No Such Thing As A Quick Fix

The Last Word by Brendan White

(first published in the June 2011 Salthill Devon match programme)

Football is a fickle game. We all gather our own thoughts, our own views and our own opinions about almost everything in football. Who is the best player? Who is the worst player? What’s the best formation? But why do we do it?

The building for the following season begins almost as the previous ends. Fans decide what players they think the club should retain for the next season, and which players they don’t want the club to keep. Most of the time fans and management have the same kind of thinking in this regard.

The beginning of every season is when supporters start to decide what players they want their club to bring in. What positions do the club need to fill? More defenders? Midfielders? Strikers? Who do WE want though? WE want to decide. Fans know best for their club, but is that all that matters?

The League of Ireland isn’t the place to be anymore if you expect to make a living out of it. But money still matters. Players want the most they can get, rightly so, and clubs try to negotiate the best deal for the club. We, as fans, don’t often think about the financial side of it.

But no matter what players our club keeps and what players they sign, are we ever completely satisfied? The player that we wanted and we didn’t sign? The players we don’t rate and yet they are signed anyway? Seven defenders and just two attackers? As fans do we always look for the negative? Are we ever happy with what we’ve got?

I don’t think as fans we are ever really happy with our clubs, but is that just football? Football fans always want more. We want success. We want good players. We don’t want bad players. We want big home wins, exciting away days and success, but we want it our way and we want it now.

Fans don’t want to wait five years for success. Silverware is what everybody wants. The best manager, the best players and to be in the best Leagues, and it must happen now. More often than not it doesn’t quite work out the way we want it to.

Fans, although part of various supporters clubs, don’t always have a say, and this is probably for the best. A chairperson or a committee usually run the club and makes the important decisions, often against the will of the fans.

We trust these people to run the clubs on the behalf of the fans, and surely we must back them 100%? Fans often think of short-term success but the people who run the club on a daily basis must always think long-term. We must trust these people.

Stephen Henderson departed the club on May 28th, three weeks ago, after a recent poor run of form. Some fans agreed while other didn’t. A 3-0 win against New Ross Celtic in the Cup was followed by defeat against Finn Harps last weekend.

A quick fix is what everybody wanted but only time will tell how the squad deal with change. The decision has been made to change manager, after all football is a results-based business, and therefore bad results always put pressure on everybody.

Paul O’Brien, Billy Hearne and Alan Barry have been put in charge for the time being and must do what they can to get the team back up to the right end of the table. Everybody wants success immediately, but maybe time is the most important thing now. Maybe now we need to hold off on pressure, hold off on questioning decisions and just wait. Wait and see what happens. Wait and see how the players react. As much as we want success right now, all we can do is wait and keep supporting OUR team.