Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail!

Following yesterday’s defeat, I feel compelled to write in the hope of achieving some therapeutic benefits by getting some things out in the open that cannot be done with a tweet, what’s app or their likes.  Let’s start with yesterday’s 1-0 defeat on the 2^nd January.  A must win game to keep any hope of winning the league alive.  Yes, we started positively, playing better than what we have this season.  However, for all our possession, what did McGregor have to do after saving from Griffiths’ shot in 21 minutes?  Our final pass, through ball etc. from most players seems to undo the great work before.  Our final ball and overall delivery from set pieces are rarely effective.  Some players decisions to take an extra touch, not play teammates in or drift into a crowded area do nothing except allow the opposition to grow in confidence and gain strength that they can handle all that we have to offer.  Yes, you may say that this is down to the players once they go on to the pitch and that the coaches cannot make the decisions for them.  However, can they or do they not sit with players and analyse games, eradicating weaknesses, identify strengths and then work on this on the training field.  Also, do we not train and coach at defending set pieces which appear to be our downfall most games? 

 

One clever passage of play from Rangers saw a player, once again playing in an unnatural position, forced into an error, giving the referee an opportunity to do what he is desperate to do and leave us with an even more difficult task.  We had no reply, we lost discipline and with that the game and potentially the league.  For me, major decisions need to be made and no longer avoided that will bring about many big changes for the betterment of the club.  It’s possibly too late for season 20/21 but let’s start to show some ambition for next season.  Our capitulation of the league is not down to yesterday’s defeat.  The fact that we went into this game on the 2^nd January on a must win basis goes far beyond this one game and has reflected on how we operate as a club.      

 

Whether you like him or not, you can not deny that Rodgers appointment showed ambition for the first time in a long while.  However, the cracks began to appear between Rodgers and the CEO’s relationship which perhaps expedited his departure.  Getting Lennon in on an interim basis worked well, but with hindsight, would Kennedy stepping up not have also worked, given that there were little changes to the ins and outs of the workings of the club at that time.  I will be honest and say that prior to Lennon getting the job full time, I would have been fine with his appointment, if the board had done their due diligence in their search for Rodgers replacement.  They appeared not to, evidenced by Peter Lawwell’s admission that all other applicant’s CV’s/application forms were not touched.  Unfortunately, my faith in Lennon as manager was misplaced and its clear that its not working.

 

Is Lennon the ideal employee who is happy to be in a job at the club he loves and not rock the boat half as much as his predecessor?  The message from the club is that we are a big club who operate on a highly professional profitable basis.  I disagree and believe that we are incompetent to operate above our domestic status.  Even now, this dominance is at threat by a club who have a smaller budget, are allegedly in financial turmoil, supposedly have less managerial experience than us and who only came in to the topflight a few years ago. 

 

Our recruitment policy is outdated and appears to have a scatter gun approach that wastes millions of pounds on £2/3 million signings on mediocre players.  The signing policy appears to be one of ‘suck it and see’ what level we end up playing at, in the knowledge that ‘marquee’ or any others for that matter don’t get the benefit of preseason, a large part of the season has been played and they come in under a dark cloud usually generated after being knocked out of the Champions League.  Our transfer business appears to be far too often reactive at not being in the Champions League, rather than being proactive to give us a better fighting chance of getting the rewards that it brings.  Our failings to get players in quickly have potentially cost us 10’s of millions if not reaching the 100’s over the last 10-15 years.        

 

Let’s look at the transfer business this summer.  We failed to act effectively and efficiently (once again) and appeared to use the extended window to dither even longer.  People said that we had a very good window highlighting that we were bringing in quality from the EPL, but I disagree.  This is not an opinion formed with hindsight as I did say at the time that the summer business was good at best based on not selling Edouard.  I fail to hold the EPL in the high regard that so many do, seeing this as an overrated, over inflated league that probably ranks highest in the world for being the least value for money.  People seemed to think that we were getting EPL ‘quality’ but how can it be if the EPL club no longer wants them and neither do any others.  We appear to allow players to sit on our offer for a longer than necessary period, for them to see if any other lucrative offers/ clubs come in.  We should give them 48 hours to decide while continuing to source other options.  We appear to take forever to get deals done with selling clubs, appearing to hold every penny as prisoner which has caused us to lose out on quality players over the years. 

 

After getting beat from Ferencvaros we were told that some players didn’t want to be at the club but they still are.  I’m sure we all have our opinions on who these are, but why did we not sell them on.  Instead their value is being depreciated through them not getting game time and/or their poor performances.  Can we say with total confidence that these players are fully invested in our pursuit of 10 in a row as they plot their travels to pastures new?  Can the same be said with our use of the loan signing system.  Not wanting to hold them accountable but do we rely on this too much at the expense of long term planning and getting players to settle and focus on the club for much longer than 6/ 12 months.  David Turnbull has been a rare positive this season, but the timing of his signing was again too late, conveniently the day after getting put out of the Champions league when we had been linked with him for 18 months.  

 

Yesterday’s result has not really come as a surprise as the writing has been on the wall for a long time.  The club has been in regression for longer than people care to admit, and it has been mismanaged in many departments for a long time.  We have been labelled as self-entitled for daring to question the club’s direction and apparent lack of ambition.  The club continues to fail to engage with the support, other than to peddle merchandise with no recognition of the supports blind faith through buying seasons tickets.  It is they who are self-entitled and take our devotion to the club for granted and will no doubt be expecting us to renew our season tickets very soon with no assurances of us getting to a game.  There will also be another stockpile of merchandise to replace this season which they will expect us to buy in abundance. 

 

I take no pleasure in writing this but feel that I can’t just sit back and accept it.  It hasn’t worked for Neil Lennon this time and I believe that he is not exclusively at fault, but he has been in football far too long to know that ultimately the buck usually always stops with the manager.  He should have been better supported and deserves to be as the club legend that he is.  The board need to own their incompetence, accept liability, their failure to act and begin to act now in a timely fashion that goes to prove this season is a one off and better times are once again ahead.