http://www.ambernectar.org/blog/2018/08/things-we-think-we-think-306/ 1. A weekend horror show can often render an earlier midweek fixture oddly distant in the memory. The Blackburn débâcle means that the penalty shoot-out victory at Sheffield United just six ago feels an event a month behind us. But it happened, and though we won’t be wasting energy on straw clutching any more, when viewed in isolation it wasn’t a bad night. A very young side acquitted itself well, and kept its nerve during the (admittedly low-pressure) series of spot-kicks at full time. A successful evening. 2. Not that Derby at home is a just reward for it. But that fixture itself ties into the calamity against Blackburn. Just what sort of attendance can we expect for that? 3. We’ll take Oliver Norwood’s comments about signing for Sheffield United with a pinch of salt. He’s hardly going to express sadness at having signed for his new employers, and anyway, if he wasn’t keen on joining a club that didn’t value him highly enough to meet his valuation and that’s notorious in professional football for being a complete basket case…who can blame him? 4. Not that his decisive penalty miss didn’t elicit a small chuckle, however. Though it does raise the probability of him scoring the winner in a League game this season to something approaching 99%… 5. Blackburn. Oh dear, Blackburn. A pitiful non-performance from a side that isn’t good enough to survive at this level, managed by a man who knows that and has realised (too late) that desperately-needed support will not be forthcoming. 6. City were abject. The goal was another comically soft concession from a defence that no more looks like keeping a clean sheet than a 14 year old boy who’s just prised open the parental lock on the domestic wi-fi. Even more alarming was the response, which was hopeless. And yes, we know this side isn’t good enough, and that the bench offers little, but even taking all of those allowances into account, it still wasn’t acceptable. Not by a distance. 7. To have Nigel Adkins starting to ponder his own future before August is even through is quite something. A man of garrulous optimism whose cathartine rubbernecking of Leonid Slutsky’s ill-fated spell will always grate now wonders if it was all worth it. He’ll almost certainly be back to normal very soon, posting on social media about wholesome breakfasts, but frustration at the owners’ negligence is breaking through more often. 8. We have around a dozen days to perform emergency surgery on this squad. It probably depends on finding someone willing to spend lots of money on Kamil Grosicki, and even in the present day market there’s no guarantee anyone’s going to be that unwise. And even then the manager may not see any meaningful assistance. We’ll probably cobble together a loan or two from Premier League sides for players they haven’t yet managed to offload – but as usual, it’s all too little, all too late. 9. The club no longer has the guts to announce its inflated attendances during the game, but it emerged after the match that it was officially 12,233. We know they are usually around 20% fewer people there than claimed, which gives us 10,200; and a rumour that it was 10,002 has been widely spread. Both of these figures feel about right. It’s only a matter of time before the first sub-10,000 actual attendance, and we wouldn’t rule out the club having to announce one even with the 20% addition. Three-fifths of the stadium lie empty, and the club refuses to change the despicable policies that are ensuring that. It’s a disgrace, and a tragedy. 9a. Facilitating contactless payment at stadium food and drink kiosks would be a low level plus point at a normal club, but while City persist with a concession free membership scheme (that if a Tweet this weekend is to be believed, sees the deceased threatened with legal action) and a policy of weakening the squad one transfer window at a time, it’s all a bit ‘polishing the brass on the Titanic’. 9b. Oh and it didn’t work. 10. So let us be absolutely clear: this club is in severe difficulty, but it isn’t dying, it’s being killed. Assem and Ehab Allam are the killers, and they have brought shame upon their family name. They probably don’t give a toss – for too long we’ve believed the old man’s pious claims to regard his legacy as important, but we don’t believe that any more. The only – ONLY – explanation for any of this is revenge. Pure, callous revenge. And we despise them for it.
