SUFC: 2010/11 Season Preview

Longpier.com has written season previews on Southend United for the past four years – and we’ve always got it wrong.

So we decided to give someone else a chance – and we’re delighted Jamie Forsyth from the All At Sea Podcast has risen to the challenge.  Here’s his brilliant musings on what’s likely to be a very tough season ahead…

SOUTHEND UNITED 2010/11 SEASON PREVIEW
By Jamie Forsyth, All At Sea Podcast

“FAIL to prepare, and as the saying goes, you will surely prepare to fail. Southend United fans will be praying that particular expression proves unfounded as a new-look side prepare to start the League Two season after a hellish summer.

The fact that squad numbers were released two days before the kick off, season cards are not ready and the team photo taken on the eve of the game (although this could have been done to spite the Echo, not the chairman’s favourite publication), pales into insignificance when compared to the wider issues the club has faced since it waved goodbye to League One in May.

New manager Paul Sturrock, who described the beginning of his tenure as “the longest two and a half weeks of my life”, has worked tirelessly to somehow persuade 17 players to sign up to a club with habitual debts, an egocentric chairman and a history of late payments to players. One or two even turned down deals elsewhere, proving that Sturrock is if nothing else hugely respected.

The fans are just pleased to have some sort of a squad ahead of the clash with Stockport, even if as I write there has still been no official confirmation that the transfer embargo has been lifted by the Football League.

Therefore predictions for the season are extremely difficult to make. The national media have had a go of course, but seem unsurprisingly to be closing their eyes and sticking a pin in the league table. Alan Brazil of Talksport has us to go up automatically, but FourFourTwo predict non-league football at Roots Hall next year.

Much will depend on how quickly Sturrock can get his team to gel. Wisely, he has brought in players who he knows and trusts, such as Peter Gilbert, Craig Easton, Blair Sturrock, Sofiane Zaaboub, Barry Corr and Graham Coughlan, all of whom have played under him at some stage of their careers.
Assistant Tommy Widdrington has also used his contacts in the non-league world to bring in Luke Prosser, Sean Clohessy and Ryan Hall.

But perhaps the key to this season lies in three young players who were left when the rest of the squad walked out in July. Ex-Chelsea man Anthony Grant is improving fast and has an excellent pedigree, while Scott Spencer, once a £500,000 signing for Everton, has shown glimpses of being that elusive 20 goal a season finisher. Fellow forward Matt Paterson has flair and guile that could be crucial to unlocking stubborn basement league defences, and if Sturrock can get the best out of that trio, then fans will be hopeful of a promotion push.

Sturrock himself has always said that a return to League One is the aim, and his track record in League Two shows why. Promotions with Plymouth and Swindon show he knows how to get out of this league but he has arguably never faced a challenge like this before.

It is important that fans do not turn on the new, young side if they fail to hit the ground running. Predictions are tough to make, but supporters in the main just want the off-field problems to be over and to be building a solid base for the future.

The Stockport game brings the start of an uncertain but exciting new era, and hopefully there are better times ahead.”

Read all the latest on the Blues throughout the season right here on Longpier.com

Check out the:
2009/10 preview
2008/9 preview
2007/8 preview
2006/7 preview