The Cull Begins

So the first tranche of players released has been announced, and although there are some sensible decisions (and one which is a blessed relief!) I'm still left with a basic concenr about whether Brian Little's decision-making is what it should be.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think Michael Proctor is God's gift to football. However, he was the only player last season who looked like he'd score goals and please don't try to tell me he wouldn't have some impact in The Conference! Perhaps more confusingly, if Bolland hasn't done enough to be offered a contract then what more could he have done?

The decision to get rid of Aiston's an interesting one. I thought he looked alright personally, and if he's not got what it takes you've got to ask why he was considered good enoug to be given a contract to Summer 2009 just four months ago.

I'm sad to see Sonner and Whitley go. Sonner's injury took the decision out of Little's hands to be sure, and I don't think anyone could make a full judgement on Whitley without seeing him regularly on the training pitch, though I can't help wondering what a full pre-season might have done for him.

The offering of Silvio Spann on a free is inevitable-sadly he always felt like a luxury we could hardly afford, while all I can say about the decision to do the same for Richard Hope is why did Little constantly select him ahead of the likes of Mike Williams when he was lacking?

The Summer was always going to bring some eyebrow-raising decisions. I just hope he's vindicated once the dust settles.

Glorious Mud!

A Midfield Scene From Wrexham v MK Dons

I miss the mud that helped us beat MK Dons and Darlington, and I want it back!

When it was sopping wet and cutting up against MK Dons and Darlington we seemed to thrive on it. Dry, rutted and smothered in sand today it just wouldn't let us play football and we struggled to piece our game together. If it doesn't improve soon we could find it a real handicap as we try to haul ourselves to safety.

Unable to pass as we would have wished, with touch players like Jeff Whitley and Danny Sonner struggling to come to terms with the surface, it was all a bit ugly and we were forced to launch more and more long stuff at Drewe Broughton.

That's not necessarily a bad idea as Broughton is a monster of a target man and will always create crumbs for players near him to feed off. However, it didn't click properly today in that respect either. I think a big part of the reason for this was the absence of Neil Roberts. We missed his whole-hearted commitment in midfield, as a few rousing lunges from him got the crowd going against Darlington and MK Dons, setting the tone early on. Not only was his tigerish effort missed though, but he is able to get up and support Broughton, trying to latch onto the loose balls he creates. Sonner and Whitley are very good footballers, but they are not box-to-box midfielders, and quite apart from their natures as footballers, you can't ask either of them to try to get beyond Broughton due to age on Sonner's part and lack of match fitness in Whitley's.

So it just wouldn't all hang together today. Still, don't worry too much about it. It wasn't a performance, but it was a point, and every one we win might be crucial by the end of the season. Wouldn't the table look a lot better if we had scraped three extra draws from that awful succession of early season defeats we suffered earlier in the season?

Our games against Hereford, Rotherham, Barnet, Stockport and Shrewsbury all followed similar paths: we were drawing 0-0 at half time, and at the very least were the equal of our opponents. However, in the second half we conceded and, despite the fact that the other side didn't really show a great deal out of the ordinary, we were unable to respond and were beaten. Imagine if we'd drawn half of them; we'd be well and truly in the mix. So don't worry about dropping two points today; they're all small steps in the right direction.

Jeff Whitley on Sky Sports

I've already said how much I admire the return of Whitley to The Racecourse, but here's an incredible interview on Sky Sports which sums it up:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid958992159/bctid1407950459

Jeff Whitley??!!?!!??!???

I'll admit I'm totally thrown by the thought of Jeff Whitley returning to the club, and don't know what to make of it.

Part of me says that taking him back would be the most noble act of forgiveness you could imagine. After failing to play in that huge showdown on the last day of last season you would think he was persona non grata. To welcome him back, to understand he was a troubled man and give him another chance, would be remarkable; it would be gesture which, in its humanity, would be incredibly out of place in the cut-throat world of football.

Or, if you want to look at it in a more hard-nosed way, if he shows on Colliers Park that he can be the player he was last season, he'll be able to make a difference to the side and we should bring him in for that reason alone. Adding Whitley, Danny Sonner and Sam Aiston to the midfield, not to mention Neil Roberts, would be a big stride forward from what we had available at the beginning of the season.

On the other hand, can we afford to take a chance with someone in recovery when we're in this situation? If we were mid-table we probably could, but we're not. We're in a position where we have very little margin for error, either on the pitch or in the market place. Can we afford to commit a chunk of our salary allocation on someone who might disappear if he has a relapse?

Please God that he doesn't, because we have a tendency as football fans to forget we're dealing with human beings, and I'd hate to see the anger Whitley would attract from people who put the team ahead of his tragedy. But it could happen, and that thought scares me on many levels.

All sorts of rumours fly around a football club and if you have any sense you soon learn to grade your sources in order of reliability. One guy I know constantly tells me the inside line from The Racecourse, and is always wrong. In fact, he's so reliably ill-informed that I've often taken solace when he has said a key player is leaving as I know he will be staying! However, when the most reliable person I know, the person who measures his words more carefully than anyone else I know, said in the Summer that Whitley should never show his face at The Racecourse again you know this is a gamble!

I guess on balance my hopes for this are predictably inane. I hope he can return, offering a glorious story of redemption which shows we can be big enough to shrug off petty issues and offer someone another chance. Then he plays a central role as we get out of trouble. But then I spent my childhood reading "Roy of the Rovers"! It was such romantic thinking which brought poor Juan Ugarte back despite his fitness problems, and sadly we all know how that has ended.

Whitley is an intelligent, articulate man who has been on a terrible journey and his ability to articulate it might be a big factor in his chances of recovery. I truly hope that this is the case and he can have a happy ending. If it turns out to be ours as well, so much the better!