One of the worst things about the Premier League is that when you lose, you have to wait ages to shake that feeling.
Devoid of Championship-style midweekers, the sting of our Portman Road capitulation lingers. But thankfully we’re getting closer to the weekend and a return to Craven Cottage.
With Hull looking like the best of the three promoted sides (and that’s no mean feat as none look like chumps), Saturday is going to be far from straightforward.
It’s been a tough week. And as is tradition when you’re toiling at the bottom of the Prem, when it rains it pours.
Reports keep circulating that Liverpool are looking at Josh King. We know how the media works: some reporter will have been briefed on this story from someone - the timing is a curious one. But there’s rarely smoke without fire. I’ve no doubt Liverpool are interested in Josh - they’d be stupid if they weren’t. But bar the irritating timing of the piece, it’s a non-story at this stage.
Then there are reports that Thomas Frank is being lined up to replace Arbeloa if he fails to pick up three points from either Hull or Coventry. I’m sorry, but talk about confusion. After spending preseason and the first half-dozen games getting used to Arbeloa-ball, they the players would have to have to change tack completely, switching from Arbeloa-ball to Frank’s more direct, adaptable style. We’ve seen from Spurs that Frank struggles to impose his ideas quickly - the opposite of what we would need.
Amid all these anxiety-inducing reports, the fanbase is firmly split on Arbeloa, with calls for him to go and to stay. Cries from the former camp are probably louder, on balance. But I think we need to hold our nerve.
I just can’t reconcile with the idea of implementing such a step change in the summer - from style of play to recruitment and everything in between - only to get scared and bin it all off after six games.
Traditionally (for us, anyway) changing manager during the season when we’re in danger rarely works. Roy was the obvious outlier. Before that and our more recent disasters, it was a bit more clear cut. We were broadly fine when Chris Coleman succeeded Jean Tigana (six points clear with five to play), and realistically there wasn’t a whole lot left to do when Lawrie Sanchez took the reigns from Cookie either - we were four points clear with five games left.
When you factor in the idea that, actually, the Khans record recruiting managers isn’t actually that great and that you could put forward a convincing argument that they simply got lucky with Marco Silva, and it strengthens the case to stick. (Please, no one bring up Scott Parker in the comments - even I could have got Fulham promoted in 2019-20.)
I share all the concerns already highlighted by the Arbeloa out voices, but I’ve also seen enough positive elements to believe we can shake off this slow start and start climbing the table.
I still believe, at this stage of the season, we have more of a chance of long-term success by holding firm and trusting the process we so extensively bought into during the summer, than we do if we sack it off, apply a bandaid in the form of a firefighter manager, and starting from scratch again ahead of next season. And that’s if any new boss brought in actually manages to keep us up.
Lose on Saturday and it may all be moot anyway. It’s the biggest game we’ve had at the Cottage in a good few years. I hope the boys on the pitch are ready to give everything - and that we’re all up for it in the stands, too. COYW.