Too many loans ruining a season…?

Plenty of rumours, discussion and debate has been going on for weeks as to what’s gone wrong at Sixfields this season on message boards, terraces and in the pub. Is the manager to blame? Are the players out of contract in the summer just not caring enough? Or could it be the fact that it seems every week we have a new loan signing to welcome in?

Stuart Gray has, in the past, used the loan system quite brilliantly and last season’s taking of Daniel Jones and Mark Little was a stroke of genius. This season promised much but with a small squad at the start of the season, we’ve been forced into more than FIFTEEN loan signings over the course of the campaign.

Loans are handy for a period of time when you lose a player for a few months but quick fixes they most certainly are not. For one thing, a new loan has to adjust to his new environment, meet the players and learn how his new side plays. By the time he’s done this, it’s time to go back to that parent club and become another forgotten man.

There’s been far too much squad disruption this season. Kurt Robinson came in and never played a first team game, Little returned and got injured so he was shipped back whilst the impressive Kyle Walker suffered as well and returned to the Championship with Sheffield United.

We’ve been bombarded with loans and new faces and it’s been difficult as fans to deal with the constant change in personnel. Imagine working wherever you work and a new young worker comes in every week. You have to teach him the ropes, show him how things are done and then within weeks he leaves, meaning you have to get another young whipper snapper in. It can’t be much fun.

As supporters we love to be able to identify with our players, to feel the same as they do after months of struggle and feel like you’re in the season together, fighting for the same cause. When players come in and out, it’s impossible to get that bond between fans and players that are coming and going.

Stuart Gray may learn some valuable lessons from this season and take them into the summer…loans have, on occasions, worked wonders for him and he must be praised for that. But after a season of stop-starts in the work force, now is the time to think about the long term and getting people who actually want to play for Northampton Town in and signing them…permanently.