Hands up anyone who would be happy to see the end of this dreadful season now? Thought so, me too.
Three managers in six months - this from a club who were once famed for having four managers in 72 years - the end of a short rein for a disruptive, narcissistic, technical director - and the end of three wonderful years in Europe.What more could possibly go wrong, other than relegation? Of course, there has been a welcomed upturn in morale and performance under new head coach Graham Potter, buy hey, he’s given us back-to-back wins for the first time in a year and consecutive clean sheets.
That's a vast improvement for a club who, to date, had conceded 121 goals in the last 65 matches.
Let’s just stop there, pull a veil over the season and wait for the inevitable transfer market circus that occurs whenever David Sullivan is around.
Just another 11 games to go in this instantly forgettable season. Is it going to be as tiresome as the previous matches - or are we going to see the continued rebirth of the club under Potter?
You would hope more of the Potter message. Eight games into his reign now and unpredictable Newcastle are next up at the London Stadium, who we are told are likely to be without Anthony Gordon, Lewis Hall and maybe Alexander Isak.
Now we are all supposed to be showing sympathy to Gordon, who is now suspended from the Carabao Cup Final after that act of rank stupidity to get a red card against Brighton. Gordon is a talented lad, but fits into the sneaky and snide category for me, one of the world’s divers.
I’ve never really forgiven him for that incident with Kalvin Phillips when he threw his leg in front of the on-loan midfielder as he was in the act of clearing the ball, winning a dubious penalty that set us on the way to a 4-3 defeat having been 3-0 ahead last season. And no, clearly I’m not bitter.
So it’s another week watching the football world pass us by, another week peering in from the outside. There have been far too many of these days of inaction.
Out of all the cups, consigned to history in Europe. And when the ever-reliable Tomas Soucek is asked what the target is now, he understandably struggles a bit and then says, "finishing above Spurs". That just about sums us up at the moment, level on points with Spurs and Manchester United, two supposed ‘top six’ clubs giving us all plenty of laughs at present.
Here we are, safe from relegation at least and, if we are lucky, we may even catch Crystal Palace as we approach our final 11 games of an instantly forgettable season.
It’s the lack of Europe that still gripes for me, and plenty of our fans. I noticed one guy who had been watching Aston Villa fans enjoying beer in the sun in Brugge this week, admitting how much he missed those European away days.
And don’t get me started on the way Villa - European virgins 18 months ago while we were European champions - have surged past us and are out of sight and heading for the Champions League's last 16.
It just shows what good investment, good owners and good transfer dealings can do for a club. All our board seem to be doing is moaning about the lack of European cash and the damaging effect it is having on our finances.
We are likely to be upwards of £65m in the red this financial year, a far cry from being £50m plus in the black - admittedly with the help of the Declan Rice money - last time around.
But I don’t want to be my usual boring, gloomy self all the time. Potter has arrived and been a breath of fresh air. We can all see the change in spirit, the atmosphere around the club and the way the players have responded to him.
And if we are going to get anything from this season, watching Potter install his own style and systems could be illuminating.
It’s gone OK up until now, three wins including the outstanding victory at Arsenal, and some decent performances against Chelsea and Villa.
Last weekend saw euphoria over the surprising change of heart by the board over the flawed concessions decision of last summer, and the freezing of season ticket prices. That I’ll return to later.
It was the almost-forgotten win over Leicester City that initially riled a few, but after more consideration it further underpinned what Potter is all about. "It was a professional performance" was his view on the 2-0 victory over a hapless Leicester, following on from the excellent team performance at Arsenal.
There you could see the structure, planning and concentration of our lads, not always something we’ve seen much of to date.
The Leicester performance, in particular the second half display, written off as boring by some but technically impressive by others. The pace of the game was slower, the defensive organisation too much for Leicester, and we comfortably saw out the victory.
In some ways it looked as if Potter is re-educating the side in how to defend, how to concentrate. It showed just how far the side had fallen from the basics needed at this level.
If we get anything from these last 11 games, you would hope that the team ethos, energy and professionalism we are starting to see, can be established for next season.
And here we are rightly hailing the club’s decision to abandon their flawed concessions policy. Few of us expected such a major change, and it is credit to all the fans groups and their hard-working officials for maintaining their campaign all season.
Maybe the club expected that campaign to fall away, but seemingly 'black balloons matter'. The club seem to be suggesting that this has cost them millions, but there’s too much crying wolf there.
The concessions decision made them around £700,000, and we are not talking of vast amounts by freezing season ticket prices, considering they were increased last summer.
And the cynic in me can see a price hike again in 2026. Maybe they felt they’d had so much flak this season on so many fronts - concessions, poor decision making over appointments and some much overrated transfers that they could do with clawing back some credibility. Or is that me being too kind?
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