Forget the face lift, Surgery is needed...

By Elliott Wheat-Bowen
Writer coming out of retirement
@elliotthtafc

When Town spiralled out of the Championship and landed in League 1, there may have been some hope that the red ink of defeats would dry up and Town would stabilise, strengthen and build towards a return to the Championship with a strong side under a manager who has been there, and almost done that.  

The victory at Bolton sandwiched between two runs of three consecutive defeats has been the only saving grace in what has been a turgid two months of football. For some, it will be nature of the defeats or the nature of the opposition. For me, Town’s early form masked a bigger over-arching issue and now the results have come to a shuddering halt, this issue is coming more and more into light.

The issue in question is that there has not been a serious recognition of the gravity of the situation and this can be traced back to the summer. It was yet another summer of transition and one where previous mistakes really needed to be learnt from and unfortunately yet again, that was not the case.

One of the biggest mistakes, and one which could be an entire discussion in and of itself, is the continual online presence of Kevin Nagle and company. Whilst it may have been refreshing and unique initially, the openness, transparency and incisive insights into the decision making and inner workings of the club, particularly around the marquee signing of a striker has undermined efforts. Naturally when such a hot topic is discussed, expectations will be raised amongst a fanbase that has been continuously disappointed and let down over the course of the past five years and when time runs out and that marquee signing doesn’t come...  it is inevitably going to come back to bite you.

So what was needed in the summer? Wholesale change.

The caveat to this is, of course, with the nature of contracts – you cannot simply cull three quarters of the squad and start again, but be under no illusion, that is exactly what is needed.

This summer, the club’s priorities and behaviour was that of a delicate cosmetic touch up (literally and figuratively). However, the reality of the situation is more that the club is in need of major open-heart surgery and would you trust Mark Cartwright with the scalpel to perform such a task when so much is on the line?

If we were to continue the analogy further, it feels that if the club was personified, it would be in need of serious trauma counselling. Before footballing ability and discussions are had around tactical nuance and formations, an issue which causes all listed before as obsolete is that of mentality fragility.

In all honesty, the club and all those around it have grown too comfortable losing. There is not even an embarrassment to losing anymore, it’s almost become the norm. It’s inevitable. There’s gallows humour amongst the fanbase that we cannot comprehend what positive goal difference is or what scoring multiple goals in a single game looks like. There is something deeper underlying, defeatism and inferiority has become ingrained into the very fabric of the club and only the football club can rectify that.  

Resignation of defeat seems apparent at the most minor setback, underpinned by a deep-rooted culture of defeatism and an over-reliance on an underdog mentality to justify mediocrity and under-performance. On paper, there’s plenty of Town’s squad that would be comfortable playing in the Championship week in and week out, but it means nothing when there is a dearth of mental fortitude, that is why such a culture change is needed.

The defibrillator that would shock this club back to life is such a significant turnover of personnel, it would be unrecognisable to the side that were relegated from the Championship just last season. Until that turnover of personnel comes and we accept the uncomfortable truth that those who have earned almost cult hero status and those who have been part of the furniture are moved on, I cannot see a sudden change in mood or mentality.

Going forward, Town may need to turn to youth. Beyond the exuberance and energy that youthful prospects would present, the most alluring attraction of an injection of youthful enterprise into the squad is the absence of emotional baggage, there is a fearlessness when you have not yet encountered rejection or failure.

I do have great sympathy for Michael Duff and I would back him over these group of players to have a successful season in League 1, nine times out of ten. We have seen on countless occasions over the past couple of years that entering the managerial carousel is merely papering over the cracks of deep-rooted issues and changing the manager is the easier, shorter-term solution.

For Town to sustainably build towards a healthy culture around the club and the desperately sought after golden goose that is a winning mentality, we need continuity and to back a manager – not necessarily by offering an enormous war chest in the transfer market (although that would help), but by offering an even more priceless commodity... time.