The last couple of days have been magic. Four quality signings, with at least two very much proven at league level. That is to add to a squad that was already comfortably in the play-off positions in League One and top of the form table since our loss to Fleetwood at the beginning of September.
The next six months, though, are going to be absolutely crucial, and it is not going to be pleasant. So much rides on this. We now have, surely, the best squad in the league, and should genuinely expect to get automatic promotion, if not win the division. These signings will not have come cheap, despite being (for the most part) loans, and we were already a club operating at quite significant losses, with extremely concerning financial circumstances really not that long ago - it was only at the end of May that we settled our final winding-up order. This is in addition to a summer where we added a fair few personnel. Make no mistake about it, we are rolling the financial dice here. We are gambling on the financial benefits of the Championship. IF we were to fail in our pursuit of relegation, we would have to totally start from scratch: our loan players will leave; I imagine we will have to sell many, if not all, of our best players to the Championship due to their ambition and our need to cover financial losses; others, such as Henry, will probably feel they have achieved all they can at the club and move on, too; and even KR will probably get an offer from elsewhere and be off. I don't want to seem melodramatic, but I can see us being in a very precarious situation, with a total rebuild required from top to bottom.
Promotion, for me, becomes now not just an exciting possibility but an absolute necessity. Until the final whistle has gone in the game that makes us numerically certain of going up, I, for one, am going to be in a state of near-permanent anxiety!
