Contracts weigh heavily on Pearce

It's difficult to put your finger on precisely what the problem at City is at the moment. Since we were dumped out of the FA Cup, things have gone from bad to worse in the space of only a few short weeks.

Performances on the whole have been woeful, although at least we saw a bit more fight against Spurs last week, even if we did lose again. Even our mighty U18s got a bit of a hammering by Liverpool in last night's FA Youth Cup first leg at Anfield. The youngsters will need to put in a performance of monumental proportions in the 2nd leg next week to claw their way back, and we wish them luck, of course.

Back to first team matters though, and we've previously discussed City's wretched run of injuries as a contributing factor into the worrying dip in form, but I don't think it's just as simple as that.

Although Psycho wouldn't admit it, I think he's finding the going a bit tough at the moment and I suspect the prolonged, and dare I say tedious, goings on with player contracts is weighing him down and diverting his energies away from football matters on the pitch - it's certainly boring the pants off us fans!

With players delaying committing themselves to the club, it must be hard to develop any sort of team spirit and togetherness when thoughts are more likely to about agents, signing on fees and bonuses, and I fear the remaining games this season will be very mediocre affairs lacking passion and guts - I'd love to be proved wrong though!

The speculation about the England position will also not have helped, although it looks like Pearce is thankfully now well out of the running and can concentrate his own energies on the job in hand at Eastlands.

So what now? We'll in all of this gloom and doom, it's the supporters once again who end up getting the bum deal. Our passion for the club is undiminished, but I don't think all the players really understand what this club means to us - if they did, then we would probably still be in the Cup and aiming for a top six finish. A summer clear out looks innevitable, but Pearce needs to be careful that he's sure any new players are better than the ones who end up going.

These are difficult times for the Blue half of the City, not helped by United's recent unbeaten run. It's important though, we all get behind the team now and support them. The team however, must respond in kind and repay the fan loyalty; something that needs to be earned rather than just expected.

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