Before I took a break for the summer, the last thing I wrote last season was that there had not been much to get excited about.

It was a kind of ‘phoney war’ time where there were plenty of rumours but few facts and we had yet to see all the signings that followed.

I’m afraid that I still feel pretty much the same today – not much to get excited about.  Most of those that have come in are hardly names that set the pulses racing.  Even Barazite from Arsenal was one of those that got people saying “Bara – who?”.

More worryingly, the expected exodus didn’t happen; those that did go, mostly went in the form of loans, which tells its own story – no-one wants to take the risk of taking on some of Billy Davies’ failures.  There is still a fair amount of dead wood drawing their pensions at Pride Park and the sooner we can shift them off the payroll the better, and many fans would include the blond one with the Bling car in that category.

However, we have not yet seen all of the incomers – Pereplotkins, Zadkovich and Prijovic have yet to emerge, while Dickinson has been out on loan.  Sterjovski has yet to show his face regularly – something that mystifies my fellow columnist Daniel J.

Arguably the biggest name of all, Kazmierczak, hailing from Porto no less, has signally failed to impress or even make his impact and this has opened the door for Miles Addison to make a claim for the midfield holding position.

So there is more to come.  And we can expect more movement – outwards more than inwards.

No manager can succeed with every signing that is made – even Ferguson with his untold millions has made the occasional blooper – Ralph Milne and William Prunier – anyone?

It is likely that Paul Jewell will have made his bloopers – they will emerge as the season unfolds, and we will see more outgoings as we go along, and there may well be some surprises.  For me, the biggest so far has been the blond one – much as I detested him – I did expect someone with his in-your-face attitude to be out there battling away and generally giving his all and geeing up the lads.  Apart from one game against Man Utd, he has played as if he were one of BD’s leftovers.

More importantly, are those that do succeed and Saturday’s match (which I saw in the flesh – oh joy!) gives some evidence that on the whole PJ has made some reasonably good decisions.  I went fearing a defeat (a friend predicted a 3–1 win for QPR) and was surprised to see that far from QPR battering away at us, most of the play was in their half.  The first half was summed up astutely by my female companion – we can’t score. 

Even though the second half was more even, we scored and then Tito finished things off which made me (along with a lot of people) a very happy soul indeed.

But I have to say that I totally agree with PJ’s assessment that we are getting better – the underlying message being there is still a long way to go.  There was precious little football on display.  Cloughie (whose biography by Duncan Hamilton* I read this week) would have been dismayed by the amount of London grime the ball gathered in its time in the air.  Far too often someone with enough time passed to the wrong shirt, or to an empty space – indicative of a hurried mentality.  Barazite may well prove the most important loan signing as he was prepared to take his time or make his own time, and even though he got caught in possession at times (which I felt was partly due to lack of movement by other players and partly due to over-ambition), he showed an ability to keep his eyes up.

We also at least battled away – both Green and Addison are not afraid of getting hurt or hurting others – and the Championship is all about scuffling away with a bit of neat football here and there.

So I see some hope emerging from the remnants of BD’s disastrous tenure at Pride Park but I predict it will take at least the whole of this season before we start to see some real progress.


* Provided you don’t kiss me – Twenty years with Brian Clough: Duncan Hamilton.

Photo: Action Images

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