If you believe the talk we’re all but finished. Failure to make the premiership and the Portman Road exodus begins, starting with home-grown Darren Bent.
But who of you really, really thought at the beginning of last season that our squad was championship-winning material (honestly now)? Who believed Kuqi was a premiership striker before a brilliant performance in Dale Robert’s testimonial (refer to Sheffield Wednesday fans to see Royle’s influence on his career)? Who could of imagined that Tommy Miller would become a 15-goal indispensable outlet in midfield after he signed from Hartlepool?
In the two and a half seasons that Royle has been in charge can you say he’s disappointed you? He came in to do a job, namely to take Holland, Hreidarsson & co back where they belong but that job was a façade, for a much bigger and tougher job; a miracle worker.
How do you take a financially-crippled football club to the brink of the premiership whilst continually selling your star players and dealing in free transfers and stringent wage-caps? It’s not a trick question and one that I along with the masses don’t know the answer to, but a certain Joe Royle has shown that he does. Not only that, we’ve been blessed in watching the most entertaining football in the country for the past two seasons (91 goals scored in Royle’s first full season at the helm).
So with four to five key players from that team reputedly heading out of the Portman Road exit door, the players that have scored nearly all the goals and in the case of Kelvin, kept a phenomenal amount out, where’s all my enthusiasm coming from?
I’ll tell you where; a cold-windy April evening on my first glimpse of an FA Youth cup-winning side against Tottenham. It wasn’t just the incredible talent bursting out of the blue half of the pitch that gave me so much hope; it was a Liverpool fan’s comments at half-time that really made the night for me. He was commenting at how the club had underestimated the support that delayed the kick-off
“They’re crazy, they know you lot have got the best youngsters in the country and you all want to see them, there’s barely a side in the country that could fill their ground to watch their under 18’s but you lot could and they should know that."
He was right, more people turned up to watch the under 18’s against the Saints than Wigan averaged en route to the Premiership. Its Premiership support without a doubt and premiership players continually keep coming through, from Wright, Dyer, Ambrose, Bramble through to Darren Bent. Then there’s Westlake? Richards? Bowditch? Knights? Murray? Barron? Peters? Supple?...the list goes on.
Its unbelievable how we have seen these talented players keep coming through, except this current lot are better than the ones we’ve seen before; they’re officially the best young set of players in the country! Doesn’t that excite you? (I’m tingling)
Of course putting all our faith in just these boys (because that’s what they still are) is naïve; we must believe that Royle will again unearth more Kuqi’s, more Kelvin’s and will find more Alan Mahon’s and Darren Currie’s.
I’ve always believed this club is special, from the well-behaved fans through to the talented young players through to the award-winning grounds man and his team; everything about the club has a special feel about it that other fans envy.
When back on that emotion-charged May night I saw Bent throwing his shirt into the North Stand I hit rock bottom. It signalled the end. But the image was familiar and then instead of Bent’s face there was Dyer’s, the same emotional parting of a home-grown talent that would have stayed had the club of made it through the play-offs. After that particular night I thought we would never be as strong again but we came back stronger.
The bottom line is that we’re lucky to have Royle and we’re lucky to have such an amazing academy, so relax (a little maybe) and rest your voices over the summer months; the players may change but for now the club won’t and contrary to opinion the wheels aren’t falling off the tractor just yet, believe me, Royle’s got a few more tricks up his sleeves yet.