Jon Blakely's Canadian Chronicles
Saturday 10 November, 2001
That was then, this is now
Now that the Premier League players are finally starting to leave City in droves, we can start to compare this season's team to the one that took us up those three winters ago.
Of course things must be taken into account such as experience gained in the Premiership versus a extra couple of years on the ages of the players.
In goal Gary Walsh is probably no better or worse than he was in the Promotion Season, despite being dropped lately. Matt Clarke played the majority of games in the Premiership and Walshy probably gained little more than he already knew from his days at Middlesborough and Man United, Aidan Davison definitely remains unchanged. Goalkeeper = EQUAL
In Defence the foursome in the promotion year were Stephen Wright, Darren Moore, Andrew O'Brien and Wayne Jacobs. This season our most common foursome is Gunnar Halle, Robert Molenaar, Andy Myers and Jacobs. Of those I believe that only Halle is an upturn on the four who played 3 seasons ago. Jacobs has now got Premiership experience but he is ageing considerably, despite still being a good player. I would rather have Moore and OB than Molenaar and Myers. Defence = MINUS
The Midfield is still anchored by Stuart McCall and Gareth Whalley. Despite McCall putting on three years, he is still a must until a replacement captain can be found. I would say Whalley has matured as a player and therefore these two come out as a PLUS, Jamie Lawrence is replaced by Eion Jess so that is a PLUS, but that is tempered by the loss of Peter Beagrie. Lee Sharpe is no replacement for Beags and that is a BIG MINUS. If Juanjo turns out to be a success then the midfield overall is PLUS, other than that again a MINUS is scored.
So on to the Attacking positions. Lee Mills and Robbie Blake were as good as any partnership three years ago, except Quinn and Phillips. This year, now that Carbone is long gone, It's down to Ashley Ward, Blake and defender-come-forward Andy Tod. I have to say that Mills and Blake (of three years ago) would walk all over this trio. I think Blake suffered greatly in the contract dispute he had two seasons ago but maybe he is starting to turn the corner. So the Forward line, now, is MINUS.
Other squad members were probably EQUAL three seasons ago, but the promotion squad gets another PLUS as they were more numerous of the required calibre. Lee Todd, Ashley Westwood, Isaiah Rankin, Gordon Watson, Mark Prudhoe
After reporting the possible sale of David Wetherall to a first division rival!! (A club we are in direct competition with) Micheal Wood said on BfB that the club is 'Downsizing' and I personally couldn't think of a better description. The club flirted with the upper echelons of English Football and got scared. The question of where did all the money go still haunts me. The angry response I got from Mr Richmond when I put this very 'mid-table' scenario to him, still haunts me.
So that leaves us against teams that are spending millions and a squad which is increasingly being made up of free transfers, it seems that the pot of gold which is the Premiership, was, for two years only, spread among 19 clubs and City missed out on the lottery that should have kept us with Premiership players for at least more years after relegation.