By Dave P
August 9 2004

With the start of the new season less than a week away now is it time for us as fans to stop the knocking and trust the judgement of our new set up enough to pick the right starting eleven against Liverpool. At the club there have been sweeping changes behind the scenes and at managerial level. There are a number of new (some of which are interesting to say the least) signings and there are probably a couple more to come this week. If reports are to be believed Murphy is signing/has signed/is about to sign. Rumours also abound about Wright-Phillips (and one or two others and possible departures too) King is (if what I have heard is to be believed) about to be installed as club captain and Redknapp relegated to a player who has to earn appearance money.

The boo boys have already made their voices heard at the lane even though we have not played a competitive game yet. Friendlies (and pre-season tournaments) are no guide to a team’s well being. From what I have seen and heard so far we have not seen the finished product yet (and I would expect it no other way to be honest) but I am encouraged by certain aspects that may have gone un-noticed by the "why the f**k is Doherty playing" crew. For those people I would point out that for a certain period last season even I was impressed by some of what he did (when he stuck to the simple stuff) even though I don't particularly rate him. Perhaps Jacques has told him that he has to show what he can do if he wants to stay and we will not see him pull a shirt on in anger. No conclusions can be drawn from any of the matches so far as staying free of injuries, gaining fitness and becoming aware of how the new set up and squad will work must be more important than results.

Is it not now time for us as supporters to get 100% behind the new look THFC whatever this weeks tweaks to the playing squad may be and give the new set up a fair chance to show us what the future holds?

And if you are one of the boo boys (or inclined to become one at the drop of a proverbial bobble hat) how long are you prepared to give as a honeymoon period?


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