I couldn't make it onto the podcast this week so took to the keyboard instead as it's 4 months to the day since Wembley and we couldn't really be further from feeling like we did then. Any views or opinions are my own.
Firstly, go and listen to this week's podcast. A class episode from the lads - https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/rochdale/news/66820/rochdaleafc.com-podca
Scrolling back through your WhatsApps can be enlightening. I remember being absolutely buzzing when Ian Watson was even being linked and remember the podcast group chat all being massively in favour of him coming in. He'd done well at South Shields and built up experience at Gateshead, Carlisle and MK Dons, albeit in an assistant role. He was an exciting prospect when we could have gone down the route of replacing Jim McNulty with someone who'd had bags of league experience but was out of work and therefore had failed somewhere. This seemed preferable to that. Someone who was hungry to succeed higher up the food chain. Something like Stockport had done with McNulty, it could be said, albeit South Shields had just fallen short in the playoffs in their quest to get promoted from the National League.
Watson was appointed along with Carl Magnay on the 10th June on a three-year contract, exactly a month after one of the greatest days in our club's history, a play-off final victory at Wembley Stadium, on penalties, having equalised in the 96th minute after being 2-0 down on 78 minutes. A script that Hollywood couldn't have written any better. And we were back into the Football League, where we spent 102 years before being relegated in 2023. We were back where we belong!
A busy summer was obviously going to lay ahead with recruitment but, given the club had managed to tie down quite a few important first-team players to contracts during last season, it seemed like we had a good core of players already there to build on. Losing Kyron Gordon was going to be a big one, as he'd been so influential in winning promotion, and the returning loanees were going to be tough to replace. Players like Oli Whatmuff, fresh from his Wembley heroics, and Callum Perry, who had magnificently replaced Sam Beckwith while he was out injured.
Jim McNulty had announced the released list before departing, but all released players, with the exception of maybe Aidan Barlow and Joe Pritchard, were expected to go and, while it was debated among the fanbase regarding those two especially, they've since joined Altrincham in the National League and Radcliffe in the National League North.
Watson, with a League Two budget, was going to be well backed, but it was somewhat surprising when it took nearly three weeks to announce our first summer signing, a returning Cian Hayes. What a signing that was! Fans buzzing, but rumours had started to circulate prior to that that Laurence Maguire, brother of Harry, was joining Rochdale, and ITK accounts that are generally always right had said as much. But it was nearly two weeks before we announced the signing, and it had been because he'd been injured. A signing I was looking forward to, but I was mindful that he'd only played a handful of games the previous season due to injury as well. Still, happy with the signing on paper.
Will Jenkins signed from Watson's previous club South Shields and we were going into our first pre-season game with three new signings in Hayes, Maguire and Jenkins, but the team at FC United was one with academy players, four trialists, including two keepers, and only one new signing, as Hayes and Maguire missed out through injury. We lost the game 2-0 and I remember thinking, it's only pre-season, nowt to worry about yet. You're not allowed to be worried in pre-season. It was the same night as Spain v France in the World Cup semi-final and one of the podcast lads couldn't get his head around me prioritising FC United over watching that!
We played a 4-2-3-1 system, which is a massive change to what the squad was used to under Jim McNulty, who played a back three all season. Chats were ongoing as we discussed whether we had the personnel to play a back four, as we were evidently still heavily reliant on captain Ethan Ebanks-Landell, who had struggled in a back four in our relegation season and was now three years older and had done well in a back three at a lower level.
The squad went to Spain next and announced a couple of loan signings while we were out there, in the form of defender Kaiden Wilson from Chelsea and keeper Nils Ramming from Brighton. Wilson, I don't think, played in the friendly while over there. Nils Ramming played 20 minutes before being injured and Maguire, I think, played 45 minutes. We've never seen him since. We drew that friendly 3-3, but you don't read anything into results in pre-season.
More trialists. Waller and Spaven signed as goalkeeping options after trial periods and more reports of injuries continued, but I don't quite know how to explain it., something felt a bit off, and a draw against non-league Farnham Town in what was a bizarrely arranged friendly, at home, and a defeat to Halifax at home where we were 2-0 down after five minutes did absolutely nothing to ease any worries I'd started to have.
And going back through my WhatsApps, I'd already made a comparison to Steve Eyre because I'd already started seeing issues, and that hasn't happened so early in a manager's reign since the Manchester City youth coach was given the Rochdale job after Keith Hill moved to Barnsley. It might sound harsh, but I couldn't help it.
The injuries continued, with Will Jenkins suffering a horrific ACL injury, ruling him out for the season before it had even begun. Genuinely devastated for the lad too, and it seemed that we just weren't having any luck whatsoever.
More signings in the form of Sam Sherring, Zain Silcott-Duberry, Jonny Smith and Dajaune Brown came in and I just felt everything was becoming a bit of a mess, in that signings were being brought in to counter injuries rather than as part of a proper recruitment plan.
We'd gone through the whole of pre-season without a win, conceding plenty of goals, and then we got to the start of our competitive season, which was before most other clubs in our league because of that stupid qualification thing for the Carabao Cup, in which we travelled over to Tranmere Rovers. We drew 2-2 in a game we went behind twice due to defensive errors, but we did look quite good going forward, and I think there were signs that maybe something could come together after all. The tie was decided by arguably the worst penalty shootout in the history of football, but we went through to set up a tie away at League One Bradford City.
We did alright in the first half at Bradford, but we conceded a really stupid goal through an Ebanks-Landell mistake just before half-time and, although we'd done alright, we didn't look like scoring. The system really looked alien to players like Devante Rodney and Mani D, and it was hard to watch at times.
The second half we offered absolutely nothing apart from one opportunity for Dajaune Brown and we conceded again, another simple goal, and lost 2-0. Is there any shame in losing 2-0 to a team from the division up? Absolutely not, but there were worrying signs and, as me and a couple of Sandy Lane regulars were walking back to the city centre, it was apparent I wasn't alone in my worries, and one of them muttered two words I had felt guilty about thinking a couple of weeks earlier: "Steve Eyre".
Let's see how we go on next week when it counts properly and we start our league campaign. We've had a massively disrupted summer, and let's give him the benefit of the doubt. We've got a great opportunity to get off to a good start away at the favourites for relegation in Newport County.
Newport was an absolute shit-show. There's no dancing around it. It's probably the worst performance I've seen in 30-plus years of watching Rochdale. We lost 3-0, didn't have a single shot on target, saw multiple players involved in massive errors, including Ramming, Ebanks and Sherring. Is naming them fair? Not sure, but I don't care. Oh, and Bryant Bilongo picked up a second yellow and got sent off. Our first sending off in over a season. I was absolutely raging with it, and I didn't even go to the game, so those souls that did must have been unhinged.
I've lost count of how many injuries we've got at this point, but we were without Jenkins, Pettit, Beckwith, Maguire, Smith, Hayes, and even Ian Henderson had disappeared on his honeymoon after getting married. I think by this point we'd made 11 new signings and were still having to name two goalkeepers and academy players on the bench.
Our first home game followed and we had new faces coming through the door again, with Baba Adeeko joining from Wigan before the Newport game and Kane Taylor coming in on loan from Aston Villa. A better performance, although the bar was practically on the ground from the week previous, and Watson went with a back three, which he said afterwards was down to limited personnel, but then reverted back the following week to a back four despite having pretty much the same personnel.
But we'd still not won a game in 90 minutes all summer. But pre-season results don't matter.
Another lengthy away trip, this time down to Essex to play Colchester. Back to a back four, as I've mentioned, and we looked set for a point until we conceded a ridiculously poor goal in the last few minutes. Zero points from three games and the worry was spreading.
Shrewsbury Town, another team tipped to struggle this season, travelled down to Spotland for the first midweek League match and we FINALLY got off the mark. A resounding 3-0 with some seriously impressive displays from Adeeko, Hannant, Moss and Kane Taylor.
Taylor had reverted to left back because our captain Ethan Ebanks-Landell had come off injured and now faces a spell on the sidelines, along with Ryan East, who faces months out injured too. But we were on our way, the fist pumps were back, the U Block rocking, and we had something to build on with Gillingham next up at home.
Deadline day saw new signings 14 and 15 join, with Charlie Tasker coming in on loan from Brighton and Glenn Middleton, another winger, coming in from Doncaster Rovers.
Which brings us to our last game. We had something to build on to get our season started properly and alleviate some of the worries I still had.
We went 1-0 down at half-time, possibly undeservedly, but nevertheless we'd not really troubled the Gills keeper and their well-drilled defence was doing a very good job of dealing with the early crosses we'd been putting in. Regroup at half-time and get going.
I'd absolutely love to know what the hell was said at half-time because 45 minutes later, we'd lost the game 4-1, had Ed Francis sent off, and had a full-back waltz throughout the entire fucking team like he was a combination of Paddy McCourt, Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. He ran in a straight line and not one player could put a tackle in.
We had Kaiden Wilson head a clearance down in his own six-yard box, which ricocheted off Francis straight to their player and, in all honesty, that second half was every bit as bad as the Newport game, and a chorus of boos and Watson Out chants followed. I don't participate in that personally, but I was saddened that we're five games into our first season back and we're hearing those chants, very loudly I might add.
In his post-match, he mentioned that after 5 minutes he could tell there was no desire from the players. I'm sorry but that's unacceptable and I don't think it's helped by the fact that our back five consisted of Ramming who has barely played mens football before coming here, Tasker who was literally making his debut in men's football, Wilson who hadn't played men's football before this season and Taylor who had half a season at Oldham last season and was playing out of position. Which is fine when you think we've got so many injuries but we had seasoned professionals in Tobi Adebayo-Rowling and Sam Sherring on the bench although, granted, Sherring has looked miles off so far I think and was coming back from an injury but calling a team for not having desire but putting four kids in the back 5 seems daft to me.
So what has gone wrong?
Watson has instantly come in and wanted to change the system of a team that won 106 points last season. I don't mind this if he's sure he's got the players for it. Has it been too much too soon for the core players who remained? Only they can tell you that, but nobody looks particularly comfortable.
Injuries have been absolutely horrific. I think currently we are missing Jenkins, Pettit, East, Ebanks-Landell, Beckwith, Maguire, Bilongo, Rodney and Hayes. That's a whole lot of first-team players that we're missing.
This in itself brings questions, though. Why did we sign Maguire, who won't be on a cheap wage, when he was clearly injured and had been injured for the vast majority of last season? We did that with Gomez-Mancini last season. Is training much more intensive than it was under McNulty, given that part of Watson's introduction was that he wanted people who are going to run, going to press, going to chase? Is it just bad luck?
We've signed 15 players this summer, which I think is more than any other summer I can remember, though I'm happy to be proven wrong on that. It's a lot for any club, and yet we all thought we had a decent core group of players to build our squad on and we've ended up with nearly a whole new squad added.
The general opinion in our podcast group, and one I agreed with wholeheartedly, was that we needed a slightly smaller squad this year but to replace those players going with quality and players who fit the Jim philosophy of "no dickheads". I don't know about dickheads, but we've got a squad of 28, I think, at the last count, and I'd argue there are a couple of positions that still worry a large amount of the fanbase. I worry about the GK position, centre-back and left-back, for example.
And then the board have now published a statement ahead of the fans forum which basically backs the manager to the hilt and explains and bemoans the bad luck we've had with injuries and the disrupted summer. One thing I'd say to that is that York sacked their title-winning manager a week before the season started and have lost one of their first five games.
Leagues aren't won in September and teams aren't relegated in September, but, as we saw when we got relegated to the National League, Robbie Stockdale was sacked in August of his second season having lost the first four games of the season and we were still unable to steer that ship around under Bentley and McNulty.
How long before you have to pull the trigger? It won't be long before you're needing top-half form just to be able to survive relegation, and I'm not sure if we have a top-half squad. And even if we do have it from an ability standpoint, have too many things changed for us to be able to perform to that level of ability?
He's on a three year deal, can we afford to sack him? Can we afford not to?
All I do know is that our best day ever, at Wembley, was four months ago today and literally every little bit of joy, every bit of excitement about being promoted, every memory of it seems like a million years ago now, and I just feel sad. I even turn Olivia Dean off when it comes on the radio.
Can Ian Watson survive this? Well, I want him to and I desperately want him to turn it around, he has my full permission to print this off and shove it in my face and flip me the bird and I'll stand and take it and even shake his hand, but I'm not convinced he can turn it around. In fact, I'm pretty convinced he can't. And more to the point? If we don't make a change, can we survive this?