With Apologies To Mark Twain, It Seems Reports Of Our Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

So, with apologies to Mark Twain, it seems reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Thanks to the knights in shining armour from Egypt and the US, we are once again solvent and able to replenish Doris’s teabags on a regular basis, perhaps even with the posh organic ones from Waitrose instead of the builder’s tea red label from Poundland. And no more using the same teabag twice! I worried we might never see this day again.

But moving away from simple matters of housekeeping, what does this mean for the playing side of the club? Obviously, the new investment will have a minimal impact on the FFP problems we are facing (and I am far too unqualified and, frankly, bored with the whole thing to go into it again here) but more immediately, it means we should be in less of a hurry to sell off the Crown Jewels – namely Jack Grealish and James Chester – on the cheap to raise quick funds.

I’ve seen it knocking around Twitter that we could (and should, according to some) use our new-found wealth to bring back a couple of last season’s leading lights in John Terry and Robert Snodgrass (unfortunately, Sam Johnstone is no longer available, having thrown in the towel on a promising career by inexplicably joining Sandwell and linking up with the soon-to-be-sacked Darren Moore). But would re-signing Terry and Snodgrass really be a wise move?

In the case of Snodgrass, another sizeable loan fee together with hefty wages would blow a further hole in our FFP chances, and even of Terry would for some reason agree to another year on reduced wages, they’d surely still be eye-watering enough to interest the EFL come judgement day next March.

But more than that, in my humble, is that it would be a backward step. It would demonstrate that we, as a club, have learned nothing from the failed experiment of last season which almost led us to the door of the administrators. The club (and Steve Bruce) gambled the house on the ‘tried-and-trusted’ experience of Terry, Snodgrass, Whelan, Elmohamady and others.

And it failed.

Fortunately (as it turns out), we have been able to let go the high-earning Terry and also Snodgrass, who himself must have been costing us a fair bit, even if West Ham were making contributions to his salary (as is often the case in loans deals). Of course, we are still lumbered with the likes of Micah Richards and Ross McCormack, the Villa careers of both of whom seem dead and buried.

I’ve read posts and articles which suggest we should be trying to move on other supposed high earners like Mile Jedinak and Henri Lansbury, and perhaps we might. But in the case of Jedinak, he was an integral part of our first team last season, and there is no reason to suggest he would be any less important this time around. I am no fan of Lansbury but he is an experienced player at this level and he should be considered – at least – an important squad player.

But I digress. The point is, I really don’t think we should be looking to bring in expensive loan signings in another attempt to use experience to get us over the line. We have enough ‘experienced’ players at the club with the likes of Chester, Alan Hutton, Tommy Elphick, Lansbury, Whelan, Jedinak and Albert Adomah. Now is the time for our much-trumpeted youth academy to shine through.

André Green needs to put his injuries behind him and step up to the plate. Keinan Davis needs to start delivering on that promise from last season. Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Callum O’Hare and Jake Doyle-Hayes (not to mention Mitch Clark and Jordan Lyden) need to be knocking at the door of the first team.

Add to the equation bit-part players like Lansbury, James Bree and Ritchie de Laet and Bruce has a very respectable squad of players available to him for the coming season. And I’ve not even mentioned the possibility that Jack Grealish might stay, perhaps permanently, perhaps only until January depending on the size of the FFP hole to be filled.

We need to move on from the tried-and-tested. Sure, it could work (and has worked for Bruce in years gone by). But the evidence of last season is not compelling enough for me that we should follow that model again. Indeed, financially, I can’t see how we can follow that model again.

It is time for the coaches and players we have on the books to stand up and be counted. They should be galvanised by their failure of last season and the near-miss from administration and being hampered by a possible twelve-point deduction before they’d even started. They have a second chance. Much has been made of the team spirit instilled by Bruce and his coaches over the past 18 months. As it stands, we’ve only lost three players from last season, and it’s not like they are irreplaceable.

Our fans are among the very best in the land. We will be here for the big season ahead. The question is: will the players? It’s time to do the talking on our shiny new pitch. Come on Steve, come on boys, show us that you, too, are Part of the Pride.