Mrs Sam gets Scrubbing

The fans came out in droves during the week to save the club either the cost of cleaners for the seats or more likely the fans cleaning the seats as they took their places on Saturday and so avoided a plethora of complaints.

Amongst them was Lloyd Sams 2nd mum, who has sponsored lloyds shirt for the last 7 seasons. Scrubbing away was the final phase of Mrs Sam's separation therapy after said Mr Sam departed to northern parts.

CAFC Seats Clean Up (Julie Meadows) - 03/08/2010 from phil webster on Vimeo.

Boo boys for the new boys

The new boys in the Championship, Norwich lost at home in the first game of the 2010 / 2011 season and from the sound of the radio were booed off the pitch.  No pleasing some carrot crunchers,this time last season they were a league below and conceding 7 goals.  And yet they finished, by a mile top of the Division.

Tomorrow its our turn to enter the fray,or let Parkie release his dogs of war.  As stated here and on many other blogs Parkies recruitment appears to be pretty good based on his budget,  However before we get too excited, lets not forget the talent that has left, whoever they were, nor that players are not available for free for charitable reasons.  Doherty, McCullogh Abbot and Jackson were players that held down first team places in their previous teams, but others have come to us without track record - Fry, looking to resurrect their careers - Reid, Akpoe, Martin.  Every player is a gamble, people forget the utter rubbish that Fergusson brought to Old Trafford, I can't even remember most of them Djemba Djemba, plus others and don't get me on the subject of £120 million and Rafa Benitez.

With the exception of Matt Spring, no player has had a bad word about Parkie and I believe he has the ability to restore these players to their potential.  However,it may not happen tomorrow, I think we will win, but it could go wrong and if it does then I hope our boo boys, you know the ones that boo our players before they have even kicked a ball,give the players a chance and leave it for a game or two, lets get behind the team,behind the manager and to paraphrase David Steel, lets go to the Valley and prepare for promotion!!

Portsmouth 1 HMRC O

A late own goal by her majesty's collectors of taxes allowed championship side Portsmouth continue to ply its trade in the football league.  HMRC are not appealing the judgement so Pompey can enter into the new season safe in the knowledge that they have averted rejection of their CVA and acceptance of of 20p in the pound to their creditors, with the exception of their football debts which are paid in full.

As a football fan I am pleased that Pompey are to remain in existence, but is it fair that multi millionaires such as Glen Johnson and Peter Crouch should receive full payment, whilst a builder who worked on their dressing rooms should only get 20% of what is owed to him and get this its paid over 5 years, same with St John Ambulance and of course the revenue.  Now none of us like the revenue, but in the main we have to pay them, so why do football clubs not do so?

In November the revenue will go to court against the Premier league to prevent the preferred creditor rule, I sinserely hope that they win,but that said it won't be the big clubs thsat get squeezed and thats the upsetting thing, as ever the big clubs will get away with it whilst the small ones are sacrificed and go to the wall.

Let loose the dogs of war.....

But who are the dogs of war? With 48 hours to go, we have not got a full deck of cards and worryingly enough, the vital parts of the puzzle the strikers still are missing the vital piece, a 20 goal a season striker.

Last season we saw Norwich through Holt and Leeds through Beckford amongst others gain promotion with strikers. Millwall in the run in had strikers hitting the back of the net, whereas we failed to have a prolific scorer and eventaully missed out on promotion by probably three goals.

Parkie has done exceptionally well, I cannot disagree with a single signing, we appear to have a solid defence, the retention of Semedo, Racon and re introduction of Jackson and Reid along with Mcormack, gives us a balance that will hopefully, and I believe it will, make up for the loss of Bailey and Sam.

Abbot is a good addition and hopefully will chip in with goals but he is not going to be the main man, nor is Akpoe or numberless Tuna. Nor will having only two strikers strike fear into the hearts of our opponents.
We need to be patient Parkie says, but we also need a team and our fortunes for the forthcoming season cannot be determined untilthe jigsaw is put together in a bit more detail.

We could be mid table, we could be lower table,we could be top. On Saturday Parkie will unleash his dogs of war, I just hope they are rottweillers and not french poodles.