The 2nd October Debate

By: Richard Hubbert
Date: 26/10/2001

THIS WEEK, Fred and Bert meet up for a stroll along Cleethorpes beach to discuss the latest goings-on at Blundell Park.

FRED:
Well Bert, it isn't looking good is it?

BERT:
Certainly not mate

FRED:
I mean, what is going on? We have a great start to the season, go and beat Liverpool at Anfield then lose our next 6 league games!

BERT:
Well, Lennie's right, the wheels have certainly fallen off these last few weeks.

FRED:
More like the wheels have gone off Lennie! What is he talking about most of the time?

BERT:
What do you mean?

FRED:
Well, slagging off the team all the time, saying they're not good enough is hardly going to help matters, especially as they're a young team

BERT:
Well, perhaps he's just trying to give them a kick up the backside. They certainly need it. I couldn't see any commitment out there at all. Last Saturday was awful, I mean no-one seemed to try except poor old Danny Coyne!

FRED:
I know what you mean. I feel sorry for him, what, with that shocking defence in front of him.

BERT:
Yeah, at the start of the season the defence looked all-right with Groves and Beharall there. Now this Broomes has come in we've totally gone downhill! We haven't won a league match since he came!

FRED:
That's a bit harsh mate, Broomes has done Ok. He scored the equaliser at Anfield!

BERT:
That's about all he has done. Everyone said he played well on Saturday, but all he was good at doing was going forward. He was all over the place defensively. I say get him out the team and bring back Beharall. He's much more solid.

FRED:
But surely you can't rest the blame all on Broomes and the defence! What about the midfield! They've hardly been on top of their form have they? I mean, Pouton's fallen to bits, as has Campbell, Menno seems scared to tackle, and Butterfield is being his usually dithery self!

BERT:
Too true Fred. We need to keep Boulding wide on the left, get Coldicott fit and in the middle with Pouton and get a decent winger down the right.

FRED:
But where are we going to get a winger from though mate? There's no doubting we need some natural wingers instead of all these central midfield players, but I can't see that happening until we get the defence sorted.

BERT:
It's simple. We have to sell some of our central midfield players. We've got Burnett, Coldicott, Willems, Butterfield, Pouton and Campbell all vying for 2 midfield places, that's just far too many!

FRED:
That's right. The point is we have to sell to bring players in.

BERT:
But who would you sell?

FRED:
Burnett for starters. He's always injured, and probably Willems. Send him back to Amsterdam.

BERT:
Come on Fred! Burnett and Willems aren't bad.

FRED:
Well we don't need them do we? The other problem is we've still got the likes of Raven, Jeffrey and David Smith blocking up the bank balance paying their wages for sitting on their backsides doing nothing!

BERT:
Talking of doing nothing, we can't score either!

FRED:
Probably because they never get the ball Bert!

BERT:
Nah. They do, but they always loose it! Rowan, Jevons and Allen are too similar. I still don't understand why LL bought Jevons in the first place? We have three nippy strikers in Rowan, Allen and Boulding, we didn't need another. We should have bought a big man. A target man.

FRED:
Well what's Livvo here for then?

BERT:
Livvo's great WHEN he plays. But he's always crocked and Lawrence should know that, so he should have bought someone who could be a target man when Livvo wasn't fit.

FRED:
I have to agree with you. It looked OK at the start of the season, when we were scoring, but now, coming up into these winter months there's going to be some hard, hard games and we need our warriors like Livvo back.

BERT:
I agree

FRED:
Well, I've had enough Bert. I'm starting to think that Lennie has well and truly lost the plot. He's made some bad, bad signings that could potentially be good, but are just not producing the goods. He's wasted £250,000 on Jevons when he should have bought a target man, wasted another £160,000 on Willems and most of all he threw away £13,000 a week last season paying a player from China who was no better than our other defender Peter Handyside!

BERT:
Hit the nail on the head there Fred

FRED:
Ultimately, we lost Handyside because he was upset at not being played last season, and now we have not replaced him. Neither did we properly replace Lever when he went or Jack Lester-nearly 2 years on! It's madness!

BERT:
So what would you do Fred if you were Lennie?

FRED:
Sign Beharall and another defender. Get rid of Broomes. Sell Jeffrey, Raven, Smith, Willems and Burnett. Bring in a right/left sided winger and a target man.

BERT:
And what happens if he can't do that Fred?

FRED:
We're going down Bert. We're going down.

Now for the vote...

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