View From The Home End: end-of-season reflections

Primary objective of a top half finish secured; six places higher than last season, and above the Mackems; never in any danger of relegation; tremendous victories (complete with clean sheets) at home to Chelsea and at White Hart Lane and (at long, long last) Old Trafford; a November in which we couldn't stop winning; the Boxing Day hoodoo banished with a five-goal romp against Stoke; a win in our final home game of the campaign for the first time in years.

Forgive us if we aren't cracking out the champagne, though. And here's why. After that thrashing of the Potters, we were sitting pretty in sixth, one point behind fifth-placed Everton. And then came a pathetic haul of 16 points from a possible 60; trouncings at the hands of Man Utd, Southampton, Everton, Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and (worst of all) the Mackems; six consecutive defeats spanning March and April; and an FA Cup exit at the very first hurdle.

So much for a game of two halves; this was a season of two halves. The first, sadly, feels like a distant memory, obliterated by the nightmare of the second. So, inevitably I'm afraid, what follows is less a review and more an inquest into what went wrong with a season that had shown such rich promise but that descended into frustration, anger and mutiny.

So, where to start? Obvious, really...

* * * * *

Dreamboat sails off into the sunset

It's not often that the success (or otherwise) of a whole season can be largely attributed to a single individual or a single event, but that was, I think, the case this campaign.

After a disappointing 2012/13, during which he suffered a physical and psychological hangover from France's abject failure at Euro 2012, Dreamboat cruised back into top form, contributing valuable goals from midfield (including that Old Trafford winner) as well as oozing class and creativity that stood him head and shoulders above his team-mates.

So it was inevitable, really, that after a man-of-the-match performance at Upton Park in January, he would be flogged off to the highest bidder - indeed the only bidder, moneybags PSG, who had little trouble tempting him back to his home country with the promise of fine wines and stinky cheeses, not to mention Champions League football. We may have felt powerless to prevent him from leaving, given the stature of his suitors, the size of the bid and the secret deal he struck with our hierarchy in the summer, but the sale of a player who proved remarkably good value at just £4.3m left me fearful that "for the rest of the season we'll be left ruefully watching the space Dreamboat used to fill".

And so it proved - our midfield was embarrassingly prosaic, stodgy and unimaginative without his quick mind and bright invention. It was certainly no coincidence whatsoever that our form nosedived sharply as soon as he had gone.

Window pains

Of course, Dreamboat's loss could and indeed should have been mitigated by the arrival of a replacement. Not only did we have PSG's cash to reinvest, but it was also revealed that we had had six months' forewarning that his departure was very much on the cards. And yet we were left flailing around in a desperate and undignified fashion over the last 48 hours before the January transfer window shut, with a move for Lyon's Clement Grenier comprehensively rebuffed. A rumoured deal for Montpellier's Remy Cabella also failed to materialise, his coach mockingly branding us "not a big club", and the loan signing of Luuk de Jong from Borussia Monchengladbach was the only addition to the squad.

Incredibly (or perhaps not, to seasoned observers and followers of Newcastle), we appeared not to have learned from the invaluable lesson of the summer of 2012, when we mustered just one acquisition, and for the second successive transfer window Jabba ended up keeping the belt encircling his enormous girth tight and his wallet firmly shut - to the considerable detriment of our fortunes over the second half of the season.

Ambition not part of the mission

Even if we accept that the sale of Dreamboat was something that couldn't reasonably be prevented, Jabba's reluctance to part with any money in January was certainly symptomatic of a club crippled by a lack of ambition. As a successful businessman, he must surely know that the problem with cost-cutting is that it very often proves to be costly, so one can only assume that the decision not to invest was taken in the knowledge that we would still be able to survive comfortably. If that meant we would miss out on Europe (as became evident very soon after Dreamboat's departure), then so be it - there was evidently as little appetite for qualifying for the Europa League as there was for continued participation in the FA Cup, the latter clearly a distraction we could ill afford when we had, er, nothing else to play for...

What's football worth without dreams, hopes and aspirations (even unrealistic or fanciful ones)? Not a whole lot.

Jog on, JFK

Whatever else you say about Jabba, you have to admire his guile and gumption. If you have no intention of spending any money, then who better to entrust with the responsibility of transfer negotiations than a bumbling, buffoonish blowhard so incompetent that he expresses an interest in a player his club already owns? Even over the course of two transfer windows there was about as much chance of an amoeba completing a cryptic crossword as there was of JFK actually managing to make a permanent signing, let alone a bad one.

And when the flak came in early February, as Jabba must have known it would, JFK made a convenient scapegoat who could be dispensed with, his function served, leaving the owner to save face as well as cash and JFK to do what he does best - namely, swear and spout preposterous bullshit - at someone else's expense.

The Silver Fox loses his cunning

While JFK may have been unwittingly doing Jabba's bidding, the Silver Fox's exasperation with his failure to get transfers "over the line" (probably because he had absolutely no idea what or where the line was) became increasingly apparent. "If I was in charge, solely, of transfers", the manager growled, "things might be different but I'm not". Few (myself included) would deny that he once again found himself doing his job with one hand tied behind his back, but that isn't enough to absolve him from blame for our second-half slump.

He certainly tried to absolve himself on enough occasions, pointing the finger instead at everyone from HBA (our most creative player in the absence of Dreamboat) and match officials to supporters and the local media. However, no one else can shoulder the responsibility for some decidedly questionable tactics and substitutions, or for an inability to motivate highly paid players into doing their job with even a modicum of professional pride, or for becoming the first Newcastle manager to lose six consecutive Premier League matches, or for the moment of insanity that saw him headbutt Hull's David Meyler and earn an unprecedented seven-match touchline ban and £60,000 fine.

This time last year, I noted that some fans were calling for the Silver Fox's head, adding, "We're not joining that chorus just yet, but would say that he has a lot of work to do to rebuild public trust." Over the course of the last season, he's done the precise opposite and is now a liability whom Jabba should (but probably won't) cut loose.

Nil point

And so to the players. By the time Arsenal visited St James' Park on 29th December, we had lost just once at home all season. The fact that the Gunners headed off down back down the A1 with all three points that day didn't seem hugely significant at the time - they were the league leaders, after all - but in retrospect the outcome signalled the beginnings of our decline, and a horrific sequence of results on our own turf in particular.

Of those heavy defeats to Chelsea, Arsenal, Southampton, Spurs, Man Utd, Everton and the Mackems, the latter four came at home, and all seven were by three or four goals without reply. "Without reply" is telling - in the run of 20 league games that began with the visit of Arsenal and ended with Sunday's trip to Liverpool, we scored in just seven of them.

While Dreamboat's departure was a critical factor in our slump, Loic Remy's absence - due to a combination of injury and a three-match suspension incurred by a red card at Norwich - was also keenly felt. The QPR loanee's 14 goals were crucial in ensuring we somehow managed to keep our heads above water and squeeze into the top half of the table. It was telling that Dreamboat still ended the season as our joint second top scorer with Goofy, who registered in four consecutive home games in the autumn but, like everyone else, lost form in the spring.

As for the rest, Papiss Cisse carried on where he left off last season, not even a shadow of the player who scored for fun on his arrival from the Bundesliga, and contributed just two league goals, one of which was a penalty. Big Lad was no better - we may have identified him as a key component of that November run, but he didn't actually weigh in with any league goals until the last two home games of the campaign, against Swansea and Cardiff, before talking himself into a red card at Anfield in what is likely to have been his final appearance for the club. Luuk de Jong, meanwhile, was utterly useless, offering only a couple of assists.

That put the pressure on the midfield to deliver, and - Dreamboat aside - they didn't. Moussa Sissoko and HBA mustered only three each, while our only other league scorers were Mini V, Mathieu Debuchy, Paul Dummett and Saylor, all of whom donated a solitary strike to our paltry collection.

In truth, even our most handsome victory of the season, the tonking of Stoke, was hardly the delicious feast of goalscoring that it might have seemed. All five goals came after the visitors' ill-discipline reduced them to nine men - prior to the dismissals, we had shown no signs whatsoever of being able to penetrate their defence.

Half-season holiday

Even worse than our woes in front of goal, though, was the lack of effort shown by the players in the second half of the season. Losing heavily to the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea is nothing novel, but the manner of many of the defeats - in which we barely even bothered to turn up and make the vaguest semblance of a game of it - was alarming. It was as though they'd all bought into Jabba's policy of abandoning all ambition in favour of lazy complacency.

As an evidently furious Wor Al noted in the wake of Man Utd's 4-0 win at St James', they appeared to "have simply given up": "Fans can forgive a defeat, but they cannot forgive a team that simply does not try and this one is on its holidays". A holiday was deserved - a long one, in a gulag.

Noisy neighbours

Our lack of effort and fighting spirit was only thrown into sharper relief by the way the Mackems clawed their way back from the brink of relegation, somehow managing to make up a seven-point deficit with six games to play courtesy of a run of results that included a draw at the Etihad and victories at both Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. Faced with similar adversity, you suspect that we would have been dead and buried.

While we may have finished above the Mackems, they nevertheless comprehensively retained local bragging rights by first beating us down at the Dark Place and then improbably repeating last season's trick of thumping us on our own patch. Throw in an appearance at Wembley in the League Cup final, which they valiantly lost to eventual Premier League champions Man City, and it's plausible to argue that a side that spent much of the season reeling from the damage wreaked by Paolo Di Canio and battling against relegation actually enjoyed a better campaign than we did.

Newcastle Disunited

All of the above - the sale of Dreamboat and subsequent failure to replace him or sign any other players permanently, the patent lack of ambition, the employment of JFK, the Silver Fox's drivel and antics, the appalling goal-free and effort-free performances served up at St James' in particular, and embarrassment in the derbies - conspired to drive an even greater wedge between the club and its long-suffering supporters.

The 2013/14 season saw valuable lines of communication severed - whether through the exclusion of NUST from the Fans Forum for a minor indiscretion (if that) or a petty ban on the Ronny Gill, the Journal and the Sunday Sun which confirmed Jabba as a totalitarian dictator swift to crush any impertinent criticism of his regime.

However, it also saw the emergence of fissures among the fanbase, as supporters debated and disagreed over what should be done. Pre-match protest marches, coordinated walkouts, boycotting matches altogether - each course of action had fierce advocates and opponents.

At root, though, there was some consensus - things have to change.

* * * * *

This time last year I pondered, "Are we actually a solid mid-table team in very good disguise?" As it's turned out, the reverse has been true - a solid mid-table finish has disguised a plethora of problems. Pointing to the fact that we ended up tenth is not so much papering over the cracks as trying to paper over the Grand Canyon.

View From The Home End: end of season reflections

Every year on Black & White & Read All Over, prior to the big kick-off, we assess our rivals before then assessing Newcastle's prospects and predicting how we'll fare. And every year we discover we're almost spot on about our opponents over the forthcoming campaign - but, for whatever reason, are almost always hopelessly wide of the mark when it comes to our own standing.

Back in August, off the back of a tremendous season which had concluded in a wholly unexpected fifth-place finish, Paul had us to end up in seventh this time around. While I might have erred slightly more on the side of caution, perhaps influenced by the Silver Fox's pre-season attempts to not so much dampen as pour cold water on any excited optimism, I'd still have thought that finishing outside the top half would be unthinkable. And yet, as is so often the way with Newcastle, the unthinkable duly became reality and we ended up limping home in 16th. If there's any consolation, it's that our league performance has utterly confounded the pundits on both occasions too.

If 2011/2 was a case of where did everything go right, then 2012/3 was most definitely the exact opposite, a perfect storm that came perilously close to leaving the good ship Newcastle Utd once again marooned in the Championship. Time to pick over the bones of a campaign we're only too glad to see the back of.

Just what the doctor didn't order

Cast your mind back to August. Raylor and Haris Vuckic both started the season in reasonable form, scoring in the away and home legs respectively of the Europa League qualifying tie against Greek outfit Atromitos that secured our passage into the group stage. By early October, though, both had been ruled out through injury for the whole campaign (Raylor since breaking down again during his rehabilitation and facing another year out) and the pattern had been set for the season.

No one was spared a place on the casualty list, which at times must have been almost as long as the list of available players from which the Silver Fox could choose. No sooner would one much-missed first-team regular return to action than two others would pick up knocks or strains. The club's medical team must have been working as furiously as Taggart's jaw masticating gum in the 95th minute with the score at 0-1. It wouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that we'd been cursed by an old crone in a Mackem shirt.

Form is indeed temporary

Time and again over the course of the campaign we found ourselves clinging to the faint hope that the return to fitness of one player or another would be the essential catalyst we needed to raise our game, accelerate away from trouble and start roughly resembling the side that swept away so much before it last season. It never happened. The desperately poor form of the team collectively was matched by the desperately poor form of our key men individually, only thrown into relief by the consistently high levels to which everyone performed last time around.

HBA, who had dazzled defences on a regular basis as we cruised to fifth place, all too often failed to supply the creative spark we needed from him - an extraordinary early thunderbolt to salvage a point at home to Villa aside. Papiss Cisse, a revelation in the second half of the previous season, may have improved as the campaign wore on, notching last-minute winners at home to West Brom, Stoke and Fulham that gained us the precious points that ultimately preserved our Premier League status - but he was also a continual source of frustration with his failure to score unless presented with numerous opportunities, his inability to comprehend the offside rule (even if he had five legitimate goals ruled out by an incorrect flag) and his temper tantrum at being substituted against QPR.

Most alarming, though, was the form of the two midfielders on which last season's success was founded. Dreamboat had his moments - scoring at Anfield for the second year in a row, for instance, and supplying some delightful assists for Demba Ba - but his overall contribution to games was poor and he frequently cut a dejected, sullen figure, hardly earmarking himself for captaincy in the future. Whether just fatigued or actually depressed (as he claimed) by the experience of Euro 2012, we can only hope that the hangover has fully cleared by the time we kick off again.

Worse still, though, was Mr T. Formerly an athletic and usefully aggressive enforcer protecting the back four for whom a £20m price tag seemed realistic, he suddenly looked like he'd been forcefed drugged milk, shambling around giving away possession cheaply and collecting yellow cards like they were going out of fashion. When the calamity magnet wasn't costing us maximum points by getting himself sent off at the Dark Place, he was falling foul of the boys in blue on a charge of motoring fraud. I never thought I'd say it, but it was almost a relief to be rid of him for the duration of the African Cup of Nations.

So, with our backbone so out of sorts, did the fringe players step up? The answer was a resounding no. Obertan Kenobi offered a couple of Europa League cameos, Perchinho and Mike Williamson reverted to form as Championship-standard try-hards, Little Big Lad flattered to deceive before getting packed off to Smogside on loan, and Dan Gosling and Romain Amalfitano were nowhere to be seen.

Only a small handful of players could actually be considered to have impressed - Rob Elliot, perhaps, deputising for Tim Krul ahead of the now departed Steve Harper; Sideshow Bob, when clear of injury and with his wantaway wobble behind him; Sylvain Marveaux, who offered a reasonable approximation of HBA's craft and creativity in his compatriot's absence.

Thursdays, bloody Thursdays

The consensus (among neutrals, at least) seems to be that our European involvement was largely to blame for our misfortunes, but I remain unconvinced. After all, Thursday nights gave us regular respite from the travails of the league and the opportunity to blood fringe players, as well as the additional confidence that an impressive run of clean sheets brings. That said, while few of our injuries could be traced directly to Europa League games, there seems little doubt that the extra fixtures did stretch and fatigue an already thin squad.

To buy or not to buy, that was the question

Speaking in August about the lack of summer signings, the Silver Fox claimed that patience was a virtue and that he wasn't interested in panic buys: "I'm relaxed as these guys did a great job last year and I'd have no problem picking from the group we have now". As it turned out, of course, he was deprived of that luxury by the injury curse, and made to look even more complacent by failing to account for key individuals' loss of form and the fact that all of our rivals and indeed those in mid-table took the opportunity to strengthen significantly. Fixated on the mantra "What we have, we hold", Ba in particular, we neglected acquisitions, adding only Vurnon Anita to the first-team squad.

By December the club hierarchy were openly admitting the error of their ways, and by the end of January had taken decisive action to right wrongs. No fewer than five players were brought in from across the channel, and when the team was duly inspired into recording back-to-back victories against Villa and Chelsea there was feverish, excited talk of a French Revolution.

That impetus didn't last, though, and I think it's fair to say that all five Frenchmen still have something to prove. Moussa Sissoko was the toast of Tyneside and hailed as an absolute bargain when his surging, tireless runs propelled us to the victory over Chelsea, but he faded thereafter, becoming increasingly jaded and peripheral. Mathieu Debuchy has thus far done little to suggest he's the marked improvement on the departing Danny Simpson that we were led to believe, and has an impetuous streak that earned him a stupid red card against Liverpool. MYM has looked wonderfully assured at times but is always liable to make a costly mistake - remind you of anyone else from our recent past? Massadio Haidara made a decent enough impression on his initial European outings, earned sympathy following the assault by Callum McManaman in that now infamous defeat at Wigan and then turned in a horrendous display against Liverpool that saw him omitted for the final few matches. Of the five, it's the unheralded Goofy who's had the greatest impact, scoring a vital goal at the Hawthorns and an even more vital winner at Loftus Road that ensured we escaped the drop.

Even still, he could hardly hope to fill the sizeable boots of the player unwisely selected to be Mr January in our 2013 club calendar, who was sold to Chelsea when the year was still just a few days old. Realistically, we were powerless to prevent Ba's departure for Stamford Bridge, but it did almost prove fatally costly, which it needn't have done had we used the rest of the month to source and buy a suitable replacement.

Managing to make a meal of things

As our flirtation with relegation wore on, threatening to become a full-blown affair, many fans' fingers started to point accusatorily in one direction. We've been very restrained on this site in not unduly criticising the man in the hot seat, for the simple reason that, as I've been arguing, the factors behind our failings have been legion. Just as the Silver Fox didn't deserve all the credit for our success last season, neither should he be held solely accountable for what's gone wrong this term.

That said, the Silver Fox certainly doesn't look quite so crafty now as he did twelve months ago, or even in September, when Jabba handed him and his staff eight-year deals. Perhaps he's not the magical man-manager we thought he was after all, able to wring the very best out of his players - indeed, at times he didn't seem to know how to make use of what limited resources he did have at his disposal, shoving square pegs into round holes and hoping it might work out. Add to that his apparent abandonment of aesthetically pleasing football, his bemusing persistence with underperforming players (Spidermag and Mr T in particular) and some increasingly puzzling substitutions, and it's little wonder that many fans are calling for the head of a man who kicked off the campaign by shoving an assistant referee and who ended it by banning a newspaper from the club. We're not joining that chorus just yet, but would say that he has a lot of work to do to rebuild public trust.

Home and away

Of all the statistics you could bring into play, one of the most revealing is that we won only two games away from home all season - the first coming at the tail end of January at fellow strugglers Villa, and the second in our final trip on the road against already relegated QPR. But for exceedingly narrow escapes at Everton and Reading in September - when we profited from two disallowed goals and Ba's hand of God respectively - our away record would make for even worse reading.

All that wouldn't have mattered so much had our home form been decent - but sadly it wasn't.
There were lacklustre defeats to West Ham and Swansea on consecutive Saturdays in November, and in January a helping hand offered to Reading, prior to their visit to St James' Park the only other team in the division not to have won on their travels. Even when we looked to have put things right with four consecutive victories on home turf, we then contrived to lose 3-0 to the Mackems (the impact of which was, thankfully, mitigated personally by a new arrival) and, even more appallingly, 6-0 to Liverpool. Factor in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal and we lost our last three home games by scoring none and conceding ten...

* * * * *

Of course, it wouldn't have been Newcastle Utd if the season hadn't been regularly punctuated with tales of tragedy, misfortune, idiocy and farce. 2012/3 had the lot: exits from both the FA Cup and the League Cup at the very first hurdle; former players Kevin Nolan and Damien Duff both proving architects of our downfall; withering, belittling scorn courtesy of a knight of the realm; news of an ethically questionable shirt sponsorship deal; the latest installments in the ongoing adventures of the Lone Ranger - a guilty verdict, a ticking-off for training tardiness, release (at last), another arrest; fans behaving equally as badly before the ill-fated Wigan clash and after the derby disaster; an I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! theme day and a One Direction visit down at the training ground; club-branded onesies and fancy dress...

There were a few highs, admittedly: the consecutive wins over Villa and Chelsea that, together with the influx of fresh faces, suggested that a corner had been turned; those dramatic late victories against Stoke and Fulham secured by Cisse; the later stages of our European campaign, particularly the home win over Anzhi Makhachkala and the gargantuan second-half effort against Benfica in the quarter-final.

But those highs were far outweighed by the lows: losing at home to Reading; soul-crushing defeats at Old Trafford and the Emirates four days apart over the festive period, all the more galling for the fact that we genuinely played well; Wigan away; the cataclysmic home losses to 5under1and and Liverpool. Even the victory over QPR that ensured our safety was a joyless affair, the final whistle greeted with a sense of exhausted relief rather than a fist punch in the air.

So how to assess the last two campaigns together, then? Have they both been freakish, just in very different ways? Are we actually a solid mid-table team in very good disguise? Perhaps next season will give us some kind of clue. There's clearly much to be done before then, though - but I'll leave it to Paul to outline a vision of what might (or needs to) happen over the summer.

View from the Home End: end of season reflections

(Image courtesy of richbunce)

This time last year, I reviewed our 2010-11 campaign and pronounced myself relatively content with how things had unfolded. While our season tailed off following Rocky’s departure, a twelfth-placed finish (even if it could have been so much better, but for a final-day collapse against WBA) marked a good return to the Premier League.

So what to make of this season, where we’ve managed to climb seven places to fifth despite the loss of some of last year’s star men? Obviously, like pretty much every single Toon fan, I’ve been delighted with the way this year has panned out, with the joy of seeing us play some great football, score some truly spectacular goals and win regularly added to the fact we’ve looked a happy and contented ship off the park.

While we may have shipped out some of last season’s star performers, with Nolan, ASBO and Jose Enrique all departing before August was finished, the reality is that in signing Dreamboat, Demba Ba and Davide Santon we did more than enough to replace the departees before they were missed, and when Papiss Cisse was added to the mix in January we had the icing to a very appetising cake. While the new boys all did well, with Dreamboat, Ba and Cisse all bedding in quickly and effectively (and Santon enjoying an encouraging first season if at times finding himself caught out by opponents), the other really pleasing development this year has been the performance of some of the fringe players.

Last year, Ben suggested that he wouldn’t be upset if Perchinho and Raylor both moved on to pastures new, but as the season unfolded first Raylor (as Jose Enrique’s replacement) and latterly Perchinho (as a versatile full-back, centre-half and central midfielder) have both shown that they weren’t out of the depth. Though we’ve been critical of Perchinho in particular, credit where it's due to a player who has clearly worked very hard on the training ground to the point where seeing his name on the team sheet became reassuring rather than alarming. Special mention also to Danny Guthrie, who had a fitful season in and out of the side, and looks destined for the exit door, but whose performances this year were always excellent – outshining his more feted midfield companions on occasion.

Of the signings made last summer, only Obertan Kenobi and Sylvain Marveaux have really failed to shine, the former despite plenty of chances to do so and the latter due to an injury which kept him out for the vast majority of the season. However, though they may not have excelled, one player whose black and white career has taken off this season is HBA who went from being a slightly erratic and defensively suspect winger to one of the most exciting attacking players I’ve witnessed, forming part of a dynamic front three with Ba and Cisse as the season reached its conclusion. Not only did he score two spectacular solo goals, against Blackburn and Bolton, but his all-round play and work rate has also improved and he deservedly joined Dreamboat in the French squad for Euro 2012.

Spidermag too has shown his value to the team, featuring in more games than any other player, either as a winger, a full-back or in a more withdrawn holding midfield role – showing composure and hardwork in equal measure, and along with his mate and captain, Sideshow Bob, the two have both provided strong leadership on and off the pitch (the latter’s performances deservedly seeing him picked in the PFA Premier League team of the season).

Twelve months ago, we speculated that the choice for the Silver Fox was which of our young keepers would go on loan and which would be Steve Harper’s understudy.  With Fraser Forster enduring a fairly torrid pre-season match, Tim Krul well and truly won that battle, but also succeeded in displacing Harper as our first-choice keeper with aplomb, with Harps forced out on loan himself in a bid to keep his hand in. The only worry in this is that, with Harper surely on his way out, second-choice 'keeper Rob Eliott has a lot to do to convince anyone that he’s capable of filling Krul’s gloves should his services be required.

Off the pitch, Jabba and Llambiarse did their best to unsettle things with their crass rebranding of St James’ Park (prompting a fan-led mock funeral). However, that aside, they backed their manager well in the transfer market and the accounts suggest we’re well placed to satisfy the financial fair play requirements when they take effect.

The only downer this season is the failure of our youngsters (with the obvious exception of Krul) to come through. While Little Big lad showed early promise before injury took it toll, the Lone Ranger consistently proved himself to be intent on a path of career destruction and the likes of Tamas Kadar and Phil Airey drifted out of the picture altogether.

For now though, as we bask in a sense of a season well done, the perennial question remains; namely how many of this seasons star performers will still be with us at the end of August? While the Europa League may prove an attractive proposition for some, it also carries with it the headaches of regular Thursday/Sunday matches (something the Silver Fox is acutely aware of) and if we’re to enjoy success we’ll doubtless need to add greater depth to the playing squad. However, that’s a discussion for another day.