Huckerby

His outburst yesterday could be the 'we have no money for Dean Windass' situation of this era at the club, it could prove to be a positive thing if changes are made in how deals at the club are done.

We forget that the only players that are leaving were bought in under Worthington, Grant may have different ideas on how to bring players in and, looking at those he has brought in, they seem to have a different attitude.

The likes of Ashton, Bentley, Earnshaw, they all came to the club with the attitude that we should be grateful for their time and the club and the management pandered to that.

Just look at the Billy Sharp situation this season. Grant admitted that he would be 'held to ransom' by a player and found potentially better ones. He won't bring mercenaries to the club for the sake of having them here. Building a good team will take time, and it won't happen by bringing in short term players.

Etuhu was a great player when he was up to it. I'd hoped that we'd see that player this season under Grant's management, but if he's off then it was inevitable.

We all wanted Worthington out for how he decimated the club. Just like a new Prime Minister changing his cabinet, with Grant should come a new team and this season we're likely to see six, possibly seven players on the pitch who weren't here last season. If Grant has a different attitude to buying players than his predecessor, then two of Worthy's for two of Grants can only be a good thing.

Of course changing two thirds of your starting line up will take time to have an effect but look at Arsenal. They have a young team of players who, a couple of seasons ago hadn't played together before and are becoming a stronger team season by season.

The fantasy of getting into the play-offs might be suddenly over, so we may as well get back to reality and admit that, although it could happen this season, it probably won't. But would Grant be dismissed as a failure if we didn't? If the team sticks around for another season, no. Worthy had two attempts at getting the team back up the first time round and the team never changed a great deal in that time (if my memory serves me... we still had the same core players).

It's goingto be a tough couple of years but the departure of Etuhu and the forthcoming departure of Safri will only speed up the inevitable; that Grant will need his own team to take back up to the Premiership and those that don't want to be here, despite their talentsm, won't be as missed in the long run as we think they will be now.

Posted By: tim berry, Jul 17, 09:28:57