I Can't Get No Enthusiasm, Let Alone Satisfaction

Four games into the season* and still I can’t garner any enthusiasm. Usually I’m eagerly anticipating the start of the new season from the start of July, looking at who we might bring in and hoping that this will be the season when we finally ‘turn a corner’. But not this season.

I’m got a quarter of a century of experience of Coventry City failing to deliver, but even so every season I’d await the fixtures and news of signings with baited breath. And while I’ve still paid attention to what’s going on during the close season, I’ve not really been that bothered if there was any news or not.

I know the rot set in last season under Coleman, with his dull defensive tactics, but he went almost immediately after the season ended. Boothroyd was his replacement and that did nothing to enthuse me. I don’t think he’s a particularly bad manager, I just don’t find him inspiring.  

I hoped some signings might rekindle the fire, but it seems AB’s been told to do his main shop at Aldi (although by potentially picking up Marlon King he seems to have decided to trawl the bins outside Aldi too). To be fair to him he’s done alright with the small budget given him, filling out the squad. But it does smack slightly of quantity over quality in my opinion. 

So the first game of the season arrived, still lacking enthusiasm. Surely the excitement of matchday would see me back to my old self? We beat Portsmouth pretty convincingly too, but again I didn’t feel as excited as I normally would. We always start a season well, and Portsmouth struggled to field a team, let alone a squad and are crippled by debt, so I was expecting them to do quite badly this year anyway, and be potential relegation fodder. Morecambe was hardly going to relight my fire without an absolute landslide, and with AB choosing to send out a second string and the academy that was never on the cards. 

The draw at Watford was very good given we were 2-0 down with about a minute to play, but that didn’t gloss over the fact we were terrible for the best part of 75-80 minutes. It reminded me of some of the results Coleman got, which just managed to paper over some quite alarming cracks. And then the defeat against Millwall, which was slightly disappointing, more so for the negative manner in which we seemed to approach the game rather than the result. 

Perhaps I’ve just finally got fed up of spending money on watching the same predictable underachievement every year? Maybe the near-collapse of once well run clubs like Hull and Portsmouth has made me realise that even if the dream of promotion is achieved, the financial pressures of ridiculous wages and transfer fees to stay part of that elite, let alone achieving something in it, is actually more of a nightmare and not something to be aspired to, in which case what’s the point? Whatever it is, right now I can’t get my mo-jo back, and I’ve got no desire to go and watch a game.

*This article was supplied before the signing of Marlon King, and victory over Bristol City!