Editorial: What is the Answer?

Much like when Carson was going through his legal travails, we’re in a similar situation. This time we have an owner no one has ever seen, and no way of finding him let alone contacting him.

The only reason I’m writing this is because I know people at the club read it and it might be that it gets sent to Paul Suen with the rest of the media wrap up.

In times gone by, I went – mainly due to the benevolence of others – to Hong Kong and through my own hard work and diligence was able to find answers that other people couldn’t. I idly thought about what I would do if I was in HK again and the answer is I don’t know. Not only am I not sure of who and where Paul Suen is, I don’t even know for sure what I’d ask him.

I know many would like to know if he is aware of the immediate problems with Gianfranco Zola – and I guess that’s a good start. But even if Zola was canned, I think it would be important to know how Blues would go about seeking his replacement… and I’ll be honest, I think the most important question would be if Mr Suen intends on bringing in to the club someone who knows the role of being a football chief exec, to, well, be a Chief Exec.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been chastised in private for criticising Panos Pavlakis. I think some people think I have a “beef” with him but that’s not true – I just call it as I see it. I said many times on Often Partisan that Panos was coasting on the tails of “not being Pannu” – and that wasn’t good enough.

At a time when we need a strong leader at the club, he’s gone missing. He’s been off social media on his own accounts – although if you follow the right people you can see he’s still enjoying the high life as it were.

I’ll repeat now what I’ve said in the past few months – I think Panos is as much a problem as Zola is and if we’re binning off the Italian Panos has to go too. However, it’s not a case of sacking people and it all becoming magically better – the replacements need to be more than “better than Zola/Panos” – they need to be good at the jobs they do.

Normally, I’d be interested in long term plans but right now it’s all about the next six weeks. With six games left we’re six clear of Blackburn in relegation – as long as we can stay clear of relegation then as much as this season has been a disaster in the second half it’s salvageable.

I’d want to know if TTA have got a contingency plan should Zola resign in a fit of conscience – someone who can take the reins until the summer when we can bring in someone decent. Otherwise I think I’d agree with the notion Zola is here to stay until then because it’s too much hassle otherwise – the time to sack him has been and gone.

Of course there is the ultimate doomsday scenario – and how Suen will deal with that. That would be painful because it would require a complete ripping up of the squad and rebuild – if only to meet the harsher FFP requirements in League One.

The one thing I do know is that the division between fans is what is killing us most of all. Rather than resorting to “I told you so” or telling people to stop complaining, we should realise the one thing that unites us all is that we care about Blues. If the fans can unite once more – then maybe the club and Paul Suen will find it harder not to respond.