Too little too late

It arrived yesterday morning. This season, for the first time, I opted for the away shirt over the home. The yellow is a bit washed out and the stitching on the Buildbase logo is rubbish. But, when it seemed we would be heading for Wembley, I figured I should join in a sea of (faded) yellow and put an order in. It came yesterday, too little too late, one might say.

Aside from the widely reported news of Rufus Brevett's retirement, which has been so well covered you would think he was a war hero, there's little going on at the moment.

There seems to be enough noise about to suggest The Big Zebroski will eventually sign. The runes at Millwall suggest that he doesn't really have a future there. They have plenty of strikers who can score goals and could do with offloading a few wages. Jim Smith appears to think that if Zebroski can be landed, then he's all done in terms of strikers. That's confident talk indeed, given our obvious deficiencies in this department, but Zebroski did look good towards the end of the season. There may be more to this than meets the eye; for example, Jim will have learnt how important the Christmas transfer window is and is perhaps mindful of keeping a bit back for that. Alternatively, he may be trying to keep quiet to avoid other clubs and players trying to capitalise on our obvious need for firepower.

Nobody should be surprised to hear that Danny Rose is talking to league clubs. Rose is well positioned to find a new club, it just depends on if he can impress whilst on trial. He did occasionally go missing last season when the big boys got rough and he may yet struggle to secure a contract. Which is probably wishful thinking.

The biggest blow is the loss of Martin Foster to Rushden, which seems immensely careless. Foster offered some bite in midfield and was the catalyst to the late season improvements. I could understand it if we'd lost him to a league club or one further north, but to be outbid by Rushden is pretty poor. With Braveheart Hargreaves gone, the centre of midfield is suddenly looking a bit weak. Unless the plan is to move Barry Quinn back to his natural home to partner Carl Pettefer (in the absence of anyone new coming in, obviously).

Only Michael Corcoran remains out of radio contact. Meaning we have 13 professionals and three known irons in the fire (Zebroski, Rose and Corcoran). Last season's signings came later rather than sooner, we probably shouldn't expect much for the next couple of weeks.