Well, well, well.
Murder mysteries will have to wait for another day, as I couldn't help but comment on the deadline day drama; at least a dramatic enough scene to stoke up our fans' fury.
The question is, should they be breathing their Clarence-the-dragon-fire, or calming their inner-furies and taking a step back to survey the surroundings?
There is perhaps, no right or wrong answer. Some fans will always react badly to losing one of their own. Some will dismiss them with the rudest of waves; others will see the pros and the cons. Moving on is a part of football life, after all.
It is perhaps, not the calibre of player that is the talking point here, but the way in which the transfer transpired - and what it means.
I digress, for Shaun Harrad's ability is still relevant. Just not absolutely essential to this argument. What is more worrying, is the lack of replacement.
When we signed Harrad, it seemed much more than just 'another' footballer arriving. It felt like a watershed moment in the Cardoza era. Error might be more apt, yet slowly our Chairman has found his balls, and invested his heart into our Club. It sure took a while, but only fools could lack support for his recent efforts.
You can question his mistakes - there are many - but not his purse strings. They tightened too much, but finally his cherished change came tumbling out, and we at last had something to smile about. Let's be honest here - spending money on crown jewels is the most exciting thing. They might turn out to be turds, but the lottery of life seems so much more thrilling when you're grinning. The only problem with lottery wins is: they do not guarantee long-term happiness.
Our Shaun did turn out to be short-term, after all.
For a moment - for the briefest of moments - we sniffed the smell of success. We spent, at last, and our time was spent daring to dream of a brighter future. On that night that we demolished Crewe - everything felt possible. Anfield memories still drifted on the wind, but now we could back it up with a striker to scare away the doubters. In those sweet moments, in the sweetest moments in the aftermath of destruction - when you destroy them - doubt does not seem possible.
6-2 was impossible, until now.
After such a perfect goal scoring debut, things were bound to go wrong. Sweetness turns bitter eventually; at least here it does. With Sammo down the sh*tter and our season in ruins, Harrad probably wondered why he had bothered. Not to fear, a new manager means a fresh-start.
Or does it?
That's the thing with Gary Johnson - I'm not sure it does. We were swept away on a tide of charm and charisma, we wanted him in after all. We had every right to, with that record. Only, the record seemed a little tarnished lately; here, it seems stuck on repeat.
As much as we can despise the 'Boro, they at least provided us with a warning. Gary Johnson is not the messiah. Perhaps not a 'very naughty boy', but there were definitely wrongdoings and wrong-turnings. We hoped that was just a one-off. We prayed he just disliked them as much as the rest of us. His results were not catastrophic; however, the result of his time in the swamp seems to have dirtied him.
Instead of being washed through and sold as new, thus far he has tried and failed to replace old, tattered laundry with fresher, cleaner sheets. Clean sheets would be a start, after all.
They said 'he has his favourites' - they were right.
They said 'he'll chop and change your defence, and never stop leaking' - they were right.
They said 'his gung-ho formations are a worry' - they were right.
Those blue buggers, they were right - about a lot of things.
Whilst we must assume that some of these things contributed to his impressive past, we should mostly judge on what happens here. Not only - because you only need look into what happened at Ashton Gate, to know he has the capability to turn around a club gasping for air. His start was horrendous there, and many wanted him out. Yet in the end, he got them bouncing.
So far though, it's more flounce than bounce. We briefly were taken in by his words - and Sixfields rocked out. In the end though, fancy words start grating if performances leave not something to be desired - but almost everything.
Likeable can so easily become laughable, if you can't back up your one-liners with one vital ingredient - points. And so far, on the most important count, he has been a bloody miserable failure. Performances have varied, but one variant has stayed the same. The wins column. Desolate.
Many a manager has their favourite. Favourite wine; formation; player; whatever. But Johnson does seem to take this to extremes - and that can be extremely frustrating, if not based solely on ability. There is no doubt that GJ values a 'strong mentality' in his team. He talked in detail over the summer about changing this - insisting that much of our downfall was in our players' minds. He would deliver a backbone; no longer would we see spineless surrender.
Although he spends hours combing over footage and stats, much of this I think is for show; he has already decided who plays next. I could watch the Morecambe DVD a thousand times over - we would still be bloody awful. You could perhaps gain something from watching it back, but much of football is delivered on instinct - and instinctively, you can tell who was good, and who was crap. A clue: they were all crap.
It's more of a challenge thrown out - to improve. It's not like they can deliver an 'exact' situation again - matches never happen exactly the same. I think he's more interested in their response; some respond well to being criticised, others become critical, then finally collapse. Psychology plays a vital role in football nowadays, there can be no doubting that. Wenger has brought huge thought and philosophy over with him - and we are a better football nation as a result.
What worries me is it can become an obsession. You can freeze some shy or rebellious ones out. And not all the most talented are the most-confident or most-thoughtful. Just look at Rooney. He doesn't think much off the pitch; but on it he's Einstein. Johnson spent so long looking into the eyes of his new babies, that he forgot on occasions to look to their feet.
Beyond all, that is what matters on a football field.
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