It’s an old cliché, but a week is a long time in football. For Bluenoses, a week can be like an eternity, as the last one has demonstrated. This time last Sunday I was taking my seat at Wembley, soaking up the atmosphere and whilst hoping for a win, I was expecting us to be lucky to escape a hiding. As we all know, it didn’t turn out that way; a Frenchman walked into a Pole and the Nigerian on hand smacked the resultant loose ball home to win the cup for us. However, in the week that has followed, we’ve seen reports of a possible financial meltdown, a farcical “celebration” at a quarter full St Andrews, and a poor home defeat to one of our local rivals. All in all, it could have been better.

The most worrying thing is the financial situation. Nick Harris in today’s Daily Mail has reported that Blues may be denied a place in Europe; something that whilst a little hyperbolic is going to strike more fear into the hearts of bluenoses. The word from inside the club is that Peter Pannu has reassured staff that everything is okay – indeed, Mr Pannu doesn’t know what the fuss is about – but to a legion of fans who remember Wheldon and Kumar, they are indeed worrying times. I wouldn’t expect Peter Pannu to come out and discuss in minute detail as to what is going on financially, but I think he should at least issue some sort of statement to let us know that things are going to be alright. People might not believe it, but it would be the right thing to do all the same.

Many of the Bluenose twitterati suspected that the “civic celebration” wasn’t going to work. I myself took the time out to email the wonderful Sarah Gould last week, who reaffirmed that plans would not and could not be changed. I think the decision on this must have come from higher up, as I cannot believe the arrogance in lack of consultation with the fans has come from anywhere else. For me, it wasn’t even about the lack of open-top bus parade; it was the fact that fans were expected to give another weekend up to the football so soon after Wembley. Making it so only attendees of the WBA game could go was silliness; the gates should have been thrown open and it made known to fans that anyone could come – give people reasons to attend instead of not to. It’s done now, so let’s move forwards and consign the celebration to history alongside the “centenary celebrations” of 2006.

Our league form is a huge concern; especially considering West Ham have found out how to keep a clean sheet. We’ve lost two very winnable games at home, and with only four home games left this season we need to start bucking up on our travels big time. A major problem is that the players are starting to run on empty – this is a time now in my opinion for some of the fringe players to stand up and be counted; to get given games where they can prove that they too can give us the oomph to get back up the table. Players like Stuart Parnaby, Matt Derbyshire and Jordon Mutch all should be in and around the team for the next couple of weeks – it’s up to them to show us that they can be first teamers and that competition should spur the current first teamers on to push a bit further.

There is an old Chinese curse that goes “may you live in interesting times”. We’ve got rid of the Gypsy’s one by the looks of things – would you rather have boring mediocrity or the “interesting times” we have now…

Tags: Football