On the 7th May, just over a month and a half ago, we were all celebrating our winning of the Championship and looking forward to the Premiership next season with thoughts of how much different it was going to be this time with the backing of the Drumaville boys and their magic carpet pilot Niall Quinn.
Those celebrations already appear to have become a distant memory with the clamour for new signings growing and growing with each passing day and for some reason amongst a fair few their seems to be an air of despondency starting to take over.
Why?
A famous Irish family brewed themselves a lovely beer called Guinness and over the years it became synonymous via adverts with the saying “Good things come to those who wait”.
Our own Irish “family” are following the motto themselves, and already on a few occasions Niall Quinn has stated that we are backing Roy Keane and we will try to secure the signings that he wants in order to give ourselves a firm footing in the Premiership. So why doubt the man?
This time last summer we were still in a complete state of limbo with talk of the takeover still dragging on, yet it happened. Then we had all the talk of a new manager with the rumours of various people such as Martin O’Neill and Fat Sam Allardyce despite us being a Championship side and despite the late appointment, Niall was indeed true to his word and wouldn’t settle for what he thought would be settle best and secured the services of what he thought was the best available. The rest of last season is now history.
We’re still over a month away from the start of our Premiership return, and so far we have signed one player for £3.5m, which is almost the total amount of our transfers when Mick McCarthy was trying to prepare us for a return to the Premiership and there will be more signings to follow.
That one signing we have made is one more than Aston Villa, Blackburn, Derby, Everton, Fulham and Man City have made so far. Other clubs such as Arsenal, Reading and West Ham have also only made one signing so far so including ourselves that is half of the Premiership that have signed one player or less to date.
As for people expecting us to sign World Renowned players…! Start to realise that no matter whom we have as manager we have to establish ourselves first and foremost in the Premier before we can move onto the next level.
Even if we do sign younger players with potential then we have taken a different route to that with McCarthy who was forced to shop for run of the mill Championship standard players and buying younger players with potential is generally always a good investment as in the long run you can still get a return if needed.
How many of us would like to have Spurs squad at the moment?
Well its only a few years ago that they were snapping up the likes of Dawson, Lennon, Huddlestone etc who were young and unproven players at the time and they have built on that in the long term so its not a bad formula to follow.
We have openly discussed our interest in David Nugent and it appears that we are in with a good chance of signing him and for me it would be another great signing to add to Greg Halford and I have no doubts that Roy Keane will have earmarked some more experienced players to get the right blend of youth and experience.
Patience is indeed a virtue and Good things can come to those who wait as Guinness always proves (when the barmaids know how to pour it that is) so sit back and relax and let Niall take the strain.