Making Your Mind Up – What Do You Really Want?

What do you want from your football club?  Serious question, and one that we all need to be asking ourselves right now, because a selection of our fanbase are currently in danger of forcing Winkie into a decision that we would come to regret in years to come.

There’s been a minority of fans calling for Robbo’s head for a while, and with each home game that doesn’t bring a win, that minority appears to be growing.   I think Winkie can comfortably ignore it for now, but it it continues to grow, then he may be forced to act.

If you’re currently one of the booing contingent, or if you’re considering joining them in their campaign to have Robbo removed, I’d ask you to consider a few things.

I’m not going to ask you to consider whether our situation is really that bad – you know that we’re three points off a playoff spot and three points off of a relegation space, and you know that we’ve won three of our last five matches in all competitions.

I’m not going to ask you to consider whether a change in manager is likely to bring about a positive change – you already know that the majority of managerial changes bring nothing more than a temporary uplift, and that the money it would cost to remove Robbo and bring in a new boss would make a significant dent in the funds available for the playing squad.

I’m not even going to ask you to consider whether a new manager would be able to do anything at all right now – you know the transfer window doesn’t open for a couple of months, and that the option to bring in loans is no longer available.

I’m going to ask you to consider these:

• MK Dons 4:0 Man Utd
• MK Dons 2:1 The Kingston Lot
• Dele Alli, Brendan Galloway and Sheyi Ojo
• Promotion to the championship in 2014/15
• The footballing ethos that he’s embedded at every level of the club
• The loyalty that Robbo has shown to the club when other clubs have come in for him
• Attendance at fans forums
• Attendance at SA 10th Anniversary Party

Whatever you might think of the way we’re playing, our current league position, or our lack of wins at home since March, Robbo gets us.  He understands the club, he understands the fanbase and he loves it here.

The last one in the list is the most telling one for me – at the SA 10th anniversary party, Robbo, Winkie, Andrew Cullen, Lewie and a few others came along.  As you might expect, Winkie, Andrew Cullen, Lewie and the others stayed a respectful amount of time then made their excuses and left.  Robbo was different.  He bought his family, they stayed right to the end of the night, and at the end of the evening, he went round the room shaking hands with everyone and saying goodnight.  That’s bloody amazing.  That’s commitment.  That’s genuinely unique.  Whatever is happening right now, I genuinely do not believe that there is another manager in the country who would do that.

Whoever we would get in would not get us in the way that he does, and that means something to me.  I hope it means something to you, and that you get behind him and the team and see us through this difficult patch.

Brando.