Cardifferent Season, Same Problems?

The scarf lady, half of Small Heath Alliance and most of Row Z of the Tilton are going spare at the moment, as we haven’t brought in five more strikers, whilst (whisper it) Aston Vile have put in a £15m bid for Ross McCormack of Fulham fame.

The same fans who literally pi$$ed themselves laughing that the twelve-toed Aston visitors were relegated are now living in fear that they might actually do better than us in the Championship.  I’d actually be a tad surprised if they didn’t.  After all, they were in the Premiership last season and they have a self-proclaimed billionaire in charge!  They also have Roberto di Matteo in charge of their first team, a manager with the Champions League on his CV.  The pressure is totally on their shoulders!

It’s funny because the same fans who are predicting a double relegation for Aston Villa are demanding that we spend more than them.  We can’t have our cake and eat it.  Surely if they’re taking up the relegation space we can afford to breath a little easier!?  If they’re taking up a promotion space then we can tighten the purse strings a little, knowing there’s no point throwing what little money we have at a fruitless promotion push, when Newcastle and Norwich are also in the parachute payment push.

All this being said, it’s been no secret this summer that Rowett has been looking for a striker, though who depends on what you read, and who you believe.  Having signed Robert Tesche on a free (a season later than many of us would ideally have chosen but a million or more cheaper!) and Ryan Shotton (undisclosed) from Derby, we’ve also brought in the youth product from Liverpool, Daniel Cleary ‘one for the future’…We’ve been linked with Che Adams of Sheffield United, having an offer in excess of £1m turned down.  With money like this available, it makes you wonder, then, why we couldn’t afford to go the extra mile to bring in £375,000 rated Greg Stewart from Dundee United…I guess Rowett must have given him a value we weren’t willing to go beyond?

Anyway, after what FELT like a fairly fruitless set of friendly matches, beating Solihull Moors 1-3, losing 1-2 against Kidderminster, beating Forest Green 0-3, beating Leamington 0-1, losing to Shrewsbury 0-1, drawing 1-1 with Walsall, beating Mickleover Sports 0-2, losing 0-1 to Hibernian, drawing 1-1 with West Brom, losing 0-1 to Wolves, beating Port Vale 0-2, drawing 0-0 with Roda JC Kerkrade, beating AFC Telford 0-3 and beating Kidderminster in a rematch 0-4, we need to take stock and look at what actually happened.

Let’s look at the U21 matches first and foremost.  Three wins, a draw and two defeats.  Not too dismal.  Hope for the future if nothing else.  That leaves the first team friendlies.  Yes, they’re only friendlies, but they’re the friendlies that have got everyone panicking and looking for directions to League One clubs.  Win them all and everyone points out (correctly) that they’re not ‘competitive’ matches, lose them all and everyone starts looking for the sackcloth and ashes…anyway, W1-3, W0-3, L0-1, D1-1, L0-1, W0-2, D0-0. W0-4  We WON FOUR, drew two and lost two.  Suddenly the panic seems a little unnecessary.  How about the desperate need for a striker?

Well, forget the Under 21 matches, they’re not going to be ready, are they?  We’ll concentrate on the first team friendlies, as they’re the only ‘currency’ that counts at this time of the season.  Sure it’s not 100% accurate and we may yet bring in new players, but it’s the only indication we have!  We scored THIRTEEN goals and let in FOUR.

Donaldson x 2, Fabbrini x 2, Morrison x 1, Storer x 4, Caddis x 2, Shinnie x 1, Vaughan x 1.

You have to say, with Vaughan finally “off the mark” in Blues colours, you wouldn’t bet against him finding the net again this season.  Donaldson has shown his intent to continue where he’s left off these last two seasons, and Fabbrini has definitely shown his silky skills can be added to with goals in the preseason, so we have reason to be cautiously optimistic of equalling if not slightly bettering last season’s achievements even if we don’t suddenly bring in the next big thing from the transfer market…but maybe we don’t need to!?  (I’m not suggesting I don’t want us to bring in more, simply that I’m not panicking…yet!)

Look again at our goalscorers.  That name Storer is going to be difficult for Rowett to at least leave off the bench against Cardiff!  Yes, Shinnie and Vaughan could be aggrieved as ‘senior professionals’ but he’s staked his claim and boy could we do with some home-grown talent right about now.

Has someone told Blues that Vaughan is missing in action on the BCFC.COM official site’s squad numbers page?  Hmmm….

This is supposedly the season where Nikolai Brock-Madsen makes the step up and shows us what he’s made of.  Let’s hope he can and does, indeed.  Let’s hope between Storer, Brown, Donaldson, Arthur, Shinnie, Brock-Madsen and Vaughan we can score a stack of goals this season.  Let’s forget where Villa end up. Who cares where they end up as long as we’re a space or more ahead of them?

As for Cardiff, Tom Adeyemi will be the name from the past ‘destined’ to crop up to haunt us, so we’ll have to aim to keep him quiet.  Drawn two, one win and one defeat in our last four matches against them, so it’s honours even, really.  Our last match against them we obviously drew 1-1 in the last match of last season, in fact we couldn’t buy a win in six, and drew our last four straight so who’d bet against a repeat performance?  It may quiet some of the doom-mongers at least.  A defeat, at home, may bring the sky falling down, while a victory may prematurely bring talk of Europe to the table.  Whatever happens, let’s remain calm and rational and take each match as it comes, and remember we’re in it for the long haul, and we’re still lumbered with hamstrung owners for the time being.  When we’re owned by people who can actually take us places, maybe then will be the time to dream…

For now, enjoy Saturday’s Match and Keep Right On!

Welcome to the new season and a new-look Joys and Sorrows, with thanks to Kev for his hard work behind the scenes!

Russ

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