Southend United Pre-Season Begins

Whilst I have been caught up in the “World Cup Bug” that is still sweeping the globe, I now also have thoughts turned towards the start of the new season in August. As soon as the winning team lifts the World Cup Trophy in the Maracana on July 13^th, attention then turns immediately to club teams going through their run of pre-season fixtures before the competitive games kick-off next month.

Already I am excited about what the new season has in store for everyone. Regardless of how well a team is predicted to do over the course of the campaign, most supporters seem to have a sense of optimism at this time of the year and believe that their team can go on to accomplish great things. I too am no different, last season my club Southend United came ever so close to achieving promotion to League One, but just ended up missing out in the end after a League Two Play-Off Semi-Final defeat to Burton Albion. At the time the defeat was frustrating and a little hard to stomach, but now over a month on from the result I have confidence that we can bounce back from it even stronger this season and make another challenge for promotion.

The club have already cleared out the players that manager Phil Brown deemed surplus to requirements at the end of the last campaign and the remainder of squad returned to training this week after their summer break. So far we have made one new addition to the team, winger Myles Weston joined after his contract with Gillingham expired and he gives us a new option on the left-hand side of the pitch after Anthony Straker’s departure to York City. Weston is a former England Under-19 international and a player I do rate after seeing him put in some good displays for Notts County and Brentford in previous years. At only 26, I think he is capable of great things at this level and hopefully he can turn out to be one of our key performers this season.

The addition of Weston is promising, but we do of course need more new players if we are to really challenge again. The club did try and sign defenders John Egan and Jakub Sokolik on permanent deals after impressive spells on loan last season, but Sokolik recently joined Yeovil Town and Egan has just signed a deal with Gillingham, so that means we now need to look elsewhere in that department. We were also linked with midfielder John-Joe O’Toole but he has just completed a move to Northampton Town. With any luck, we will have more players on our radar that we do not know about yet that will hopefully be signed up as soon as possible so we can incorporate them into our current setup quickly and efficiently so that they are all ready and raring to go for the first game of the season against Accrington Stanley on August 9^th.

As well as adding, it is also important to retain. Many supporters feared that missing out on promotion would mean players such as Daniel Bentley, Kevan Hurst and Ryan Leonard would likely leave the club if good enough offers came in for them. So far all three have returned to pre-season training with the rest of the team and no known offers have come in for any of them. It is worth noting that Hurst and Leonard both signed new contracts during the second half of last season and I firmly believe that all three men are committed to us and our cause for the coming season, but ultimately given the level the club is playing at, income is generally very low, and if a good enough offer comes in then we may have to grudgingly accept that they have to move on as that helps ensure that the club itself still continues to maintain financial stability and ensures that it has a future in the game.

The way we play will also be key in knowing whether or not we stand a better chance of getting promotion this time around. Last season Phil Brown often had us playing with a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 system which allowed us to pack the midfield area but required our wingers to work even harder to ensure that our lone striker had enough support going forward. It’s a system that works for teams that play at a higher level, but when I watched us play Bury back in March it did not seem as effective for us. It may have been that we just were not able to use it as well because we were in the middle of a winless run at the time and confidence would have been low, and that is something else we need to ensure does not happen this time around if we are to have a successful campaign. So ultimately, it is up to the manager and his coaching staff to work hard and ensure that we come up with a playing style and system that will work successfully throughout the course of the whole season, and any problems that we encounter are solved as quickly as possible to ensure they don’t leave us struggling to gain enough points to see us over the line towards the end of the season.

To conclude, whilst there is still a lot of work to do, I am hopeful for the new season and believe that with a few more quality additions to the side, we will definitely be near the top of the table again by the time May rolls around. I am also hopeful that despite living over 400 miles away in Edinburgh, I will possibly be able to take in our first home games against Stevenage and Wimbledon in August, and fingers crossed regardless of whether I am there or not, we pick up 6 points from the two games and help get the season off to the best possible start.