Springtime stream of consciousness

What is it about the spring ? Where are the green shoots of recovery in North East football ? Why are we crap when the daffodils are out ? I had a rubbish start to spring, but I've cheered up since then. It was partly because some of it was in February and I don’t believe anyone’s really happy in February. It's a sneaky month. Everyone guards against a post-Christmas lull in January, but no one sees it coming when it hits in February. But what’s Sunderland’s excuse ? I know, Darren bloody Bent. Well, yes with hindsight @DB11TT (or @DB39TT or whatever he is now) has apparently knackered Sunderland’s season with his decision to take the money on offer down the road. But really, can we just lump all the blame onto the gun for hire ? He had, after all, been decidedly moderate during the first half of the season and it was screamingly obvious that his nose was well out of joint once Gyan wafted in with a sprinkling of super-stardust. And are Black Cats fans really going to claim that paying 5 million quid for a thirty-something striker from Stoke City with dodgy knees was going to be good use of the transfer pot ? No. No. No. It’s just the latest dose of Seasonal Affective Disorder on Wearside, because they’ve got a lot of previous when it comes to crap springs. They were rubbish around this time last year as well. Peter Reid’s best team around the turn of the century twice fell away after Christmas when Europe was in their grasp. That’s one of the main conundrums for Steve Bruce to unpick next season – how to keep going till the finishing line. And by the way, I’m prone to knee jerk reactions as much as the next man, but “Bruce out” on the phone-ins ? Really ? I mean REALLY ? Please, please get a grip. He’s the right man in the right place, at the right time and it’s up to him to kick on and make best use of the Stadium of Light opportunities. And opportunity knocks. I was lucky enough to have a couple of inside peeks at Sunderland over the last month or two – I did one of Niall Quinn’s talk-ins and then I happened to find myself in the boardroom after the Liverpool match – and these are serious, passionate, intelligent people with a game plan. So stick with it. Yes, this season’s a bit goosed now, but next season might be very good indeed. Newcastle haven’t been AS bad during the spring but they haven’t been wearing their daffodils with pride either. Like Sunderland, there are mitigating cirumstances (Andy, wherefore art thou Andy ?), but unlike Sunderland, the Magpies have done a decent job of rolling with the punches. It’s been patchy and volatile, but the Wolves win gets them just about over the top and anyone who complains too loudly at Newcastle this season needs to take a long hard look at the last 24 months, and the finances, then just pipe down and realise that the whole point of this season in the premier league was to make sure that next season is in the premier league as well. And there have been lovely little bonuses along the way. Leon Best – who saw that coming ? Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan – the Black and White midfield mafia of the premier league. Chieck Tiote – pound-for-pound up there with Javier Hernandez as the best signing of the season. So don’t complain. Complaining is just a waste of your life. Middlesbrough have quite enjoyed springtime. It was certainly better than the long, hard, grim winter and it was a country mile better than the dismal, depressing resource-sapping summer and autumn that came beforehand. I really, really like Tony Mowbray. He’s honest, he’s got a Boro-red heart and he understands that the manager’s job no longer comes with a silver spoon and an open chequebook. Yes, the club is on shifting, sinking sands financially, because the parachute won’t open so far next season, but they’ve got the right man at the helm. They’re staying up and that’s no small achievement considering the total wreckage Mowbray found when he arrived. Don’t dwell on the manager’s tone too much either. He’s got a quiet, almost downbeat tone about him during his press conferences. But that’s just the way he is. He’s very considered and if you listen to what he’s saying, it always makes sense. Springtime’s been OK for Hartlepool, but the main point there is that “OK” was all it needed to be, because they’d done more than enough beforehand to stay in League One, which was above and beyond what most people were expecting. Carlisle, god bless them, have only gone and won at Wembley in the springtime, when the sun was shining and the ghosts were laid to rest. Peter Murphy’s Daddy Cool story was brilliant and I was so pleased for all of them. The fans, the players, the management, the directors and Andy the kitman-cum-mediaman. They got a good kicking from Southampton 12 months ago and they learned from that and this was catharsis on a grand scale for everyone involved. And spring’s been brilliant for the non-league boys, with Darlo getting to Wembley and Gateshead running them close and Whitley Bay booking their inevitable return ticket for a day out beneath the arch. So I suppose spring’s not been all bad, but I did have a week at work where I felt more conflicted and more unsettled than I ever have during my 139 years in the job. It was nothing to do with my employers or my employment, it was to do with mechanics and ethics and journalistic method, and I will never, ever say anything more about that. Hopefully it’s over and hopefully the sun will keep shining and I’ll cover two more Wembley wins and Newcastle and even SAD-suffering Sunderland will finish with a flourish.