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Jigsaws have their uses. I was never a great fan, but a good mate sent me one recently, 500 pieces to finally rebuild a beautiful picture of the old Boleyn Ground. I bet a lot of you wished that was for real.

It filled a few hours as I recovered from an annoying spell of ill health. Then there are other sorts of jigsaws, like the bi-annual ones that our unloved leader David Sullivan throws together to amuse us all. Just like he is doing now.




Have no doubt that Sullivan is fully in charge, having unceremoniously rid himself of all that director/technical director nonsense. No other chairman does it quite like he does, we are back to the eighties, it seems.

Sometimes the Sullivan system fits, sometimes not. We will have to wait until next Tuesday to discover if all the pieces fit properly.

Trouble is, we’ve seen all this before. Every manager from Avram Grant to our latest incumbent, Nuno Espirito Santo, have been driven crazy with the Sullivan specials, the deals for his agent mates, the cut-priced versions of the players the manager really wanted.

Because of all that, the trust from fans has evaporated long ago. You can never be quite sure what South American unknown will come through the door as one of Sully’s presents to the manager.

And, of course, you are never sure whether he’s saving money, cutting staff or trying to provide players to, invariably, avoid relegation or to take us into the Champions League. And all this in the last two years.

This January is no different. We are awaiting yearly accounts that are expected to see us £100million-plus in debt. We could be planning for relegation and the need to pay back those expensive pay-day loans Sullivan so enjoys. But usually we have Sky money or European proceeds to make those loans go away. It might not be that easy, this time next year.




Now I’m not going to make a habit of this, and you all must have noticed my views on the Sullivan regime, but I feel it’s worth waiting until the end of the window to really assess what has happened. Whether Nuno and his agent mate Jorge Mendes, have had their way with the deals, whether Sullivan has stamped his authority on proceedings or whether it has been a draw!

Nuno got his two strikers straight away, Pablo and Taty - sounds like one of those awful double acts at Eurovision. But they have injected aggression, pressing, graft and pace around up front, all of which we have been sorely missing this term.

At last we have two committed players who are determined to be a real nuisance amongst opponents' defences. And I sense Nuno is not that bothered about their goals output, as long as the two maintain a situation where we are playing 30 yards further up the pitch, leaving Jarrod Bowen, Cry Summerville and the outstanding Mateus Fernandes to work their attacking magic like they did in that exceptional first-half performance against Sunderland.

Since then, Sullivan has produced another punt in Keiber Lamadrid, who won’t it seems be fit enough to play this season and his initial six-month loan has cost around £750,000. A Sullivan deal like we’ve seen often in the past, to limited success.

Lucas Paqueta and James Ward-Prowse are gone, and we’ve cancelled Igor Julio’s loan to free-up two places for loans - a centre-back and Spurs young 'keeper Antonin Kinsky, a 22 year-old Czech with plenty of potential even if he had a difficult start to his career in the Premier League.

On the day that Paqueta and Ward-Prowse departed, Adama Traore arrived initially on a six-month contract, costing around £2.3million. He’s a long term target of Nuno’s, a strong, powerful hard-running winger whose been around the block in the Premier League. He looks a sound acquisition who will give us cover in various forward positions.

Out of the door has also gone Guido Rodriguez, Andy Irving, Luis Guilherme, Niclas Fullkrug and Igor, none of whom were even close to first team action. Five youngsters have gone out on loan and not one has an option to buy, so will all be around next season, whatever division we are in.




Those departures have seen us cut our weekly wage bill by around £500,000, although wages for Pablo, Valentin Castellous and Traore will have cut into that.

Now we wait to see whether Sullivan replaces Paqueta, or quietly banks the cash for a rainy day. Or have we already spent the fee? Only time will tell, but what has been understandably trimming of the squad needs now to be replaced by serious desire to give Nuno more quality for the fight against relegation.

My only real sadness is the departure of Paqueta, who I rated as the most talented, technically gifted player on the books. Of course I realise the drawbacks, the inconsistency, and the damaging issues over his FA charges.

But on his day, he was one of the best players in the country and Manchester City were going to spend £80million on him. All that went out of the window with those FA charges. But he was found not guilty and we must wonder how that deal, and the money from it, would have boosted our own aims to stay in Europe and a European qualification spot on a regular basis.

Now we will never know. The memory for me was that pass for Bowen to score the winner in Prague, you can’t take that away from him and us. Only three of the starting side in Prague are still with the club - Alphonse Areola, Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen. Losing Paqueta and losing all those players in under three years says a lot about where we are now.

Sullivan has a lot to do to find the pieces in his jigsaw to salvage those dreams. I prefer to remember Paqueta at his best as a European winner of beautiful talent. Thanks for the memories, Lucas.

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