Expectation Levels

Expectation Levels

Why not visit our sponsors lounge

I must admit to feeling confident in Roberto re-establishing our credentials as a club that will play football as it should be played – his whole ethos is about retaining possession and playing a passing game, and the style in which the team played to end last season gave us a portent of what we can expect to see from his teams.

I also have every confidence that Roberto will go on to establish himself as a quality manager, regardless of whether that happens here in the short term. What we have to accept is that he is only on the second rung of that career, and an element of his learning over the next couple of years will undoubtedly come from mistakes that he will make.

A salutary warning – the expectation from both the board and fans is immense, and begs the question as to whether we are expecting too instant a return.

After all, Roberto has inherited a squad which has patently proved, over the last two seasons (and for whatever reasons) to be simply not good enough. We appear to have a glut of squad players, a lack of sufficient quality, and it will take time for Roberto to move on more of the “dead wood” and introduce players that he wants – unfortunately, patience is not a characteristic that is associated with football fans (of any club !)

Without wishing to put too much of a dampener on our fine end of season finish under Roberto, part of the reason for the improved performances would undoubtedly have been the extra edge found by the players due to the need to impress their new gaffer – a major question of those players is whether they can produce a level of performance and commitment over 46 matches – and that is what will distinguish the winners from the also-rans.

And as the final match performance against Blackpool showed, we were simply not in the same league as them – I don’t buy this crap that we only conceded because we were naively chasing the game. Quite simply, when Blackpool chose to, they upped the ante and demolished us.

How can any of us be in any doubt that our starting eleven needs a major overhaul if we are to sustain a “top six” challenge this season ?

We really need to change half the team to start the new campaign, and hopefully Roberto’s initial plans to strengthen the squad are about to come to fruition.

I am also pleased to see that we have not thrown silly money at attempting to buy our way to promotion – there is no doubt that the board have learnt from the mistakes of the last couple of years in two respects

– our lack of success in the transfer market

– the success achieved by others at our level without the need to invest in significant transfer fees (last season – Scunthorpe, Bristol City, Blackpool, Oldham, Yeovil. The season before – Colchester, Southend, etc)

I also believe that Roberto himself is not an advocate of big money transfer dealings

– he is more likely to look at the overall investment in the welfare and facilities under which he and his squad will operate – no less a spend than the £150k + transfer fees that might have prevailed, just a different emphasis.

His meticulous approach will not come cheaply !

Despite the cautionary sentiments, I have little doubt that the tenure of Roberto Martinez will see us continue to progress – I just hope that a lack of patience on our part does not burden RM with an unnecessary degree of pressure this coming season.