Panic on the streets of B6.

It’s now eight days since the debacle at Selhurst.

No new players through the door. Another few shipped out.

Did the job at third tier Bolton (with the oldest line up since promotion).

Less than five days to go to the close of the transfer window.

A transfer embargo seemingly placed on the manager with unwanted loanees the only viable options being discussed.

And our squad for 2022-23 currently consists of:

• Two goalkeepers, three central defenders, one right back, one left back and another who has never played.

• Five midfielders to cover sometimes four positions. Two wingers in a team that doesn’t play wingers. And two centre forwards.

• Plus a huge reluctance to play any of the sporadic youth still at the club.

The reality is we are in real danger now of facing the season with our smallest, most threadbare squad in decades.

Contrary to what Gerrard says however there is not a lack of quality, just a huge, self inflicted, paucity of depth.

Realistically we cannot afford an injury anywhere across the defence, in midfield or up front, let alone a loss of form or heaven forbid a change in tactics. We simply don’t have the depth in the squad.

We have a squad of essentially 17 players. Let that sink in.

But the bad news only starts there.

We cannot continue to waste the quality that we have got.

Refusing to play wingers as wingers but demanding full backs are stationed three quarters of the way up the pitch with acres of space left empty behind, leaving the opposition with time and space to choose their weapon of attack around the box, midfield left exposed with the one tackler to carry the unwinnable fight.

As Steven Gerrard himself has said:

“It’s hard to execute a game plan if not everyone believes in what you are doing.”

More appropriate would be:

“It’s hard to execute a game plan that is such palpable nonsense.”

It doesn’t matter if you earn pocket money or thousands per week. Being asked to do something destined to fail is never going to be an easy sell.

We might not have made any signings this week and may have reduced the squad even further but at least we can hope that a moment of clarity has hit at Bodymoor and starting today at 2.00pm we begin to play to our squad’s strengths and not the manager's bizarre whims.