After yesterday we badly needed some good news to cheer us up.
That was not a good performance we got from the team, in spite of what the manager said.
Perhaps the most troubling thing was that I genuinely had my heart in my mouth every time a player went down.
When McCarthy didn’t come out for the second half I was shocked. Losing Juranovic was even worse.
Was there going to be no end to our troubles on this front?
Well this morning the news is better. A bit better anyway.
Both of those guys look as if they’ll be fine for midweek and certainly for the weekend.
The really good news is that Giakoumakis is not as badly afflicted as we thought he might be, and he has a good chance of making the team for one or both of our next two matches.
By God, we badly need that guy in the team.
More than that, we badly need the option of having a striker on the bench, even if that striker turns out to be Ajeti. I’ll be talking about him later. Seeing young Owen Moffat in the squad yesterday was the only positive about this crisis so far.
I’ve talked about him a couple of times, and he deserves this chance.
But nothing will do more to give this team a shot in the arm than seeing some attacking options on the bench.
The Greek has been in mothballs for a while now, but he should be fit and raring to go and we’re going to see what we got for our money.
We miss a striker with real presence in the penalty area.
We miss having someone who is expected to hit the target and score upwards of 20 goals in a campaign. Whilst we’re all very keen on seeing the return of Kyogo, I know everyone’s been looking forward to seeing the player who was the top scorer in Holland last season.
So the news is better today, and we needed that lift after the weekend.
Giakoumakis is set for a debut within the next seven days.
Provided nothing else goes wrong.
Glad these guys are good to go though we’ve still to see what a fit McCarthy can do for the team. We need a fit squad to actually see whether Ange’s plan is valid or not. Personally I still back the man but we are getting near that ‘gonna be too late to catch up’ stage. I genuinely believe we have gathered a reasonably talented squad of players but too late in the transfer market again and always unfit to hit the ground running. Fyogo’s absence has had a serious impact on our ability to raise energy levels, we’ve missed his infectious movement and pace and its essential we see him back again soon cause I’m not at all confident our new striker will be up to making an immediate impact. I live in hope.HH