A Nightmare on Nuttall Street

I would like to put forward my views on what I think has gone wrong in what people would call a farcical 9 month Venky’s reign.

I remember the delight of the day when it was announced that Venky’s London had completed the long awaited takeover from the Walker Trust.

We all know that the Walkers had wanted out for some time prior to the sale and it seemed like a dream on that fateful day.

It soon started to become a nightmare when it came to light that the outside influences of Jerome Anderson and Kentaro may be having an excessive influence on the running of the club.

And then came the sacking of Big Sam.

A lot of people including myself wanted Allardyce out, it was his style of play that caused the outrage in many quarters!

But the pleasure of his departure was soon to be overruled by his successor – and goodness we weren’t braced for what was going to happen next.

Martin Jol quickly became the hot favourite to take over and even a cheeky mention of the legend that is Alan Shearer was made.

This soon became a deeper sleep of a nightmare when an unknown first team coach in the name of Steve Kean was named as the manager for a couple of games, then a couple more and then due to his ‘EXCELLENT RECORD’ we then appointed him as boss on a full time basis!

We swiftly move on to the January transfer and despite the shock of the managerial appointment fans were still optimistic about the newly injected money we badly needed.

But further pain was forthcoming and instead of smart purchasing we soon started being linked with stupid names that we never stood a cats chance in hell of getting!

Ronaldinho, Raul, Beckham, Luis Fabiano. Soon the thoughts that Venky’s were using our club to brand their name worldwide were coming to the fore.

But enough of the past, bringing us closer to the present and the start of the summer transfer window with relegation avoided.

The summer again started with renewed optimism from fans. The thought of being linked with higher profile names again after years of bargain dipping was certainly appealing.

A war chest was promised and substantial funds would see us compete at the right end of the market, but this was quickly followed by the sale of Phil Jones (one of football’s young talents) to Manchester United at an in my opinion miniscule fee.

With £16 million pocketed we at least had small consolation. We were promised money which would quickly take us up to £36 million.

As to this day 30th August 2011 we have spent only £14 million and the majority of that has been spent on agent fees.

But there is hope with the new signings being of a good quality and hopefully some more to follow by the end of deadline day tomorrow.

Let’s hope the news of Scott Dann’s impending arrival actually happens as at least that will be a step in the right direction.

I don’t see him as a high profile signing but provided we keep Big Chris Samba that could well be one of the signings of the close season.

Lets all live in hope and COYB!