JAMES Schooley is the latest Blues fans to have his say on what is happening at Roots Hall. 

Day 41 in the Southend United managerial circus. That might be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

I planned to write this column earlier but I’m glad that I held off given Tuesday afternoon’s twist in the tale.

After reports of meetings with various candidates, Adam Barrett seemingly dropping out of the running thanks to Neil Harris and Millwall, and then almost two weeks of flip-flopping between Sol Campbell and Henrik Larsson, the chairman seemed set to finally appoint the latter.

That was, of course, until the deal collapsed due to the loss from the equation of Tommy Johnson, who both Larsson and the chairman were relying on to provide the new management team with the EFL knowledge that Larsson lacks.

I could argue until I’m blue in the face about how much of a risk it would have been to appoint Larsson if he was going to rely on somebody else for that knowledge.

Although rumours of potential investment attached to Larsson had gathered pace and would have been great if they turned out to be true, I can’t claim to be disappointed that he looks set to miss out on the manager’s job as I was never convinced that he was the right man for us anyway.

The question is where do we go now?

Will Sol Campbell come back to the table and bring his excellent recent experience of keeping a seemingly-doomed Macclesfield in the EFL last season?

Is Adam Barrett still a possibility? Is there anybody else decent and realistic available!?

The wait will have to continue.

With that being said, and jokes aside, this whole sorry episode needs to be wrapped up quickly.

I am all for due diligence to get the right man but I don’t think this process has had the structure that we’ve been led to believe.

It has seemed chaotic and erratic, and I fear that SUFC is becoming a laughing stock amongst both fellow fans, and among professionals within football’s inner circles.

All the while, the team continues to drift rudderless, slipping ever further behind the clubs above in the table, led by a caretaker manager who everybody knows is not in the running for the job, and with a squad which might be talented man-for-man but which seems to lack any collective passion, character, belief, bottle, self-pride, direction or team spirit.

Whatever happens now, I think we can all agree on one thing - major, major surgery is needed on this squad at the earliest opportunity.