HAVE EVERY REASON TO LOOK FORWARD WITH OPTIMISM AND EXPECTATION

For all of our shortcomings it has to be said that there are very few occasions when anybody has looked better than us. We were completely blown away at Leeds on the opening day of the season and we deserved to lose at West Brom, but other than those games most of our misery has been brought about by our own failings and not because any of our opponents were anything to write home about. We did beat Norwich and Bristol City, and with only 10 men we triumphed over Frank Lampard’s Derby County. We got a draw at Sheffield United and another at the weekend at Aston Villa, where most independent observers agreed we were the better of the two teams. We didn’t lose against Tony Pulis’s Middlesbrough, we should have beaten QPR and we probably would have won at Nottingham Forest if the referee had been brave enough to do his job properly. When you stop and look at the bigger picture, yes there is room for optimism and we have absolutely everything to play for in the second half of the season. It’s all down to us. If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we have to accept that it’s now going to take a mighty effort to stand any chance of going up automatically, but the play-offs should be well within our grasp and we have to concentrate all of our efforts now on getting into the top six and then staying there. If we can continue as we have been doing for the past three months, but add a winning edge to our game, then everything remains possible. Our chances of success hinge very much on what we do in the forthcoming transfer market, and this is a time when we have to be active as a club. That doesn’t mean we go out and blow £25m on new players, and nobody is expecting that anyway. But we have an opportunity to clear the decks so we need to look at moving several players out. Darren Fletcher and Charlie Adam are already speaking in terms of leaving, while we can also look at moving on the likes of Mame Diouf and Peter Crouch. Gary Rowett, should also be given the green light to allow Moritz Bauer and Bojan depart. He clearly doesn’t value or want either player, regardless of what supporters say. If we do shift half-a-dozen or so players, it then opens up some room for manoeuvre without worrying about adding to a bloated club wage bill. It leaves us scope to bring in a couple of new players who really could play a part, especially another central defender and perhaps someone who could add competition for places with Berahino and Afobe up front. There are plenty of players out there who won’t cost Premier League money and they’re the ones we should be looking at. There were signs at Villa Park on Saturday of the team we could be, and in most of our recent matches we’ve seen at least glimpses of a top side, one that could have what it takes to be a promotion-winning team this season. The ball is in our court, and if we can get the job done against Millwall this Saturday then we have every reason to look forward to the second half of the season with hope, optimism and expectation.