The rose garden can turn to weeds

Action now or problems down the road

Life is quite rosy at Barnet FC at the moment. Positivity appears to be all around the club currently and after what we were presented with to watch since the season cut short in 2020 we really can’t complain. Now the idea of this blog site in the first place was to have that positive feeling, I know we can’t have that all the time, it’s football, the nature of peaks and troughs only too well known especially in a lower level football club.

What is there not to love at the moment, scoring goals, keeping clean sheets, players who want to actually play for your football club instead of doing us a favour by filling the shirt, burgers being served, queue management and beer quality in Legends seemingly on the improvement as well, and we’re in 5th place, yes 5th place looking at the play-off’s and not over the shoulder at the bottom four places.

So, what am I looking for here? The bigger picture as always, but you might be saying well what does he mean when I read the two paragraphs above then? Let me remind you 12 months ago we started recruitment for this campaign we’re currently in. Granted some targets didn’t come here, Barnet was still seen as a toxic place to come and play football, but we can all see the players who did come in are a level above at least most that we’ve had in the past 24 months.

You can then imagine we’re in the throes of getting preparation underway ready for next season’s tilt at things, but there are a couple of components that could derail that before we get started and make this season a flash in the pan.

Contracts. Most importantly that of Dean Brennan, but also his management team and players. Dean is out of contract in six months’ time, his staff the same and that creates some unease for me. Every week we tick off another win his stock rises and every day that six months ticks down the more attractive he is to other clubs, remember where we were 12 months ago to today, that is a very quick turnaround.

It's noticed, people sit up and see and put him on a shortlist. Some of you might say and point back to a few months ago when we couldn’t buy a win nor a clean sheet, football clubs live in the here and now, chairman recognise the ability to turn that form around, can it work for their club and with months left on a contract it’s small compensation, it’s a fine line Tony Kleanthous is sitting on not to get this sorted out.

If he’s unable to see what impact has been made on the club to bring it back towards being a reputable football club once again then I can see us being back to the position when Simon Bassey left, hope revived only to be crushed under the time of waiting.

What that brings me on to is if Dean isn’t secure in the job, how the hell do you expect players to commit or want to come to the club? How can he build further the foundations than began 12 months ago? We have a few here who want to stay, deserve to stay, but will wait and see on what happens to the gaffer, we’re playing a dangerous game here.

We have assets in this team that other clubs would like, we had nothing two years ago worth a penny, Tony’s business brain must see what’s going on in front of his eyes surely? Strike while the iron’s hot, sure it could all fall down in the next six months, but do you honestly think it is?

I harp on about ‘Trust The Process’, we’re on a level now to compete, not with all but most in the division, next season you go one better but you don’t by not getting things in place early to keep it smooth.

It’s a risk of once again being behind the game which we’re good at, but getting better at, why would a player want to come here being spoken to now with no assurances Dean will be here to watch him sign that contract, no delaying Tony, sit down, get it done because that affects the remainder of this season, not just the future ones.

Which brings me finally onto a contract for a striker. No doubt we’re performing way ahead of what most of us expected to see this season, Saturday was the first time for weeks we had the luxury of leaving a player out of the 16 on duty. Dean’s done his bit getting players out on loan, saving wages, we have FA Cup money, we have the sale of EMC, there’s no way a new signing is reliant on results from week to week, make a statement from where we are now.

Of course it’s going to cost a little more, why would we settle for bringing in a player of similar quality? We need that level above, imagine Nicke Kabamba being able to rest for more than four minutes of stoppage time a week, imagine having a striker who pushes for that starting place and gets us even more out of Kabamba, who by the way has been phenomenal in his play, not just his goals.

I accept we might not go up even if we do finish up in the play-offs, but it would another piece in the jigsaw ahead of next season, someone already integrated into the group.

We’ve seen how and why through Kirk Rayment the recruitment process, we know this player will fit in with what we already have. I have my own list of those I expect not to be here next season, simply because if we want to keep progressing we bring in a better level and quality of player, let’s not repeat the mistakes of previous years.

We have a feel good factor, a manager, staff and players that want to be a part of Barnet Football Club, I don’t think we’re asking for much here, if the excuse of the squad being a few over numbers given the injuries we’ve suffered as well then progress will halt this season, while we’re enjoying the ride so far, we don’t want to be falling by the wayside once again…..