Cod Almighty | Diary
Meet the razor taking Sheffield by storm
11 September 2018
Right, let's just say it. The Peaks Parkway development is dead. Town's new stadium won't be built in the arse end of the town, away from the shops, the people and the things that make communities tick. John Fenty's vision is no more. It's official. There are no quotes to say as much, of course, but that's kind of the point. This silence speaks a thousand words, and the first three of them are it isn't happening. If he knows or thinks differently, then now's the time to say something.
It's far easier to feel calmer about our current on-field predicament when you're as removed from the action as your West Yorkshire Diary currently is. We're seven games into the new season and I wouldn't recognise half our players on the pitch because I haven't seen them play yet. It's not that I don't care; it's because I became a dad two weeks before Jolley was appointed and since mid-February I've been living a different sort of life – one where football has taken a back seat.
I didn't think it could but, like Rob Jones and Luke Summerfield's second seasons, life is full of surprises.
I escaped dad duties for one cold and wet weekend in April, though, and witnessed Town's excellent 2-1 win over Notts County at Blundell Park. It remains the one and only game I've attended in the Jolley era and I thoroughly enjoyed it – partly because it brought a last-minute winner, but mostly because we just played well.
Even though I've not been attending games, I'm acutely aware that we've not been playing well this season. Our victory at Macclesfield remains our only league win and, the Lincoln performance aside, the rest of what's been served up has been haphazard. If Russell Slade was our manager right now, I'd be making a strong case to say the Macclesfield and Lincoln showings were flukes and that the clueless idiot had thrown together a squad that lacks genuine width and pace. And he clearly doesn't know his best starting XI or even formation yet. Outrageous. Booo Slades.
Since Jolley is in charge, however, I find my attitude is different as I go searching to find evidence to support my narrative that the Macclesfield and Lincoln performances were glimpses into what we could be. They'd have been anomalies in the Slade era, no doubt – much like that 3-2 home win over Swindon when, for 90 minutes only, Slade's team looked a decent and cohesive attacking unit. Under Jolley, those fleeting moments of positive play and Buckley-esque football are evidence that we're at least heading in the right direction.
Maybe I'm just wearing Mitch Rose-tinted glasses. Maybe I'm too far removed to know better. But even if Jolley doesn't turn out to be the messiah, I still think his approach and vision are far better aligned to where a club like ours needs to be, rather than with someone like Slade, whose ideas had been digested, regurgitated and then rejected by football. More than twice.
Attending matches and seeing the shambles for yourself is an assault on the senses. Everything is intensified. Meanwhile, back where I am, each negative goal alert I receive is greeted with a tut and the rolling of my eyes. And then I move on with my life.
I guess my frustrations are still there; they're just buried under a whole load of other matter. As Thunderdiary ruminated a few weeks ago, we have a squad of players that simply isn't used to playing. How many of our players have, in the last few seasons, been regular starters at their former clubs? Who's been playing 40–50 games a year? No wonder we seem to flag in the second half. Jolley has built a squad that needs to rediscover the joy of completing 90 minutes, let alone absorbing new tactics, new plans and new ideas from a new manager and new coaching staff at a new club. It's a confusing time for everyone. Let's just be patient.
But this lack of minutes on the pitch thing is a gripe of mine which traces back to the ugly concept of the transfer window. We talk a lot about the stockpiling of young talent by this country's club conglomerates but stockpiling happens at every level, and the fourth division is no exception. Such is the panic to build a squad that will last from August to January that you end up with about six experienced pros being frozen out of the side for weeks on end while another bunch of experienced pros take to the field.
I know the case of Sean McAllister was a little more complex, and much of his first season was lost through injury. But after making just six appearances in two years – at what should've been the peak of his career – due to the sheer number of midfielders we had at the time, he's now been left on the football scrapheap without a club at the age of 31.
I've just looked at our squad for the season and I've already identified five or six players who I'd like to bet won't make more than half a dozen starts for us. And yet, despite the decent size of the squad, it still appears as though players are being played out of position. Has Jolley bought quality because it was available, and has then tried to shoehorn it into the team using a multitude of tactics? Or has he bought wisely and developed a multitude of tactics for all the scenarios that a 46-game season (plus cup games) will throw at us?
One thing is for certain – only time will tell us.