One Game at a Time
Season Two: You’re Only Here for the Pasties
Huddersfield Town (H) August 5th
Does anyone actually know why the period between the final game of the season and the start of the new one is called the Close Season? For a start is it Close or Closed? In historic terms it refers to a period of time during which a time that breeds of animals or fish may not be hunted, which in itself is ironic, as the main activity for clubs in the Close season is the hunting and signing of new livestock.
It also starts for different clubs at different times, following the introduction in 1987 of the current play off system. Argyle have only participated in this four times, and only once successfully, so the explosion of relief in the Potteries at winning the League One Championship in what now seems an age ago was as much a confirmation of collective relief felt when confirming promotion at home to Burton the previous week as anything else.
The main feeling for the fans during the close season is that of emptiness. No matter what the outcome of the season, what stretches ahead is a void, which is then filled with a melange of rumour, fantasy, wind ups and, eventually, news. So, if nothing else the play-offs for the other teams which hold interest in terms of who completes the final line up for the new divisions helps bridge that gap.
The rest of the close season follows a cycle as familiar as it is brutal. Players are released from their clubs first, both young and old, and in some cases the culling resembles the African plains as the frailer of the herd are finally cast asunder, to take their chances. For the younger players it can be the end of many years of commitment and training, and whilst some will find their way back into the league through lower levels and continuing effort and commitment, many will be lost to the professional game.
At the other end of the scale, professionals move on to new clubs, sometimes driven by family motivations like Danny Mayor, others by contractual imperatives, like Niall Ennis and James Wilson, who ended up as two wild Rovers.
Amongst the fans there is always a debate as to the rights and wrongs of decisions made at this time. Player loyalty is something that has evaporated with freedom of contract, but those who stay for several years and then are cast aside like Connor Grant always create a pang of regret in the supporter base.
Less attachment forms in the case of loanees, who despite their protestations of love and commitment inevitably head back to parent clubs and to their own career development. But, as you no doubt realise, more of that later.
The net effect of all these departures is a sizeable gap between being able to field a competitive starting eleven, or even an uncompetitive one, and having a functioning and ideally improved, squad in place for the start of the season. The nature of the transfer window, which runs until the beginning of September, and the vagaries of the Premier Leagues slightly later start, results in player availability being a major dictator of who can be loaned in or out and when.
Stephen Schumacher’s reality was that, post the Burton match, he could bin one of two files placed on his desk by Jimmy Dickinson, the most unsung member of the triumvirate that journeyed from Bury to the South West all those years ago, and pick up the file marked Championship.
Adding to the complexity of the needs were an increase by the EFL to the bench size (up to nine players can now be allotted seats for Schuey to choose his finishers from), and Financial Fair Play rules. This is less of an issue for a club like Argyle, run sustainably and effectively profitably, and who came top of the 92 clubs in the LCP Football Sustainability Index published this summer. Taking into account clubs like Reading whose owner Dai Yongge has pumped in some 200 million pounds of his Chinese based wealth only to drop a division, and with warning signs flashing over clubs like Cardiff City, West Brom and until a recent takeover, Birmingham City, having a steady set of hands on the tiller has never been more valuable.
The Championship is the football equivalent of a Vegas casino, more suited to the likes of Kerry Packer, the Aussie media tycoon, who when approached by a Texan multi-millionaire who wanted to join Packer’s poker game, and who bragged of his hundred million dollar fortune, was sent away after Packer pulled a coin from his pocket and offered to flip him for it.
As the ex-Premiership casualties, sustained by their parachute payments join their predecessors who have not yet scrambled back up, and the ambitious new owners keen to spend their way to the financial sunlit uplands of the Premier League, Argyle sit calmly at the insurgent end of the table. Having out-performed clubs with much larger budgets and wage bills in previous seasons the process of doing things smarter sits naturally in the management ethos at all levels of the club. Less Oliver, more Artful Dodgers.
Last season’s Championship play-off final, contested between a club a ground who still has away fans effectively entering through a back garden path and which isn't ready for the season start, and another club who have spent the last few seasons lodging at various other clubs’ grounds whilst the ownership of their own ground was resolved, has shown that simply throwing money at the problem is not always a solution. With regulation getting more efficient, clubs can pay a heavy price for financial mismanagement. With any luck at least three of them in our division this season.
With Argyles declared ambition to be a self-sustainable Championship club, and with the prize for staying up this season being a substantial bump in TV income from the new Sky deal from next season, the initial signs were worrying. Although Ryan Hardie and Jordan Houghton signed on, Niall Ennis went from hero to villain when he took the Venky chicken rupee and signed for Blackburn. The only other player offered a contract was James Wilson, but a longer deal and the joy of the carefree Joey Barton as his leader tempted him to the Gas. We wish you luck James.
If losing a player like Niall wasn’t completely unexpected, then signing an ex-Arsenal and Barcelona defender from the tightest defence in the Eredivision season finale, pretty much was. Julio Pleguezuelo arrived from Twente Enschede followed in short order by Kaine Kesler-Heyden (instantly abbreviated in this fans eyes to KKH for the season) who went from Villain to hero by signing a yearlong loan from the Midlands club.
Succession planning for the eventual departure of Mike Cooper appears to be well advanced as Connor Hazard joined from Celtic and whilst a keeper named Hazard is a journalists dream (and let’s not forget we already have a Burton) his pedigree of having won a title and played European football in Finland last season looks promising.
The Dewsnip effect was also in play as two Everton players joined. Lewis Gibson joined permanently, having excelled at Brizzle Rovers last season, and Lewis Warrington came on a year’s loan having had a similar impact at Fleetwood.
These two signings bookended a remarkable week in the transfer market for Argyle. It was a common theory, especially amongst those fans of clubs who followed us up, that losing our loanees would either derail our promotion campaign, or our ability to stay up. The problem was Argyle simply couldn’t compete with the big clubs at this level. Swansea, having recalled Morgan Whittaker in January, and then barely played him whilst they waited for the bids to roll in would want more than Argyle could pay. Norwich, despite not playing with wing-backs, would want to see how Bali Mumba would settle in a more advanced role. After all Argyle had never actually paid more than half a million for a player in their entire history.
And now we have. Twice. In just over a week. It seems that loaning a player to Argyle is a little bit like “try before you buy”. Simon and Jane. Chef's kiss. You are remarkable.
Of the other Argyle loanees from last season Sam Cosgrove at Birmingham is injured, as is Jay Matete in the frozen North, whilst Wolves were making plans for Nigel with a move to Grasshoppers in Switzerland, which he quite naturally jumped at.
At time of writing the final destination of Finn and his 2 A2Z’s have not been determined, so his career is not yet mapped out, although there is no doubt that the return of a third previous loanee would not be unexpected were it to happen.
Argyle’s pre-season has not been pitch perfect, largely because of a need to get the perfect pitch for this Saturdays Championship opener at Fortress Home Park. It is perhaps worth considering that a repeat of our League One title winning home form would have left Argyle eight points shy of the play offs in last seasons Championship.
Another milestone of the pre-season void is fixture announcement day, a joyous occasion when Argyle fans find out which Tuesday (and later on, thanks to Sky, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday nights, Saturday lunchtimes and Sunday afternoons) will be filled with nonsensically long trips, who replaces Cheltenham for our inevitable Boxing Day away day (Cardiff naturally), and who we host for our opening fixture.
The glamour of a newly relegated Giant? The familiarity of a recently competed with League One rival?
Neither in fact. In the best and worst of all possible worlds, we play Huddersfield Town, familiar only in that long time Argyle Sky related pundit and itinerant wandering manager for hire Neil Warnock, having hung up his managerial boots a year ago, not only came out of retirement last season to save them from relegation, but has also decided to sign on for another year.
So the best in that Argyle, if they are to survive at their newly exalted level will doubtless consider Huddersfield one of the teams they need to finish above to make sure of it, and the worst in that after last seasons all conquering home form (glossing over Lincoln Fleetwood and Port Vale) failure to despatch the team that clung onto their Championship status by their neatly trimmed fingernails (and with Warnock’s chiropodist skills, toe nails too) will give the pessimists amongst the fan base something to get their teeth into.
The worst. It is the immutable law of the ex writ large.
Huddersfield Town themselves sprang into existence quite late, being formed in 1908, although they were elected to the League very quickly only two years later. The town, in the shadow of larger Bradford and Leeds was very much a Rugby League town. Indeed, the codification of the Rugby league and its professionalisation of the game took place in Huddersfield.
The club itself almost disappeared in 1919 , when following the Great War, where Town player Larrett Roebuck was recorded as the first professional footballer to be killed in the war, in 1914, the club was almost subsumed into becoming Leeds United when Leeds City were ejected from the League and disbanded for financial irregularities.
Huddersfield chairman and owner, J Hilton Crowther (presumably he made his money from the ill-fated Crackerjack Hotel chain) was overheard in a Liverpool hotel discussing merging his club with the newly formed Leeds United (shades of Kevin Heaney in the dark days of administration). Local reaction was vehemently opposed, and a public surge of support led to the Chairman being bought out and the club restored to its local status.
Against this backdrop of chaos, the club surprisingly thrived and in 1920 won promotion to Division 1 as well as being FA Cup runners up to Villa and followed this up with an FA Cup triumph over Preston North End in 1922.
The thing that truly changed Huddersfield Town in the eyes of the game though was the appointment of Herbert Chapman, a well-regarded coach, to run the side. Chapman created the W-M formation ( as opposed to our MW formation) and under his leadership the club became the first side to win the League title for three seasons running, although by the time of the third title Chapman had been lured away by the literal “big guns” of Arsenal. To their great satisfaction Huddersfield's third title was won by finishing five points clear of his new club.
The first title was perhaps the most remarkable, sealed as it was by a margin that has never been closer. In those days goal average rather than goal difference was the deciding factor and Town clinched the title by the margin of two hundredths of a goal. Even more remarkable was that their sixty goals were scored by five players only.
Only Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal (under Chapman) and now last season, Manchester City, have equalled the feat of three in a row for title wins. No-one has bettered it.
Up until the post war period the only interaction between the two clubs was a couple of early, and for Argyle, unsuccessful FA cup skirmishes, including one on their way to Towns first cup final appearance.
Town were relegated from the top tier in 1951, and games against them have been sporadic, although in 1963/4 the clubs, especially Argyle, must have been sick of the sight of each other, with two league games, three league cup ties including a replay on a neutral Villa Park, and an FA Cup 3rd round meeting at Home Park. Argyle took a solitary home point and were knocked out of both cup contests.
More recently as Huddersfield enjoyed a brief period of relative success including a couple of seasons in the Premier League the only meeting has been an FA cup tie where Argyle disposed of a largely second-string Town XI 3-2 with goals from Hardie, Camara and Edwards.
The club is famous for giving managerial posts to Bill Shankly who left them for Liverpool, and perhaps more infamously Malcolm Macdonald, who led them to relegation to the third tier, including a horrific ten one defeat by Manchester City which, until Saturday at least, remains their record defeat. Macdonald himself is perhaps better known for being the joke answer to the question, “What is taken to the Cup Final every year but never used? from his Newcastle and Arsenal days.
Possibly their most famous player was Denis Law, who the club sold, allegedly to pay for their floodlights and who was described by the manager when he arrived for a trial as “a freak, weak puny and bespectacled.” Two of the floodlights fell down. Law on the other hand did alright.
It was from Huddersfield that Warnock arrived at Home Park, for his time in charge that ended with promotion via the playoffs in 1996 followed by an ignominious dismissal by mobile phone within the year, and his latest stint at Town, is effectively his third at the club, after a short-term deal last season was replaced with a one-year deal by new owner Kevin Nagle.
So far, the club have been relatively inactive in the transfer market, with only two arrivals, but have engaged in the traditional Warnock tour of his beloved Cornwall in pre-season, rattling in the goals. Acclimatising to the glorious Southwestern climate is something Warnock frequently does, although according to Paddy Kenny when at Sheffield United, one reason for this might be explained by his bizarre decision to allow the fourteen-year-old son of local tradesman to play twenty minutes of a friendly for the Blades at Bodmin, apparently in lieu of payment for works done at the Warnock farm!
Thus, a famous old boy, in this case quite literally, brings his side to his former stomping ground for the opening day of what promises to be the most exciting season at Argyle since, well last season. Never mind Dirty Leeds, No-one Likes Us Millwall or newly self-crowned Champions of Europe, Ipswich “do we get a shirt star for League One runners up” Town.
Brand new pitch . Tick (and phew)!
Sold out ground. Tick.
Morgan and Bali. Tick. Tick.
Schuey at the Wheel. Tick.
New striker ( just in case)........ah! Go Hotdog. Go Waineo.
45 more of these (plus cup ties) Gulp. Tick.
We. Are. Back.
COYG!!!!!
Season Two: You’re Only Here for the Pasties
Huddersfield Town (H) August 5th
Does anyone actually know why the period between the final game of the season and the start of the new one is called the Close Season? For a start is it Close or Closed? In historic terms it refers to a period of time during which a time that breeds of animals or fish may not be hunted, which in itself is ironic, as the main activity for clubs in the Close season is the hunting and signing of new livestock.
It also starts for different clubs at different times, following the introduction in 1987 of the current play off system. Argyle have only participated in this four times, and only once successfully, so the explosion of relief in the Potteries at winning the League One Championship in what now seems an age ago was as much a confirmation of collective relief felt when confirming promotion at home to Burton the previous week as anything else.
The main feeling for the fans during the close season is that of emptiness. No matter what the outcome of the season, what stretches ahead is a void, which is then filled with a melange of rumour, fantasy, wind ups and, eventually, news. So, if nothing else the play-offs for the other teams which hold interest in terms of who completes the final line up for the new divisions helps bridge that gap.
The rest of the close season follows a cycle as familiar as it is brutal. Players are released from their clubs first, both young and old, and in some cases the culling resembles the African plains as the frailer of the herd are finally cast asunder, to take their chances. For the younger players it can be the end of many years of commitment and training, and whilst some will find their way back into the league through lower levels and continuing effort and commitment, many will be lost to the professional game.
At the other end of the scale, professionals move on to new clubs, sometimes driven by family motivations like Danny Mayor, others by contractual imperatives, like Niall Ennis and James Wilson, who ended up as two wild Rovers.
Amongst the fans there is always a debate as to the rights and wrongs of decisions made at this time. Player loyalty is something that has evaporated with freedom of contract, but those who stay for several years and then are cast aside like Connor Grant always create a pang of regret in the supporter base.
Less attachment forms in the case of loanees, who despite their protestations of love and commitment inevitably head back to parent clubs and to their own career development. But, as you no doubt realise, more of that later.
The net effect of all these departures is a sizeable gap between being able to field a competitive starting eleven, or even an uncompetitive one, and having a functioning and ideally improved, squad in place for the start of the season. The nature of the transfer window, which runs until the beginning of September, and the vagaries of the Premier Leagues slightly later start, results in player availability being a major dictator of who can be loaned in or out and when.
Stephen Schumacher’s reality was that, post the Burton match, he could bin one of two files placed on his desk by Jimmy Dickinson, the most unsung member of the triumvirate that journeyed from Bury to the South West all those years ago, and pick up the file marked Championship.
Adding to the complexity of the needs were an increase by the EFL to the bench size (up to nine players can now be allotted seats for Schuey to choose his finishers from), and Financial Fair Play rules. This is less of an issue for a club like Argyle, run sustainably and effectively profitably, and who came top of the 92 clubs in the LCP Football Sustainability Index published this summer. Taking into account clubs like Reading whose owner Dai Yongge has pumped in some 200 million pounds of his Chinese based wealth only to drop a division, and with warning signs flashing over clubs like Cardiff City, West Brom and until a recent takeover, Birmingham City, having a steady set of hands on the tiller has never been more valuable.
The Championship is the football equivalent of a Vegas casino, more suited to the likes of Kerry Packer, the Aussie media tycoon, who when approached by a Texan multi-millionaire who wanted to join Packer’s poker game, and who bragged of his hundred million dollar fortune, was sent away after Packer pulled a coin from his pocket and offered to flip him for it.
As the ex-Premiership casualties, sustained by their parachute payments join their predecessors who have not yet scrambled back up, and the ambitious new owners keen to spend their way to the financial sunlit uplands of the Premier League, Argyle sit calmly at the insurgent end of the table. Having out-performed clubs with much larger budgets and wage bills in previous seasons the process of doing things smarter sits naturally in the management ethos at all levels of the club. Less Oliver, more Artful Dodgers.
Last season’s Championship play-off final, contested between a club a ground who still has away fans effectively entering through a back garden path and which isn't ready for the season start, and another club who have spent the last few seasons lodging at various other clubs’ grounds whilst the ownership of their own ground was resolved, has shown that simply throwing money at the problem is not always a solution. With regulation getting more efficient, clubs can pay a heavy price for financial mismanagement. With any luck at least three of them in our division this season.
With Argyles declared ambition to be a self-sustainable Championship club, and with the prize for staying up this season being a substantial bump in TV income from the new Sky deal from next season, the initial signs were worrying. Although Ryan Hardie and Jordan Houghton signed on, Niall Ennis went from hero to villain when he took the Venky chicken rupee and signed for Blackburn. The only other player offered a contract was James Wilson, but a longer deal and the joy of the carefree Joey Barton as his leader tempted him to the Gas. We wish you luck James.
If losing a player like Niall wasn’t completely unexpected, then signing an ex-Arsenal and Barcelona defender from the tightest defence in the Eredivision season finale, pretty much was. Julio Pleguezuelo arrived from Twente Enschede followed in short order by Kaine Kesler-Heyden (instantly abbreviated in this fans eyes to KKH for the season) who went from Villain to hero by signing a yearlong loan from the Midlands club.
Succession planning for the eventual departure of Mike Cooper appears to be well advanced as Connor Hazard joined from Celtic and whilst a keeper named Hazard is a journalists dream (and let’s not forget we already have a Burton) his pedigree of having won a title and played European football in Finland last season looks promising.
The Dewsnip effect was also in play as two Everton players joined. Lewis Gibson joined permanently, having excelled at Brizzle Rovers last season, and Lewis Warrington came on a year’s loan having had a similar impact at Fleetwood.
These two signings bookended a remarkable week in the transfer market for Argyle. It was a common theory, especially amongst those fans of clubs who followed us up, that losing our loanees would either derail our promotion campaign, or our ability to stay up. The problem was Argyle simply couldn’t compete with the big clubs at this level. Swansea, having recalled Morgan Whittaker in January, and then barely played him whilst they waited for the bids to roll in would want more than Argyle could pay. Norwich, despite not playing with wing-backs, would want to see how Bali Mumba would settle in a more advanced role. After all Argyle had never actually paid more than half a million for a player in their entire history.
And now we have. Twice. In just over a week. It seems that loaning a player to Argyle is a little bit like “try before you buy”. Simon and Jane. Chef's kiss. You are remarkable.
Of the other Argyle loanees from last season Sam Cosgrove at Birmingham is injured, as is Jay Matete in the frozen North, whilst Wolves were making plans for Nigel with a move to Grasshoppers in Switzerland, which he quite naturally jumped at.
At time of writing the final destination of Finn and his 2 A2Z’s have not been determined, so his career is not yet mapped out, although there is no doubt that the return of a third previous loanee would not be unexpected were it to happen.
Argyle’s pre-season has not been pitch perfect, largely because of a need to get the perfect pitch for this Saturdays Championship opener at Fortress Home Park. It is perhaps worth considering that a repeat of our League One title winning home form would have left Argyle eight points shy of the play offs in last seasons Championship.
Another milestone of the pre-season void is fixture announcement day, a joyous occasion when Argyle fans find out which Tuesday (and later on, thanks to Sky, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday nights, Saturday lunchtimes and Sunday afternoons) will be filled with nonsensically long trips, who replaces Cheltenham for our inevitable Boxing Day away day (Cardiff naturally), and who we host for our opening fixture.
The glamour of a newly relegated Giant? The familiarity of a recently competed with League One rival?
Neither in fact. In the best and worst of all possible worlds, we play Huddersfield Town, familiar only in that long time Argyle Sky related pundit and itinerant wandering manager for hire Neil Warnock, having hung up his managerial boots a year ago, not only came out of retirement last season to save them from relegation, but has also decided to sign on for another year.
So the best in that Argyle, if they are to survive at their newly exalted level will doubtless consider Huddersfield one of the teams they need to finish above to make sure of it, and the worst in that after last seasons all conquering home form (glossing over Lincoln Fleetwood and Port Vale) failure to despatch the team that clung onto their Championship status by their neatly trimmed fingernails (and with Warnock’s chiropodist skills, toe nails too) will give the pessimists amongst the fan base something to get their teeth into.
The worst. It is the immutable law of the ex writ large.
Huddersfield Town themselves sprang into existence quite late, being formed in 1908, although they were elected to the League very quickly only two years later. The town, in the shadow of larger Bradford and Leeds was very much a Rugby League town. Indeed, the codification of the Rugby league and its professionalisation of the game took place in Huddersfield.
The club itself almost disappeared in 1919 , when following the Great War, where Town player Larrett Roebuck was recorded as the first professional footballer to be killed in the war, in 1914, the club was almost subsumed into becoming Leeds United when Leeds City were ejected from the League and disbanded for financial irregularities.
Huddersfield chairman and owner, J Hilton Crowther (presumably he made his money from the ill-fated Crackerjack Hotel chain) was overheard in a Liverpool hotel discussing merging his club with the newly formed Leeds United (shades of Kevin Heaney in the dark days of administration). Local reaction was vehemently opposed, and a public surge of support led to the Chairman being bought out and the club restored to its local status.
Against this backdrop of chaos, the club surprisingly thrived and in 1920 won promotion to Division 1 as well as being FA Cup runners up to Villa and followed this up with an FA Cup triumph over Preston North End in 1922.
The thing that truly changed Huddersfield Town in the eyes of the game though was the appointment of Herbert Chapman, a well-regarded coach, to run the side. Chapman created the W-M formation ( as opposed to our MW formation) and under his leadership the club became the first side to win the League title for three seasons running, although by the time of the third title Chapman had been lured away by the literal “big guns” of Arsenal. To their great satisfaction Huddersfield's third title was won by finishing five points clear of his new club.
The first title was perhaps the most remarkable, sealed as it was by a margin that has never been closer. In those days goal average rather than goal difference was the deciding factor and Town clinched the title by the margin of two hundredths of a goal. Even more remarkable was that their sixty goals were scored by five players only.
Only Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal (under Chapman) and now last season, Manchester City, have equalled the feat of three in a row for title wins. No-one has bettered it.
Up until the post war period the only interaction between the two clubs was a couple of early, and for Argyle, unsuccessful FA cup skirmishes, including one on their way to Towns first cup final appearance.
Town were relegated from the top tier in 1951, and games against them have been sporadic, although in 1963/4 the clubs, especially Argyle, must have been sick of the sight of each other, with two league games, three league cup ties including a replay on a neutral Villa Park, and an FA Cup 3rd round meeting at Home Park. Argyle took a solitary home point and were knocked out of both cup contests.
More recently as Huddersfield enjoyed a brief period of relative success including a couple of seasons in the Premier League the only meeting has been an FA cup tie where Argyle disposed of a largely second-string Town XI 3-2 with goals from Hardie, Camara and Edwards.
The club is famous for giving managerial posts to Bill Shankly who left them for Liverpool, and perhaps more infamously Malcolm Macdonald, who led them to relegation to the third tier, including a horrific ten one defeat by Manchester City which, until Saturday at least, remains their record defeat. Macdonald himself is perhaps better known for being the joke answer to the question, “What is taken to the Cup Final every year but never used? from his Newcastle and Arsenal days.
Possibly their most famous player was Denis Law, who the club sold, allegedly to pay for their floodlights and who was described by the manager when he arrived for a trial as “a freak, weak puny and bespectacled.” Two of the floodlights fell down. Law on the other hand did alright.
It was from Huddersfield that Warnock arrived at Home Park, for his time in charge that ended with promotion via the playoffs in 1996 followed by an ignominious dismissal by mobile phone within the year, and his latest stint at Town, is effectively his third at the club, after a short-term deal last season was replaced with a one-year deal by new owner Kevin Nagle.
So far, the club have been relatively inactive in the transfer market, with only two arrivals, but have engaged in the traditional Warnock tour of his beloved Cornwall in pre-season, rattling in the goals. Acclimatising to the glorious Southwestern climate is something Warnock frequently does, although according to Paddy Kenny when at Sheffield United, one reason for this might be explained by his bizarre decision to allow the fourteen-year-old son of local tradesman to play twenty minutes of a friendly for the Blades at Bodmin, apparently in lieu of payment for works done at the Warnock farm!
Thus, a famous old boy, in this case quite literally, brings his side to his former stomping ground for the opening day of what promises to be the most exciting season at Argyle since, well last season. Never mind Dirty Leeds, No-one Likes Us Millwall or newly self-crowned Champions of Europe, Ipswich “do we get a shirt star for League One runners up” Town.
Brand new pitch . Tick (and phew)!
Sold out ground. Tick.
Morgan and Bali. Tick. Tick.
Schuey at the Wheel. Tick.
New striker ( just in case)........ah! Go Hotdog. Go Waineo.
45 more of these (plus cup ties) Gulp. Tick.
We. Are. Back.
COYG!!!!!
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