Page 34 - All at Sea Fanzine Issue 68

34
All At Sea Issue 68
Iwhere should we be?
INITIALLY drafted this piece on New I’m saying all of this because Southend
Year’s Eve. The tone was in the
context of an average of League One team nearing their nadir under a stale manager. The only prospect of hope seemingly coming from the imminent New Year marking perhaps a reverse midnight Cinderella transformation for our team.
I have looked back on it since then and I still stand by what I wrote but in the context of the much-preferred situation of needing to manage our expectations given our transformation. I know I’m not the only wide-eyed fan who still far too often lets their imagination take hold of what we can realistically achieve but a pinch of realism can ease some of the inevitable pain.
It’s three in three for Chris Powell’s team, including ending Wigan’s current unbeaten run and being the rst team to beat them on their travels for nearly half the season. Such short-term success can quickly become the liquor for the fool. I want Powell to take Southend as high as he can, so based on the past, it’s reasonable believe in him to get us promotion to the second tier. The rest of this piece serves as a retrospective overview for our recent past and how I suggest we should digest it
It’s 10 years since we began our rst season, back in League One, after relegation from the Championship. The presence of Swansea City – who won League One in 2007/08, AFC Bournemouth, Hudders eld Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and even Blackpool, in the top ight since 2007, is the envy of many a Blues fan. But for whom promotion to the top ight is a de ning moment for a modern football team, 10 years on and many former staples of the rst division: Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic, Middlesbrough, Bolton and more recently Sunderland, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, have turned into middling Championship and League One teams. No more than ve seasons back, some of these clubs had a foot in Europe and made domestic cup nals.
are in a dissimilar position; a position, I believe, is neglected of appreciation. Over the past 10 years we’ve had a net gain of zero promotions and relegations, zero titles won (don’t lower your standards and accept a play-o nal victory as a title) and, I don’t see how this will happen and it’s among my most capricious aspirations, that if we nish sixth, a net gain of zero league places, over 10 years. I don’t want the tone of this to be taken as critical of what we have achieved (or lack thereof), when I am in fact proud of how we now sit. Things aren’t going wonderfully for us on the pitch, or indeed for the pitch itself, but I’m less dismissive of our (under)achievements when for every Swansea City, there’s a York City.
Teams, that only as far back as 10 years ago, were strongholds of the lower leagues, now nd themselves in scraps with historically Conference-doom laden sides. League One, and to a lesser extent League Two, has evolved relatively little compared to the homogenisation of the Championship and Premier League; and the increase in investment and consequently the talent, facilities and crowds of the non- league. How long will it be until we play Maccles eld, Boston, Maccles eld, Chester, Tranmere or Torquay in the league again? Burton, Accrington and Stevenage Town have historically been non-league sides, but have solidly established themselves among the 92.
It won’t have escaped many Blues fans attentions, the money ploughed into Billericay Town and the ex-Premier League names among their ranks, that could have only made Phil Brown salivate. They look set for promotion this season but who knows how long their owner will remain interested in them for and the inevitable collapse if they don’t solidify their position when it all goes pear-shaped.
Forest Green Rovers didn’t buy success overnight. Their revolutionary overhaul of nutrition standards, not only for their squad but fans too, has been the scorn of many,