Saturday’s cup win against Canvey Island came at a price, with injuries to two key first team players. Both Glen Little and Gareth Taylor are expected to be out for the next few weeks.
Their absence exposes gaps in the squad. Little, of course, is a one off. Our one player of true genius is pretty much irreplaceable. While, fortunately, we have other midfield players who can play wide, or in whatever position Glen has been playing recently, it is worrying that, when Little was last out, we struggled. Still, if we had a player as good as Glen in the reserves, he wouldn’t be in the reserves. There are few teams that could face the loss of such a key player without concern.
Taylor’s absence, though, prompts quite a few questions. Who can play there instead? Payton’s back from his punitive stint by the seaside, but we tried pairing Payton and Moore before, and it doesn’t work. Papadopoulos’ learning curve doesn’t yet seem to have reached the point where he’s ready for more than a cameo role (that’s if he’s staying around) while Ellis is surely not a 90 minute prospect. Perhaps Branch would be an option, but he’s now coming back from another injury, after never recovering fully from one before. Or do we play five in midfield – after all, we have Cook back (having returned after a month, curiously, given that the stated reason for him going to Wigan was to seek a contract there) – and leave Ian Moore up front on his own? But if we have to change the way the team plays as a result of an injury, what does that tell us about the squad?
No, what this emphasises is that now is the time to strengthen, and in particular, in attack.
Stan has worked miracles on a budget that the bosses of other sides at the top simply could not cope with. For peanuts, he has brought us to the cusp of greatness. It is impossible to exaggerate the size of Stan’s achievement in turning the club around. It’s also important to acknowledge that he could not have done this without the support of a competent and serious Chairman and Board, and a Chief Executive who was commercial savvy (if not PR acumen). Between them, they have taken the club to the brink of something many of us had never thought imaginable. At this stage of the season, we must be considered as genuine contenders for promotion to the Premier League. This is an opportunity that has to be seized.
It is terribly easy for supporters to urge the club to ‘get their chequebooks out’. This is something we’ve always tried to resist on this site. London Clarets members have been fortunate to meet Barry Kilby a number of times, and he has always been keen to stress that the club must be run in a sensible way.
But if ever there’s been a time to speculate to accumulate, it’s now. This is surely the time to ease back slightly on the caution and go for it. It’s clear that Stan wants, and it trying to, strengthen his squad. It seems that after every game he says he’s trying to bring players in. But perhaps it’s time we gave him a bit more to play with as he seeks to do this. How many gifts of the calibre of Gnohere do we have a right to expect? Stan has said he has champagne tastes but beer money. Well, we don’t have the champagne money that the clubs in first and third place enjoy, but now’s the time to go a bit beyond the metaphorical price of a pint – perhaps we need to stretch to a whisky chaser and packet of dry roasted, too.
If, at the end of the season, we haven’t made it up there, we should be able to give thanks for an exciting, unexpectedly good campaign, in the knowledge that we did everything in our power to grasp the prize when we had the chance. If would be dreadful to end the season feeling that we did not do all that we could to seize the moment.
That means strengthening the squad while we’re there in an automatic promotion place. It means not going into crucial games only playing one up front because we don't have anyone else who can play there. If Stan wants to play one striker for tactical reasons, that is fine, but he ought to have the choice. Squad strengthening must, of course, be done with care, because the team spirit Stan has created is one of our greatest assets, and new signings could endanger that. Money, naturally, must still be spent wisely, on the basis that, if we don’t make it up this year, new faces will still bring value in the long term. But I think we can trust Stan, whose track record is skewed strongly in favour of signing good players, rather than bad.
It’s just time to give him a bit more ammunition. We must not cross our fingers and hope we make it this season. We have to do everything we can to make that dream a reality. We must reach for the stars, now, while we’re close to them. Let’s hope for a new signing or two, soon.
