Joint-Chairman David Sullivan blogs on strengthening the squad this summer...
Our planning for strengthening the squad in the summer has been underway for some time.
I think we need goalscorers, a right back and maybe a central defender. The situation with Carl Jenkinson won’t be clear until the end of the season but we will have to sign a right back one way or another.
We of course bought Cheik Kouyate to play in midfield and as a fourth choice centre half but two years in a row now we’ve been caught out in central defence so it might be that we look to strengthen in that area for next season. We have Doneil Henry of course and he won impressive reviews for his performances at Blackburn Rovers before getting injured. If he’s ready for the Premier League then he could get a chance, otherwise it might be that he goes out on loan again to gain more experience.
If we do decide to buy, the challenge would be then trying to keep four central defenders happy but you do then have the cover for when you get injuries as we seem to have a habit of losing our centre halves for key parts of the season.
Looking ahead in the shorter term, I think our win last Saturday was important but realistically now I don’t think we can aim higher than eighth. The gap up to seventh is too big and I can’t see us getting there unless someone has a disaster.
I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t finish eighth, though, as we’ve got a favourable run-in. Although we do have more away games than home games, I read a report the other day that said we had the easiest run-in in the country on paper and, whatever anyone says, the teams down at the bottom are not as good as the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, who we have already played twice. We play Manchester City and that will obviously be a test but aside from that I think we have a good chance of winning our other remaining fixtures. That’s not to say that I think we will win them all but we will go into the games with confidence, knowing that if we put in the right performance we can take the points.
It promises to be an exciting run-in and we cannot afford to take our foot off the pedal. Your support has been fantastic so far this season and I know it will continue in our remaining eight games.
Come on you Irons!
David Sullivan