Sunday 23 June 2019

The annual panic starts

Some people are having a relaxing time. A wedding special enters Dungeness Station during my visit to the Kent coast on Friday. And I discovered that Derek from Dymchurch is a real person.

Every year around this time a panic starts about how thin the squad is. There is plenty of time left to make signings, particularly if there is a change of ownership. It wasn't a good look having a thin subs' bench at Sunderland at the start of last season, but I don't think it had much to do with the result.

Cafc Facts and Stats have published the following list of what has happened to the Sunderland players: Phillips; Dijksteel; Purrington (Back to Rotherham); Sarr; Bauer (Gone to Preston); Bielik (Back to Arsenal); Cullen (Back to West Ham); Pratley; Aribo (Glasgow Rangers/); Taylor; Parker (Released).

I realise they are just trying to provide useful information, but I would say that we already have a good replacement for Parker and I think that 'The Cat' may well come back.

So just relax and enjoy what we have of the summer and wait and see what happens on ownership. That will influence whether or not we are in a relegation battle.

Mind you, it does seem to have been an incredibly short break. I was writing programme notes yesterday for my non-league team's opening fixture against Coventry City who are hoping to recapture the Mayoral Cup. Charlton have the Crown Berger at Welling to look forward to.

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