A HUGE FEW MONTHS AHEAD

In the last issue we had a run through all the 12 Premiership clubs to look at their mid season report card but what’s far more important is a forensic look at Scotland’s finest. It has not been brilliant so far but we are in there fighting and there is plenty of time left for the manager to turn things around and make this a season to remember especially with a semi in 6 weeks time.

After the excitement of “Alston won the league at RP” had died down (personally I still get a buzz thinking about it) reality hit home. There was a realisation that we had fought and scratched our way to win a bang average Championship and huge improvement would be needed as we returned to face the big hitters.

There was lots of discussion about what players would be good enough in the top league, would we get Zach back, would Lafferty still have the legs, would Shaw still score goals or would Scott Robinson leave his Mrs to move in with the treatment table. Billy Bowie made a statement that we would have a healthy budget so we all held our breaths to see if Mbappe would be spotted in Aldi buying half price haggis fritters.

It was clear the club were throwing their full weight behind the manager and I was happy that we managed to get McInnes, most fans were I reckon though there has been some dissent. I’m firmly in the pro Del Boy camp but my faith has had some wobbles in the last few months. Subsequently DM was given a long term contract and with the club letting him bring in his own recruitment guru it’s clear there is a long term project in place.

I like McInnes so I’m sticking with my mad theory, let me share it with you. I believe McInnes has planned on getting his own squad by the end of next summer as due to the players he was stuck with he couldn’t bring in everyone he wanted to. We have quite a few who either don’t play or the manager has little option to play even though he probably knows they aren’t Premiership quality. The summer will see many players in these categories out of contract and then we will see some better quality being brought in.

Please get in touch and send me your own articles on our current situation but in the meantime I’ll continue with my “Del Masterplan” theory. To back up the theory just have a look at our current normal defensive line up. We have a loan goalkeeper, two loan wing backs and Mayo on loan from a club who are about as financially astute as Liz Truss.

I predict that come the start of next season we will have no more than one or two loan signings and the backbone of the team will be guys signed up on 2 or 3 year deals. That may be wishful thinking but DM has said in interviews the situation is far from perfect but for this season he has to work with what he has got and he was forced to fill out the squad with loan signings.

Of course this is all fine in theory but we need to confront the elephant in the room…….everything changes if we don’t stay up this season. The next six months are absolutely massive and our recruitment in January was poor and may be the deciding factor on where we finish come May. Russ Richardson, the recruitment dude, has been in place for a few months now and I’m hoping he has been working his arse off to get us some key new faces lined up in the summer….could have done with a few last month.

It was poor recruitment, both in player and managers, that got us relegated in 2021 so we need to get it right this time around to try and avoid a repeat of that depressing experience. With so much seemingly wrong in the team it’s hard to know where to start so lets break it down and see where the priorities lie:

Keepers

We signed Sam Walker 18 months ago and I’m sure he expected to play however Hemming came in on loan from Middlesboro and quickly established himself as number one. Hemming was excellent last season though I fancy Warwick Davis would have been an upgrade on the previous incumbents.

Hemming has had more of an unsteady season so far and as things stand they are alternating for the place between the sticks. In recent weeks Walker has cemented the jersey so will be interesting to see how long he holds on to it

Defence

This was an area that DM seemed to target in the summer with the likes of Alebiosu, Chrisene, Wright, Dorsett and Mayo all being introduced.

The worrying thing was all bar one of these (Wright) is on loan so it does nothing to stabilise the squad for the next few seasons. In all fairness DM has alluded to this in a few interviews and you can be assured we will have far less loanees after the summer. Nonetheless it’s not ideal and there is always the accusation that when push comes to shove loan players aren’t as committed as they know they are going back to their own teams whatever happens.

Chrisene has had a mixed season so far but that has to be expected from a young player. Sadly he got a sore one in the semi final at Hampden and an urgent replacement was sought. It appears our recruitment guru used his old contacts at Liverpool to tempt young Luke Chambers to the Theatre of Pies. You can see the young guy has a bit of quality but it’s very hard plunging a novice into a tough relegation battle.

We really are a strange lot this season, our best chance of a goal is probably Ash Taylor who in all honesty isn’t too great at defending!! For many months he was the only player in our team who has scored away from home in the league…..a horrendous stat. Additionally we shipped Sanders out on loan who I reckon is at least as good if not better than the central defenders named above, lets hope he gets his chance now that he’s back.

With the return of Sanders there was no need to bring in another defender but will the manager thinks he is an improvement on what we have. As I’ve written elsewhere, it’s time to decide on a set formation and put players in positions where they are comfortable. By doing that we may well see a big improvement without the need to bring in new faces.

Midfield

I was shocked and a little bit disappointed when Power was our first new midfielder in the summer…….I’m even more shocked and disappointed that he was seen as our first choice midfielder for a while. Don’t get me wrong I like Power but with talk of “record budgets” I was maybe expecting something a better than re-signing a guy who was excellent for us but whose best days are behind him.

In the Championship the likes of Polworth was loaned out to Dunfermline where he apparently wasn’t great but strangely he suddenly became a starter in the Premiership. I understand DM has been stuck with players signed by Wright but it’s a major leap of faith to think that someone who wasn’t starting in the Championship was now good enough to compete in the top league. Credit to Polworth as he has had some decent games and since the World Cup break he has been outstanding in several games. It’s much needed as he has that bit of quality that we are missing

We brough in McInroy who had impressed with the scum but for whatever reason DM has only played him in his best position once or twice. The guy was effective as an attacking midfielder in the championship and carried a goalscoring threat, something we don’t generally have.

The manager sees these guys in training every day so perhaps there is an attitude issue however I hate players not getting a run of games to prove themselves. Elsewhere we need someone who can bring a bit of control to our game and find a pass…..competition for Polworth if you like. The new recruitment guy has been here a wee while now so I think we are all praying he can unearth a diamond come the summer…….still think we should have got someone in January.

Donnelly was another brought in late in the last window and in all honesty is no improvement on what we have although recent performances have been better. He is here on a deal until the summer but he needs to step up and show a consistent level of performance or he shouldn’t be getting another contract.

In the wide areas Armstrong is the one big positive with a good attitude and the ability to chip in with a few goals. It was good to see him getting two years added to his current deal and hopefully that is the blueprint for things to come. On the left Jones is here on loan (eventually) and although he has been ok he is not the player we had before. He doesn’t look like he has the heart for the game these days, that’s not a good attribute in our current situation.

Fraser Murray has only been a bit part player this season but has showed fairly well prior to the break. Maybe we’ll see more of him for the second half of the season but he has still to prove himself to be a proper Premiership player.

In summary I would have expected at least one player in the heart of the team though sadly it didn’t happen in January so we need to be patient for a few months.

Forwards

In all honesty our forward options have been nothing short of a disaster, our best striker Lafferty was sitting in the stands due to his stupidity and subsequently has upped and left for Linfield…..a match made in heaven Cameron, Doidge and a few others may all move on in the summer and we really don’t have a consistent goal threat…….some of that can be down to formation and tactics but our front men really need to do better.

Robinson is fit again and can bring some much needed energy to our attack but I’m not sure how many goals he’ll get us. He looks like more of a number 10 to me and has been a bench warmer in recent weeks but he’ll get his chance.

Again this is where Russ Richardson needed to pull a rabbit from the hat but our only new striker was Kyle Vassell. He scored the winner at Tannadice so I’m praying he now goes on a run but getting sent off at Easter Road wasn’t the ideal follow up. There is so little between half the league that having a guy that can grab a few goals will be the difference between survival and relegation.

It was generally accepted by Killie fans that the transfer window had been a bit of a disaster. We have found ourselves in the relegation scrap once again and the glaring issues have been creativity and scoring goals….especially from the forward players.

Incredibly we appear to be worse off now than we were at the start of the window and if we end up going down that is unforgivable. The Lafferty situation is one of those big “mystery” tales that the club won’t discuss but the timing of it was a nightmare and reading between the lines I suspect the manager isn’t too chuffed .

Just how much of an impact Lafferty would have had is open to interpretation. He started the season slowly but was showing some promising signs until his enforced bigotry break. Needless to say it looks like squeaky bum time once again for Killie fans.