Don't Mind Me, It's The Heat (Mostly)

Sure, it's the quiet-time of the footballing calendar.  I get that.  No World Cup or Euro's.  There's some kind of "Club World Cup" going on somewhere, but God alone knows what that's all about.  Back in the real world clubs around our level are busy horse-trading for players to pose on their social media cheerily holding a scarf or shirt of their new employer.  As it's meant to be I suppose.  These days there's also the boring interviews to complete, when players have to dredge-up some genuine-sounding reason to sign for Peterborough Sports beyond the truth of "they've paid me a stupid amount of money to play in front of 300 f*cking people".  Or, our new Manager, turning a getting-to-know-you-interview into a cure for clinical insomnia.

Maybe it's just me.  Perhaps the disappointment of losing the Play-Off Final to the pointless skanks of Telford is finally hitting me.  Or the nagging thought that last season was it - that was our BIG chance of getting back into the National League and we blew it.  Blew it to the noncy-London-overspill of sodding Bedford Town for crying out loud!  Oh, and the heat of course.

Or is it the niggling feeling we've made an enormous mistake getting rid of a Manager who gave us our best season for a decade and for why?  I think we all reached the conclusion that he fell out with the Club owners because they were overly handsy when it came to the playing side.  If so, why quit on us?  Was it so bad having George and Fabio saddling Lavery with a few players he didn't want or ask for?  Just don't pick them.  It worked last season!

It is also dispiriting seeing an exciting young player like Luca leave, while re-employing the grimly dependable George Forsyth who was worth a punt when we were struggling, but wouldn't have got a sniff of making the starting XI last season.  A club showing true vision would create a midfield around Luca, not look to loan him, bench him and then get rid of him.

And what of our owners?  Again, the boredom and heat is busy besetting me with niggling worries.  Do they realise just how monumental last season was?  Do they honestly believe the gates will hold up the same next season?  Are they thinking - even for a second - of banking on a comparable FA Cup run?  Do they realise how penny-pinching they are coming across with constant little add-ons, changes, extra costs and price increases.  If they didn't make enough money from the most successful season since Rockingham Road, they are NEVER going to generate enough income.  No matter how much they squeeze the loyal few.  And, as for that new home shirt.....

Anyway, as I stated earlier, don't mind me.  I'm bored, hot and not being wowed by the club's business so far.  Who knows, a bit of drizzle, a few games and a Hollyhead interview under 2-minutes long and I'm sure I'll be as good as gold.

Hot, hot, hot.  In every sense.....!

The Poppies in Pictures this week

So far this week in Poppyland.....

New Poppies coach invented a welcome cure for insomnia with a
13 minute interview that felt like 13 hourszzzz....  

The club unveiled possibly the worst home kit ever laid before the most
critical and expectant supporters in football, with predictable results. 
Fussy, confused and frankly annoying, but enough of us lot!  
Seriously though, it is difficult to understand how this design made it to
the final choice unless all of the other options included images of engorged genitalia.

Leon Loboit has chosen to risk following in the footsteps
of Leroy May, Recky Carter and, more recently, Jonnie Edwards
and put his free-scoring reputation on the line by signing for 
the club known in non-league circles as "the strikers graveyard." 

Another Regeneration that leaves the punters underwhelmed

The two worst kept secrets in the country were both given official airings this week, with Simon Hollyhead becoming the new Dr Who and Ncuti Gatwa being sacked by the Poppies.  Or something.  Either way, the nation's two most demanding fandoms were all of a froth.

As ever, the Poppies-twittersphere was ablaze with the full gamut of reactions from "Who" to "WTF" over the appointment of Hollyhead to the most prestigious role on British TV - following in the esteemed time-travelling footsteps of luminaries such as Tom Baker, David Tennant and Andy Leese.

George and Fabian were full of praise for their new appointment, fully raiding their well-thumbed AI generated Thesaurus in search of positive words and phrases they hadn't already used on Richard Lavery right up until the point they forced his regeneration.

And the owners are looking ahead to the forthcoming season of the long-running show by promising many exciting adventures in time and space against regular baddies like The Weeping Alvechurch, The Spalding Devils, Stamfordalek and the Cybarwell-Men as well as returning enemies - Needham Masters.  

And I'd better stop this sad-as-f*ck article right there as I'm now boring even myself.

"....My time at Latimer Park has come to an end....."