The words you are about to read come to you from somewhere
in the middle of England as I am currently on board a high speed train from
London bound for Edinburgh. Whilst there are limited options for things to do
whilst inside a fast moving tube, I feel there is no better time than the
present to air my thoughts on another jam packed football season that has just
drawn to a conclusion.
I will start by getting my misery out of the way first. My
Scottish team Hibernian did themselves no favours whatsoever this season and
found themselves relegated from the Scottish Premiership after losing the
relegation play-off to Championship side Hamilton Academical. The writing had
been on the wall for quite some time, but there just seemed to be no way of
halting the slide. The only game I managed to attend this season was the Europa
League game against Malmo back in July, and the less said about that game as
well the better! One thing I will say is that it helped sum up my opinions of
Scottish Football and the rut it’s in as a whole, but I will perhaps go into
greater detail on that at a later date.
I still believed the team would be capable enough of
finishing in the top half of the league despite the mauling from the Swedes,
but it just wasn’t meant to be. A managerial change towards the end of 2013 did
nothing to help change things and many would say it only made matters worse.
Looking back at the statistics, two wins in the whole of 2014 is relegation
form and as much as it pains me to say it, we definitely got what we deserved.
The summer clear out at the club has already begun with a host of
out-of-contract being told that they will not be given new deals.
More arrivals and departures should be announced over the
coming weeks with regards to playing staff, but I do feel that there needs to
be change higher up as well unfortunately. The club chairman Rod Petrie strikes
me as a man who is more concerned with keeping the financial balance sheets
clean and healthy than investing money into improving the actual team. Don’t
get me wrong, with Petrie at the helm the club has remained financially stable
and now possesses one of the best stadiums and training facilities in the
country, but since becoming chairman in 2004, Hibs have never been competitive
in the transfer market. I know that resources in Scottish football are limited
in comparison to those in England, but given how much money the club have raked
in from selling players over the years, I see no good excuse as to why more of
that income could not have been invested into building a stronger team. The
owner of the club Sir Tom Farmer helped save us from extinction in 1990 and for
that, supporters will be forever grateful, but given that Sir Tom possesses
next to no interest in football and has left Mr Petrie in charge of handling
all of the clubs affairs, I believe the time has come for the club to look at
new investment before the situation potentially worsens.
Now onto a slightly more positive topic. My English side
Southend United had a far more productive season and got themselves a place in
the League Two Play-Offs, but ended up missing out on another trip to Wembley
after losing out to Burton Albion 3-2 on aggregate after two games. It was
upsetting seeing the team come so close to finally getting out of League Two,
but I would like to think that they are more than capable of coming back next
season even stronger and giving it a right good go once more.
Most Southend supporters would agree that what cost us an
automatic promotion place at the end of the season was our barren run from the
end of January to the end of March where we couldn’t win a single game in
twelve attempts. I attended the 0-0 draw with Bury in mid-March which gave me a
better insight into what was causing the team problems and afterwards I posted
on here where I thought we were going wrong. Fortunately it did not take the
team long after that game to get back to winning ways and cement a Play-Off
place, but had that run been prevented it could well have been a very different
story at the end of the season.
Manager Phil Brown appears keen to stay and hopefully a
number of key players will stick around too. Resources will once again be
limited for the club when it comes to investing in new talent for the team, but
I have complete faith in Brown’s ability to find the right players that need to
be added to work with the current crop in order to ensure that we are still
going to be there or thereabouts at the top of League Two at the end of next
season. This season the team had the best defensive record out of all the 24
teams in the league this season and shows that if we can carry on that sort of
defensive form next season, improve our scoring statistics and maintain it all
throughout the course of the season, there should really be no problems in
gaining promotion next time around.
For me as a writer, the season has not quite been as
productive as I’d initially hoped for this time last year as work and other
commitments have stopped me from contributing articles for my blog and other
sites on a regular basis. I did decide last month to start an open college
course on Freelance Journalism which will hopefully help me improve my skills
and help me find ways of being able to do this sort of thing on a more regular
basis. I enjoy giving my views and informing people about what is going on in
the world, and I hope my readers also enjoy what I produce. With any luck the
course will help me potentially forge a new career path and allow me the chance
to make a living out of something that I love doing. In closing, the hard work
starts now!
Andrew.
P.S. No picture included with this post. Train wi-fi can only take so much unfortunately!
Twitter.com/ADNU92
