Welcome.....

Hello and welcome to my thoughts, musings and general bollocks on all things Cobblers.
 Most likely is that you are reading this because you're either bored or i've hounded you on a social media site to view it and make me feel worthwhile, so thanks for that, I knew I could count on you.

If you want to know anything about me then here is a brief overview. I am 28 years old, work in Insurance and have supported Northampton Town since early 1990's, before that time i was made to support the same team as my father, Oldham Athletic. Luckily i suppose, i saw their 'wonder' years in the newly formed Premiership, good times and I saw many good games and top players however it never felt quite right. I started going to watch the Cobblers and fell in love, literally fell in love with a football club, felt a bit queer, but it was definately love. I mean don't get me wrong, i didn't danger wank over NTFC or anything, but then you don't masturbate over the one you love do you? Anyway....

My first blog was intended to be a 'Don't Panic' to all NTFC fans....

So last season didn't quite pan out as we had all hoped, we had the massive high of beating Liverpool at Anfield and way too many lows. Perhaps the worst was being 3-0 up against Hereford at home only to lose 4-3, thankfully i was on holiday in Florida at the time. I must admit when finding out that scoreline i was insanely rude to a lady at Walmart, however she was American and probably deserved it.

After that result we kind of continued on a decline and not only did we flirt with relegation out of the Football League, we had a full on marital affair with it.

99% of fans were saying we need a total overhaul of the squad after last seasons nightmare......Gary Johnson seemed to agree and he released most of the squad. My personal opinion is he got every single keep or let go decision spot on. You could argue the case for a couple of them but there is no room for sentiment in football and you can't let sentiment cloud your judgement.

Take Leon McKenzie for example....he scored important goals for us and had a fantastic goal ratio....coming to the end of his career and had built a good rapport with the fans, sentimental decision would have been to keep him on.....non sentimental decision is to get rid of him, he won't play enough games and we can't afford to carry anyone in our small squad.

Abdul Osman and Liam Davis might think themselves a little bit unlucky, however when the chips were down these guys cared so little they were merely potatoes in a field. Certainly in Osmans case anyway, Davis perhaps a little less but then he only seems to start playing when his contract is running out and he is also rather injury prone.

They are the only contentious ones in my opinion, none of the others can really complain about being released and I still think Gary Johnson got all decisions spot on.

So who will come in and make up most of the squad, quite simply none of us have a clue. There is no real need to panic though, for the past few seasons we have had a big turnover of players, perhaps not to this magnitude but we almost lost our Football League status so by the grace of Martin Smiths left foot, it was needed. People may argue for stability, but surely we have failed with this bunch so if we go for stability then we will fail again?

I am hearing numerous fans asking why we have only signed one player so far and how we won't have a squad for next season.....are these the sort of fans who wake up in the morning and think 'i'll probably get run over today' ? Honestly, it is the 21st May, there is plenty of time before the players report back for pre season.
Most players that are being released from clubs at the moment still technically have contracts till July 1st, hence massives of signings being announced by all clubs around that time. Also i would say there is no point in GJ panicking and signing the likes of me and you just so we have a squad to keep some clueless fans happy. That said if you happen to ever read this GJ, i am ready and available, think of me as a similar player to Super Kevin Thornton, just a little fatter and less fit.

So my plea to my fellow NTFC fans for the moment is to not panic, sit back and enjoy the summer and enjoy the rumours flying around and have some trust in our manager that he actually knows what he is doing, afterall, he is the first proven manager we have appointed in a long time. If you still want to panic then i suggest you get drunk, twice. Then once more. Then phone the Samaritans.

I'll update some more thoughts in the next few days, this is a start though, let me know your thoughts. If you like this blog then great, tell people and get them to read it, if you hate it then great, tell people and get them to read it.

Cheers!