It’s been a bit of a stressful summer, all being told.
The sacking of Garry Monk and all the revelations that have come out with that, and the installation of Pep Clotet in a curiously permanent caretaker role.
A transfer market which seems to have been stop-start, with long periods of silence punctuated by flurries of activity.
With three days to go before “the real ball comes out” Blues still look some way off a complete side ready to take on the Championship.
The 4-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion last Saturday won’t have assuaged many people that the new tactical system with three at the back will work either.
In short, it’s easy to understand why some are getting impatient and are demanding a return to the status quo of last season.
However, I think it’s something that we have to move on from.
It’s clear that the board have a vision for how they want the team to play this season and that Monk wasn’t a part of it.
It’s also clear from the money splashed out on Ivan Šunjić that the board have decided that the team needs to be backed in the transfer market.
If the rumours of a €7million bid for George Puscas are true, then Blues are clearly prepared to put their money where their collective mouths are.
Right now, we have to trust that the management staff and the board know what they are doing.
As restive as I myself am, I think that for the early part of this season we’re going to have to be patient.
For example, I think as fans we collectively need to calm down about transfers.
Although eight days isn’t a huge length of time for the transfer window to be open, that does mean there is plenty of time for deals still to be done.
Obviously, the club would prefer to have done all their transfer business by now but life just doesn’t work that way.
The evidence is there that the club are working hard to bring in a number of players ahead of next Thursday’s deadline.
It’s not worth worrying about players needed until that deadline is passed because we don’t know what might or might not happen.
Likewise, I think we have to accept that Blues will be playing a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 formation and that it might not work straight away.
Against Brighton there were gaps between central defenders you could drive a number 11 bus through. It was obvious that players are still acclimatising themselves to what they need to do.
And yet, Blues hit the bar three times.
In the attacking third there was some promise – and if Blues can add one or two additional faces in the front lines it’s possible we could really open teams up.
Blues didn’t win a league game until late September last season – yet as I recall there was not one person who couldn’t see what Garry Monk was trying to do.
We have to try to offer Pep Clotet the same level of patience to implement his tactics and system.
The last thing the club needs is another season where they burn through three managers and flirt with relegation again.
If this summer is an indication of what the board wants to do in the long term, we have to give it a chance to work.
Most of all, if we want the board and ownership to show that they have a long term plan for the club, we have to accept it might take time to implement it.
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