As the festive season is almost upon us and with it the end of the year it’s a time to take stock within the footballing world despite being part way through a season there’s never a moment to not re-evaluate.
I do it myself a lot, define which direction this blog is going in, what I could do to improve it, get the best content out there I can and how to increase my level of subscribers, the latter the most important part of what I do, you the readers.
For football clubs that work comes in many different shapes and forms and not every decision is going to greeted with cheers and pats on the back. Like the summer it’s the time for difficult conversations to be had.
The content below was originally paywalled.
Managerial changes don’t just happen around this time of the year, but being now four months into the campaign the dye is almost cast for how the rest of the year will pan out. I say almost because some clubs will surprise and others will falter, there is no guarantee of winning games, titles or promotion, nor is there immunity from relegation.
Many club chairman will look at the situation closely when it comes to budgets, cut it if the team is meandering along in mid-table and no sign of troubling the top end, or maybe the need to increase it to boost the promotion chances or invest to insure relegation isn’t on the cards instead.
That in turn increases player movement fourfold across all levels, players looking for loans as well in the EFL where space is created below, an uncertain time in the game many don’t feel affected by or take much notice of if it doesn’t bring anything from your club.
With cup runs having dried up for most clubs with the exception of league or County competitions the financial pot is now under more scrutiny to keep level or as near as possible.
It’s almost a knife edge, 50-50 decision as to whether you keep the hope and follow the heart or follow the head and be sensible in what you think is the best interests of the club, but likely to be unpopular on the terraces.
For some clubs this year I can see them holding off on making too many decisions this side of the New Year. There are a few out there who haven’t yet completed half of their league games and with so much football to be played still there is a chance that chairpersons will hold fire for longer than normal, after all they could be shooting themselves in the foot pulling that trigger too early.
Of course there will be those who go against the norm, desperate to get out of the division they’re in and still feeling a sense of injustice for some over the lost years where seasons didn’t complete and momentum was lost.
Is it a gamble of selling off the family silver with no guarantee of return? Possibly, there certainly is an impatience I feel to move forward at times and some of the sums of money spent at these levels means not all can compete with each other on an even keel, you just have to find ways to win.
