"Perspective" by Paul Jarvis
I must say that after so much panic displayed on the terraces and the chat lists of the Tiger Nation, I feel obliged to point out a few FACTS:
We are fifth with a third of the season left. Only two full points behind an automatic promotion place with games against Luton, Mansfield and Rochdale, who occupy three of the four places above us, to come.
We have a striker who has scored 20 goals (the holy grail of many on this list over the last three or four years) and another striker who has bulged the net on 11 ocassions - four more than our top scorer last year.
We have the best defensive home record and have lost one game in the League at home in the last thirteen months.
Our youth team tops its League and our Reserves (including the much praised Matt Bloomer) are near the top of their League.
Several youth players such as Bradshaw, Peat, Burton etc... are looking extremely promising for the future. They are also not being rushed into the first team which can often ruin a player's confidence.
We have the best squad we have had for years including many young, skillful footballers who are nowhere near their peak. AND we are actually, mostly, playing football that is good to watch even if a bit inconsistent.
We have one of the top Managers in the lower Divisions who showed incredible loyalty to the Club and the Fans when many others in the current greedy world of football would have been long gone. Redknapp and Gregory walked because they couldn't have money to spend on players - Little stayed when there was no money to PAY him or the players.
We have attracted, largely due to Brian Little's presence, many skillful players including some rated youth players to our team.
And we haven't done very well away from home and we aren't ten points clear and winning nearly every game 5-0. Is it realistic to expect this considering we have brought in about 20 new players this season - nearly the whole squad?
Meanwhile, several City fans believe the solution to be running round like a demented Corporal Jones on Speed shouting "Don't Panic, Sack Little" (or the internet equivalent).
I can think of a couple of Managers that we let go prematurely that seem to be doing quite well now-a-days. Perhaps we could get someone of real talent such as Jim Smith or Ron Atkinson in to SAVE our current dreadful season.
Just to emphasise how bad it has got, a few more thoughts:
We have a Chairman who knows about football and is running the Club like a business. No really he is and not a Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday or Crystal Palace who are so indebted that they should by normal business rules have been wound up long ago.
Oh and there's that new 25,000 all seater Stadium that we are getting for no outlay. That's absolutely awful.
And we will break even this year if we get just 8,500 to each match while we are averaging 9,482 so far (yes I am a sad Stato).
No it's time to take a deep breath, think of Terry Dolan, Stephen "Jailbird" Hinchliffe, Christopher Needler, David Lloyd and Mark Hateley and say after me:
"What the am I panicking about?"