The Weekly Bobbins: Future Starts Slow

Our latest away win at Northampton Town left me with conflicting feelings. On one hand, they’re exactly the sort of side we should be beating. On the other, aside from two magical moments, we didn’t look particularly impressive.

There’s still a belief among parts of the fanbase that we’re in the playoff mix, but I can’t shake the feeling that we’re miles off what a genuine top-six team looks like. If I stare into that rabbit hole long enough, I can almost convince myself otherwise – but deep down, I doubt our credentials.

We are improving, and this transfer window has been something else – more on that later – but there are still pieces missing. My overriding sense is that this squad doesn’t grow in confidence from game to game. Despite Leam Richardson’s excellent points return since taking over, every match feels like Groundhog Day. The returns are subliminal, not optimal.

We have all watched enough football to know you shouldn’t get too low after a defeat or too high after a win, but this team seems to take that mantra to the extreme.

We’ve all seen moments – like at the weekend – when everything clicks, when it looks fluid, cohesive, almost destined. But that feeling never carries into the next match. It worryingly evaporates.

Maybe the players don’t believe it themselves. Maybe we need to truly batter someone 4-0 or 5-0. Or maybe, as I’ve concluded, this team just isn’t ready yet. Yet conversely, I’m perfectly fine with that.

I’ve said before that the team is built too heavily around Lewis Wing, but the flipside is that he can produce wonderful things – as he did at the weekend with two superb balls for Jack Marriott and new signing Will Keane.

Those passes were different from the aimless punts I take umbrage with. The first came because the play was stretched and Marriott had peeled away from his marker. The second came from a position nobody expected Wing to pop up in to deliver a pin-perfect cross.

This is where he shines in open play, but it happens too infrequently. Still, what would we be without him? Again, these pesky conflicts arise!

Remember where we started

When I think about these moments, about where we are as a unit, and where I think we’ll finish (around eighth), I have to remember where we started under the new ownership: recovering from the abhorrent Dai Yongge era. A fresh start was always going to require something spectacular to deliver a top-six finish straight away.

Despite the owners’ bravado – whether optimistic, misguided or simply too open – I never felt this was the season. Too many sides in this division have spent well, kept Championship-quality players or simply been together longer than we have.

For all those reasons, this isn’t the year. It’s too much, too soon to expect everything to click with a new manager parachuted in mid-season.

We’re not showing the fluidity, swagger or confidence that playoff teams have. I’m sure it will come, but until we sort out the midfield chemistry, we’re unlikely to challenge. Yet, I still want us to look better than we are. Conflict, conflict!

All of that said, the transfer window we’ve just had must be one of the best in recent memory – on paper at least. The permanent signings of Haydon Roberts and Benn Ward look exactly what we needed. The loan additions of Ryan Nyambe, Keane and deadline-day arrival Kadan Young only strengthen that feeling.

We missed out on Kyreece Lisbie, but reacted quickly to bring in Young. That agility from the board alone is encouraging. What Young brings is largely unknown, but if he can perform on a Europa League stage and register an assist, he clearly has something about him.

So yes, it’s a confusing time for this old dog. I’m optimistic about our future, but the future isn’t now.

The new signings look sharp, and just having a left-back doing normal left-back things is a tangible relief. The squad is far stronger than it was in the summer, when we had next to nothing permanent.

But expecting a playoff push this season feels like asking too much, too soon. Richardson himself has stated that he needs a pre-season with the group, and to me, that is no shock.

If I’m being greedy, I want this team to mature into something genuinely beautiful – not scrape into the playoffs on the backs of Marriott and Wing. We need to be more than what we showed at Northampton. And we need more than two transfer windows to prove it.