The Resurrection Starts Here?

Opinion: Our Verdict on a Season That Broke Us and a Summer That Might Fix Us

Forty-five minutes. Two thousand seven hundred seconds. That's allegedly how much time Paul Hornby had to celebrate our promotion back to the EFL until Bolton made the first phone enquiry for Evatt. Then it began again.

Football, post triumph or tragedy, needs to regenerate fast. So, at the business end of the season, even as the Premiership hyperbole approaches a juddering climax and we await the Champions League; even as World Cup venues and opponents are pored over, overhyped or dismissed, it's time to go to work.

Relegation statements aren't too much fun to write, I'd imagine, and ours certainly wasn't. But it was perhaps more straightforward and heartfelt than many we'd been subjected to in the last twelve months. For a jaundiced, wounded support and disappointed town, this needed backing up.

Iain Wood was curtly defenestrated in a statement that was refreshingly blunt/classless, delete as appropriate. Though over the piece there were successes, you can't run an organisation which has misfired so spectacularly and expect to retain your role. For me, the dreadful recruitment is more of a collective responsibility; by all accounts Paul Gallagher's appointment was down to him. As was presiding over a falling off a cliff in some of the professional dressing room expectations and unity. Add in the training ground, much championed a few years back but clearly not fit for purpose, and a factor in our injuries.

The search began and various rumours and rumbles around the backroom/boardroom abounded, mostly nonsense but as usual centred around local characters the board seem utterly blind to blaming for why the club leaks like a sieve. Thankfully, we seemed not to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and erased all trace of any work that had been done in the last five years. That said, the removal of much of the backroom staff was a no-brainer, as was the appointment of Mark Leather.

We needed a manager early and a realisation that a 'Director of Football' had become part of the problem. This appears to have happened and has allowed us to go after what, on paper, looks like a decent appointment. There has been some sort of process and Adam Murray seems a good appointment. His win ratio is impressive and he knows the level. He's clearly ambitious. He likes big folk that run and force others into mistakes, which is a reasonable strategy. He has an interesting background and a sense of inner ruthlessness and conviction (some acquired personally as well as professionally).

Of course there are a few negatives, as forty-eight players last season is eye-wateringly Coxian, and there were some rumbles from Kiddy fans that he doesn't respond well to criticism. For this, however, we need to be better as a support as much as anything. We've got to break the hysterical cycle here and hold our nerve. Look where the alternative has led us all, from boardroom to terraces.

In terms of the retained list, we are not so much hamstrung as kneecapped after a punishment beating. Eighteen remain, as likely fed up of us as we are of them in many cases. Sifting through all this is a mammoth task which AM has to set to with a will. Thank Cowps, they will at least be cheaper.

It's pointless talking about what we would like to happen. Contracts rightly exist to protect people's jobs, however frustrating it feels. Despite some desiring to hang on to MJ Williams and jettisoning the rest into outer space, it's not what's going to happen. A big part of next steps will be transforming and re-programming some bruised and directionless footballers; some of whom are theoretically more than capable of playing well in the National League. After the pre-season paint job, we'll need to get behind that.

In terms of departures, both Niall Canavan and Sam Foley have served us well and go with our thanks for some great moments, as well as regrets about the disaster of the last year. Canavan has come in for some heavy, and in my opinion probably deserved, criticism but ultimately both men have been two of the best players we had during our EFL visit and, once the dust settles, will be remembered very fondly. Sam Foley: a Rolls Royce of a midfielder and a human. As for the others, ironically Mahoney and Walker will attract suitors, Hemmings may do OK down a level or two as he winds down, and McDonald might have been invited back had we not needed to move at least some on.

In the middle of any relegation and, here, operating in the EFL with the smallest back-of-house team at a club, has at least meant they won't suffer as much as many, hopefully. And there are small but significant signs that they are being listened to.

A great easy win was putting a few hundred local kids onto the pitch for a junior clubs and a girls' tournament. This, as well as generating a little income from adult games, raised spirits. A good start for the community side, who need strengthening rather than pruning. Best of luck to them.

Another, more surprising move was dropping season ticket prices. Most would have been satisfied with a freeze… but it's showed bold leadership, especially the free tickets for under-fourteens. The decision to designate over-14s as able to attend without an adult, on a season ticket under a hundred quid, is excellent. Now let them get on with supporting the club and making a racket.

Then there's our anniversary. Time to look forward as well as back. Some of the early signs of the club's marketing, branding and commemoration look good and there are lots of events being planned jointly with the Trust, fanzine, club historians etc. that can bring everyone back together. Again, something to tap into as we turn that momentum around, and which can be used as a focus all next season.

So as we settle for lesser football fixes such as the Premiership finals and the World Cup, we can console ourselves that by the time the sun sets over New York on July 19th and Donald Trump has been huckled out of the winning team's photo, we will be back on our journey.

Hope, and Barrow Soccer, spring eternal.

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