If you look at the squad today, how many of them will realistically be here next season? My guess is not many.
The likes of Carl Ikeme, Matt Hill, Adel Taarabt, Jay Simpson, Tamas Priskin and Marcus Bent will all probably be on their way for different reasons. Some of them are not going to be up to the standard, whereas others, the better players, will probably want to move on and also play at clubs with more stability.
Then we’ve got players in the last year of their contract, such as Radek Cerny, Nigel Quashie, Martin Rowlands and Gavin Mahon. It’s feasible that some of these guys could be on their way out too. In Cerny’s case, he appears to have been made some sort of scapegoat by Ikeme’s arrival and I can’t see him being happy at being ousted by a short-term loanee who really hasn’t improved us either.
With Nigel Quashie, he’s had a long history of injury problems and people pointing the finger at his performances and he’s already been no stranger to that here having been booed, heckled and consequently substituted at half-time during the Ipswich game. Unless he has an injury-free and an amazing end to the campaign, it’s hard to see how the club would offer him an extension. There will be doubts over whether Martin Rowlands will get back to his best and questions will be asked about his fitness after a career that’s seen a leg break and two damaged cruciates and Gavin Mahon’s not getting any younger either.
Then you’ve got the guys we’re trying to ditch too. Heidar Helguson, Patrick Agyemang, Fitz Hall and Allessandro Pellicori are four players who are going to feel unloved and unwanted by the club, so their futures are going to need sorting out too. It will only be an unhappy camp if they’re left lingering around the place and you might even be able to toss Matteo Alberti into that mix as well.
Those are just the obvious candidates, but what about the rest of them? Who knows how they’re feeling and judging by some of the performances we’ve seen in recent weeks, it clearly looks like some of them just want to get away as soon as possible. And we’ve not even got onto the footballing questions yet, such as, will Rowan Vine ever be the same player again after that injury?
So we could find ourselves with quite the rebuilding job on our hands come the summer and really with major surgery required, the hard work should have already started. We need a manager because this isn’t just about whether these players are good enough anymore, it’s also about solving the lack of harmony, team spirit and togetherness too. And it’s the manager’s job to do this and nobody else.
The manager needs to work out who’s in his plans and which targets he wants to chase in order to rebuild and get players in who fit in with his philosophies and concepts. There’s no better time to start all this than right now and the only reason you wouldn’t is if you’ve already got somebody else lined up but who isn’t available until the end of the season.
The fans will continue to grow restless if these aspects are not dealt with. What are we doing about this stuff and do we have a plan? Because if we’re not careful and don’t sort this out properly we’ll be starting next season on the back foot too.
How the club handles all of this will also impact season ticket sales, but if they do it right they’ll win back support and everybody can start over again with a fresh clean slate. Do it wrong though and make a mess of it, well, I fear the place will be something like a ghost town come August.