Economic problems are apparently to be solved by massive cuts to public services at a moments notice in the hope that it will all work out for the best. The way news, music and pretty much anything else is digested has been squeezed into 140 character boxes or five minute time slots so that it can all be seen and done in next to no time. Elsewhere, in the always hectic world of football, clubs seem to feel under more pressure than ever to succeed all of the time, leading, inevitably, to a slapdash form of hiring and firing that sees managers lose their jobs incredibly quickly after a bad spell.
Seldom do you see a coach, at any professional club, given time unless he is producing miraculous results. There have been two high profile casualties in recent weeks in the form of Simon Grayson and Mick McCarthy at Leeds and Wolves respectively.
Grayson managed Leeds for just over three years, a spell which saw him get them out of League One and help the club to cement themselves around the play-off places in the Championship. At the time of his sacking, Leeds were going well in the top half of the table, but the decision to relieve him of his duties was given this explanation:
"We have 18 games to go this season and are still within touching distance of the Play-Offs, but felt with the transfer window now closed we needed to make the change at this time in the belief that a new managerial team will be able to get more out of the existing squad of players and make the difference".
Quite who the Leeds board, and perhaps chiefly, Ken Bates thought was better placed to get the team into the play-offs than the man who knew the squad inside out, and was prepared to continue despite having his captain sold from underneath his feet is anyone's guess. The fans reacted angrily to the decision, but, ultimately, they are helpless. Now the club have Neil Redfearn acting as an interim coach, and have lost two and won one of the games under his stewardship, hardly play-off form.
In McCarthy's case, it was fan power as much as boardroom politics that proved his undoing. With the team struggling for form and needing a good result at home to local rivals West Brom, the wheels well and truly came off. After going in at half-time with the score at 1 - 1, the home side fell apart in the remaining 45 minutes, conceding four and exiting the field to a cocophony of booing from extremely unsatisfied supporters.
During his five and a half years as manager at Molineux, McCarthy transformed the side from one with a bloated wage bill and financial worries on the horizon, to a well drilled and formidable Championship outfit with some prudent purchases and rather a lot of hard graft. He eventually got the club promoted as Champions in the 2008-2009 season, having led the table for almost the entire season.
Two consecutive seasons of top flight football followed for the first time in 30 years, but the relationship quickly turned sour when, after a positive start to the season, the points stopped coming. It appears that the latest defeat was one too many for chairman Steve Morgan to handle who made the change almost immediately after the loss. The irony of the decision comes with the news that, at the time of writing, Alan Curbishley is the front runner for the job, a man who was let go by Charlton when the fans had also decided that they needed a new direction, just look where that got them.
It is with this in mind that I look at our draw with Bristol City on Tuesday night. With a two goal cushion going into the closing stages it appeared that we were well on our way to a comfortable victory, but then, with 15 minutes to go, they got one back.
The lead we had built ourselves now looked flimsy at best. The home side got their tails up, and, after nearly three minutes of additional time, they got their second goal. It was infuriating, upsetting and inexplicable for all concerned. The rage I displayed in the immediate aftermath could no doubt scare the wits out of numerous small children and perhaps, even some adults. Things were thrown around the room, it was ugly.
After roughly 30 minutes of the full time whistle being blown though, my thoughts began to mellow again. Yes, I was still at a loss to explain how we had thrown it away, but I started to think how I would have felt had we come back from two goals behind to snatch a draw at the death. I would have been ecstatic, and yet the same amount of points would have been awarded to us.
We were awful against Coventry at home earlier in the season but got two extremely late goals, won the game, and everyone went home happy, regardless of how awful we'd been for 88 minutes of the match itself.
That's the nature of the football fan in many ways. Forget the decent points tally, great young players and stability at the club for the first time in god knows how long, instead using the hour immediately after the game to call for the managers head, slate the team for lacking "bottle" and claim that we are going to be relegated even though we are sitting in 14th position.
The next morning, the anger has always cooled somewhat, with many having had time to rationalise the result in their own heads. When it comes down to it, this season will not be remembered for us losing a two goal lead at Ashton Gate, but it will be seen as the time which saw Freedman take control for his first full term, steady the ship and start to seriously build for the future.
With that in mind, it gave me huge pride to hear Reise Allassani had signed a professional deal with the club earlier this week. Having seen him at first hand on two or three occasssions I can definitely vouch for his potential, and the fact that he turned down a number of Premiership clubs to sign with us shows that he and his family believe that Crystal Palace is the best place for his development.
As frustrating as results like Tuesday's can be, it is only one tiny set-back which we have been unfortunate enough to encounter. For the foreesable future the club won't be allowing short-termism to take over our thought processes, so try and put the disappointment of Ashton Gate behind you and focus on what Reise will be doing to defences along with Zaha, Scannell, Williams and the rest, for years to come.
Until next time.
