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Blue tinted optimist⭐🦐
In my 37 years of following SUFC, there have been two distinct periods where the club has gone in for "quality" players on good money. On each occasion the management were applauded for showing great ambition... and each occasion ended in absolute disaster and nearly killed the club we love.
Occasion 1 - 1983-4. Peter Morris was manager and the Blues were in the old Div 3 (league one now). The season started a bit iffy but then we brought in Billy Kellock from Div 1 (Prem) Wolves. The team blew hot and cold but when they clicked they destroyed sides. The early part of that season saw a 6-1 victory at Scunthorpe followed by 2 successive 3-0 defeats, one at home to Exeter and the other away at Burnley. Then a 3-0 victory over Orient, a 2-0 reverse at Bolton but then the peak of that season; a 6-0 thumping of Brentford at the Hall to put Blues up to 17th but as the team were beginning to gel the feeling was that we had loads of class and would soon climb up the table. How wrong we were. Kellock and his overpaid cronies lapsed into the comfort zone, picking up their wages without putting in the effort... Morris was replaced by the late great Bobby Moore as manager who failed to halt the slide, and look at some of the results we had that season - Sheff Utd 0-5, Gillingham 1-5, Plymouth 0-4, Millwall 0-4... we finished in 22nd and got relegated (despite ex England international Trevor Whymark being in the team). The following 2 seasons were the darkest ever in the clubs history.
Occasion 2 - The Ronnie Whelan era. Please, please please everyone ask themselves why Mike Marsh (Galatasary), Lars Unger (Fortuna Dusseldorf), £1m rated Andy Rammell, US International Mike Lapper, and ex-Celtic players Paul Byrne and Mark McNally want to ply their trade at Roots Hall? Two answers - a) money, and b) an easy life, both which they had in abundance during that spell that saw Blues lose their Div 1 status, and go straight through div 2 to the bottom league, which we have only just clambered out of.
So, frankly, I have no desire to go down that route again, and am only interested in playeres who want to play for this club. We will be a far more stable and successful outfit with a team of journeymen and youngsters than we will with a team of prima donnas and famous has beens.
Just remember, before they came to Southend, Collymore, Powell, Butler, Austin, Edinburgh and Prior were all up and coming or players with points to prove having been discarded onto the scrapheap from elsewhere. Chris Powell was with Aldershot, for Gods sake! And they all blossomed under us, went on to play at Prem and in some cases International level.
So for me you can keep Luke Beckett, Neil Harris, Shaun Goater et al... bring on players we've never heard of who want to play for us, like Barrett, Eastwood and Gower.
Tilly and Brush haven't got one wrong yet. I trust their judgement.
Occasion 1 - 1983-4. Peter Morris was manager and the Blues were in the old Div 3 (league one now). The season started a bit iffy but then we brought in Billy Kellock from Div 1 (Prem) Wolves. The team blew hot and cold but when they clicked they destroyed sides. The early part of that season saw a 6-1 victory at Scunthorpe followed by 2 successive 3-0 defeats, one at home to Exeter and the other away at Burnley. Then a 3-0 victory over Orient, a 2-0 reverse at Bolton but then the peak of that season; a 6-0 thumping of Brentford at the Hall to put Blues up to 17th but as the team were beginning to gel the feeling was that we had loads of class and would soon climb up the table. How wrong we were. Kellock and his overpaid cronies lapsed into the comfort zone, picking up their wages without putting in the effort... Morris was replaced by the late great Bobby Moore as manager who failed to halt the slide, and look at some of the results we had that season - Sheff Utd 0-5, Gillingham 1-5, Plymouth 0-4, Millwall 0-4... we finished in 22nd and got relegated (despite ex England international Trevor Whymark being in the team). The following 2 seasons were the darkest ever in the clubs history.
Occasion 2 - The Ronnie Whelan era. Please, please please everyone ask themselves why Mike Marsh (Galatasary), Lars Unger (Fortuna Dusseldorf), £1m rated Andy Rammell, US International Mike Lapper, and ex-Celtic players Paul Byrne and Mark McNally want to ply their trade at Roots Hall? Two answers - a) money, and b) an easy life, both which they had in abundance during that spell that saw Blues lose their Div 1 status, and go straight through div 2 to the bottom league, which we have only just clambered out of.
So, frankly, I have no desire to go down that route again, and am only interested in playeres who want to play for this club. We will be a far more stable and successful outfit with a team of journeymen and youngsters than we will with a team of prima donnas and famous has beens.
Just remember, before they came to Southend, Collymore, Powell, Butler, Austin, Edinburgh and Prior were all up and coming or players with points to prove having been discarded onto the scrapheap from elsewhere. Chris Powell was with Aldershot, for Gods sake! And they all blossomed under us, went on to play at Prem and in some cases International level.
So for me you can keep Luke Beckett, Neil Harris, Shaun Goater et al... bring on players we've never heard of who want to play for us, like Barrett, Eastwood and Gower.
Tilly and Brush haven't got one wrong yet. I trust their judgement.