720 minutes of football has been played since Blues last recorded a victory against Ipswich Town on 13 December. Soon after, the club disposed of the old guard – Gary Rowett and his backroom staff – and decided to take a different approach with Gianfranco Zola.
The jury is still out on the Italian and it’s fair to say that results will dictate how long it stays out for. Many fans haven’t taken to Zola but they aren’t quite baying for his blood just yet. Other fans can see what he’s trying to do and are keeping their fingers crossed that the long awaited win arrives sooner rather than later to put a firm mark under the progress the team has made from a footballing point of view.
But without meaning to state the obvious, football is a results based business and how long can we talk about progress before we run out of reasons to back it up?
Today’s game at Norwich City doesn’t, on paper, seem like a game Blues will win. While the Canaries have found it tough at times this season, a trip to Carrow Road is never easy. So if Blues come away with anything, it’ll be a bonus. That leaves us with a must win game at home on Tuesday evening against Reading who are firmly in the promotion hunt. I refer to it as a must win because how many games without a win is deemed acceptable?
I’m not going to follow the example of a certain tinpot Blues blog (naming no names) in publicly calling for Zola’s head because that is ridiculously premature. The owners wouldn’t have backed him with significant transfer moolah if they were having second thoughts about appointing him. Yet we have to get three points soon or the fans will start losing faith.
What Zola is trying to do at St. Andrews is brave and bold and he’s been left to take the flack on his own. His unveiling press conference summed up the situation, two empty chairs either side of him in a relatively low key affair. Our majority shareholder, Mr. Suen, is ‘publicity shy’ so the role of Panos Pavlakis has become paramount to the running of the club as he is the only link between the club and it’s fanbase.
Pavlakis was quite confident with the clubs new direction and leaves himself open to criticism if it doesn’t work out. But if Zola can lead his team to a few positive results and Blues finish, say, 11th or 12th, he fully deserves a crack at it next season.
After a summer of clearing out the dead wood and strengthening the squad, who knows where we could end up. However, a platform must be built and the only way to build it is by winning games. Come on Franco…
As always, Keep Right On!
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