like to imagine. And while I’ve not thought Dunne and Collins as a pairing are good enough, they’ve both been playing better. If Martin O’Neill is one-dimensional enough that he’s coming in for two of “his” players, it will help us if we’re left with time to adequately replace them—we would at least need another experienced experienced central midfielder who can play with Ireland. Because it seems like Ireland should keep playing.
It really would be interesting though if we had a chance to replace Petrov and Collins sooner rather than later. We’d find out a lot about McLeish—or we wouldn’t, depending on whether he does better than he did with Hutton. January is, after all, a tough time to do good business.
I don’t really know what else to say at the moment. The Everton match…well, it seems as though that’s just the way our games with them are destined to play out these days. Some good, some bad, and stalemate in the end. I thought Ireland had another good game, and it’s encouraging. The team are continuing to try and press and make things happen. Will we get good enough at it to make a real difference? I dunno. But it’s better than regressing, and the growing consistency of approach might be the green shoots of a side coming together and starting to get it right. It might be some sort of fungus.
So, I know the recent fixtures certainly haven’t changed any minds, and have likely just hardened opinions further based on what I’ve been reading. Me, since I think McLeish is going to be here to the end of the season at least, I hope I’m seeing signs that the season’s home stretch doesn’t need to be nerve-wracking, even if it isn’t inspiring.
And I suppose that raises a very interesting question, consideration of which will make some heads explode: If Villa cohere, and this fledging progress ultimately results in a more committed and competent outfit (please note, it’s a low bar), will that mean McLeish has earned another year in management’s eyes?
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