Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

In a sure sign that the year is rolling on, the nights are certainly drawing in and there was the first indication that autumn is round the corner the other morning with a good old misty start. All this means, yes you guessed it, the new football season is upon us. Those of a glass half full disposition will be thinking, here we go, it can’t be as bad as last year and the year before and those of the half empty persuasion will be saying oh yes it can.


For long suffering Imps fans a mixed close season. It seems an age ago now that the new signings were rattling in to Sincil Bank, sorry the 12th Imp Sincil Bank Stadium. We all thought we might be entering a new dawn with early team building. Then the announcement that the squad was complete, to general scepticism admittedly, then one or two more and the disheartening effect of the Sam Smith affair.

It’s easy to say the Sam Smith business is symptomatic of the way things have been at City lately but of course the club did not invite the offer, or we presume not and once the offers were coming in, having an unsettling effect on the player no doubt, there was only one outcome, getting the maximum cash out of the situation which hopefully was the case.

Who is now going to get the goals, I hear you ask? Well, who was going to get them anyway, many of us will have been thinking not really having had the benefit of seeing Smith perform to any great degree. Who indeed is going to keep them out at the other end? This question clouded by the news that Josh Gowling is on the transfer list which didn’t ought to have been a surprise given his history with the manager. It’s financial is the answer from Mr Holdsworth. This brings further questions as to the financial stability of the club given that one wage earner is off the payroll who may or may not be replaced. The transfer fee realised may or may not be released into the playing budget we hear. Or part of it. Or none of it, the board hasn’t decided.

All will be revealed over the coming months. We may have a new name for the stadium but there is a very familiar feel to the start of another season, familiar of late that is. There was a time, not long ago, when the start of the season could be greeted with great anticipation. Maybe there are those feeling that time old euphoria at the start of another season. If you are, I’ll have a pint of whatever you’re on.