This might well be a litmus test for how our season is going to go. Players' pride? Do today's players have any? Most of 'em are only interested in only doing enough to stay in the team so they can pick up their pay cheques. It's part of a managers' job to elevate them beyond that way of thinking and get them to play for the shirt....... the fans.
I think that the local lads in the team do care and certainly Andre Ayew does. He knows he is playing at a level with and against players at a far lower level than he is. Yet week in week out he's on that pitch giving his all for the club and the fans. He is a true professional and I have the utmost respect for him as a person and a player. No doubt in my mind that he should be club captain. He absolutely deserves it.
As for Steve Cooper, I'm mindful of the fact that he does attract some decent loanees to the club because of his previous experience with them. BUT, as we've all seen, his inexperience as a manager in a league competition is totally strangling any hopes we have of furthering our ambitions to regain our Premier League status. I have to ask: is this in fact what the owners have now settled for? Are they happy to sit back and cash in on our academy players such as Roberts, Roden and Ben and others such as Grimes before flogging our carcass for what they can get?
In that circumstance they will be quite happy with Cooper - he's delivering precisely what they want. Think on. If we did get promoted, they'd be well and truly in the spotlight and, Heaven forbid, they might actually be forced into spending some money; something they've patently failed to do since the moment they set foot in the club.
Is this then the reason that Cooper is so laid back about his obvious failings? He would know his job is safe because the owners have no expectations, or inclination, for the club to do any better. I'm obviously speculating because I don't know what's in their minds. But I DO know that one of the most important positions in any football club is being occupied by someone who, in my opinion, is nowhere near good enough for the job. And that seems to suit the hierarchy perfectly well.
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