Fan Letters: “I don’t understand some of the negativity towards Lee Johnson!”

Dear Roker Report,

Why do some people write in to say ‘lots of our fans are against the manager’?

While the odd one or two seem to have complained, I feel most realise what kind of mess he inherited and that he actually did manage to get some kind of tune out of the players... I also realise that this mess will not be sorted in a couple of months, the club has been badly run for a dozen years at least and the ‘comeback’ will undoubtedly be a slow one.

We now have an almost completely new regime in charge of the club and recruitment, people who appear to have been handpicked for particular jobs rather than what seemed to be a ‘he/she will do’ attitude, while none of us fans are pleased to be stuck in division three for another season, we really have to look at the wider picture and put our hope into this new management team... unfortunately, that hope is all we have.

SAFCIan

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Thanks for your letter, Ian. We get the full range of views amongst our letter writers, but I have to agree with you that the minority who claim Johnson isn’t up to it are also often the most vocal. This is natural I guess - if you’re strongly against something you’re more likely to speak up (and therefore more likely to be heard) than those who may be accepting of a situation. But those calling for LJ to be sacked are, it seems, simply whistling in the wind. Keep the faith!

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

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Dear Roker Report,

The fixtures are out and we have know easy start ,so we have to hit the ground running. We still have not sorted contracts out for four players and there is no signings looking imminent.

I think this all sounds and looks so familiar, as other teams start to do business. Speakman if he has list of targets go out and get them, that’s what he gets paid for. What are our new statistics and analysers doing they must of had targets by now drawn up but alas not one signing.

Again, if we don’t tie our best players down like I mean now and don’t start recruiting we will be weeks behind the opposition. This year especially there will be know excuses accepted for failures in the recruitment process, we have the cash and structure. So let’s have some good news for us frustrated fans because twenty odd thousand fans have done their job in purchasing season tickets. Time for action not words.

Mark Wild

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Good to hear from you as always, Mark. It seems that some of the cogs are starting to turn - some announcements of contracts for youth players and the Ladies team have the feel of warm-ups for the big news around the out-of-contract four and our summer transfer targets for the men’s senior squad. Whispers have emerged that Luke O’Nien may be close to signing on for another few years, and I half expect that early July will see an uptick in business too as existing contracts of some of our targets expire and they have to make final decisions on their futures.

Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images