Some hope, no hope or Bob Hope?

One game in, undefeated. The general mood one of relief at not losing and of a competitive performance after the turmoil of the past week. Fans in good voice and extremely supportive of the manager in particular. Even those who don't want Rooney in our club are sympathetic to what he has had to contend with.

We remain a complete mess. No news on any change of ownership. Unknown whether Morris will continue to finance the club in the interim. Troubling signs everywhere - skeleton staff on duty in all areas, no TV in concourses, no hot water. Evidence that the club is being run on the slenderest of shoestrings. Why? Has Morris run out of money? Has he decided enough is enough? Is he trying to reduce monthly losses to make the club more attractive to a buyer?

On the pitch: papering over huge cracks with the signings of a couple of ancient centre halves on cheap wages, a cheap goalie so that we can sell our best one and a naughty boy who nobody wants. Rooney says there can be no more signings unless something changes. What has to change? What actually is required? Nobody will tell us.

As things stand: we have a competitive team, sort of. Unless we get a single injury at centre half or centre forward that is.

Goalkeeper: assuming Marshall leaves we have Roos and Allsopp. We are OK but not great.

Full backs: Byrne, Buchanan, Mconald, Forsyth. We are fine.

Centre half: Davies and Stearman, Forsyth and Cashin at a pinch. We are desperately short. IF Jagielka and Menghi could be added we ought to be solid enough to avoid being rolled over on a regular basis. Until then we MAY just about manage.

Midfield: Bird, Shinnie, Morrison, Watson, Sibley, Hutchinson. Knight and Bielik to return at some point. We are fine.

Wide: Jozwiak, Lawrence, Ebosele. We are very short of options and threat. Lawrence is now playing centrally and Jozwiak seems incapable of taking on his man or shooting. We look as though we will create very little from wide positions.

Centre forward: yep, it's jut CKR. Doing a man's job, I take off my hat to him. Behind him we have Stretton only. We have had it unless we can strengthen up front. With just CKR and little out wide we will score very few goals.

I reckon we can maybe just keep our heads above water for the immediate future but will certainly go down unless we can make several new signings. At minimum, one and probably two centre halves. Two strikers. One and probably two wide players, perhaps just one if he might be able to do a job centrally as well on occasion. And while Rooney has done a commendable job of getting the players focused on the job in hand, off the field uncertainty will surely filter down to performances and a downward spiral of it all going down the pan.

How does all that sound?