1) We cannot go another summer without replacing at least one of our centre backs with someone who has presence and experience.
2) Thanking a 39 year old - great (if brief) servant that he has been - for keeping his ageing legs going so our heads remained above water is a measure of how low our ambitions tumbled after only 18 months of relegation.
3) The number of thousands we take to away games directly correlates with how many goals we concede. 6000 at Fulham? 6-0. 4000 at Wednesday? 4-1. 3000-4000 at Selhurst? Take your pick, there's plenty of thrashings to choose from.
I gave up on this sorry-assed season sometime ago, but it kept coming back to bite me. Now it's truly over I'm quite glad we took a beating yesterday. It allows Roeder to give the squad a long, hard look and it's encouraging to hear what he feels the squad doesn't need next season.
I for one am fed up with seeing Shackell, Doc and Otsemebor look around for someone to blame when their poor marking and lack of communication has led to another softly conceded goal. Martin Taylor or someone of equal stature needs to replace Doherty immediately. Shackell should remain on the bench until he can prove he can concentrate for 90 minutes. Otsemebor defies logic - he has considerable skills going forward but it is wrong that a man so obviously gifted has not been educated in the simple art of defending, especially considering he is not new to the game.
Time and again we've heard the words 'if only we'd taken our chances'. That's all very well, but in this strangest of strange seasons, if we'd conceded none of the silly goals that we have, we'd be equally in with a chance of the play-offs. Yes, we've a better defensive record than last year but it's all relative.
My theory is that we'd be more relaxed in front of goal of we knew our defence weren't about to throw the game at any given moment. That can't be good for the likes of Cureton, who seemed to be so hell-bent on making up for the mistakes at the the back that he started making his own mistakes up front.
What utterly defies logic and common sense is that not one manager before Roeder saw a problem at centre back. It's the foundation of a good team, and we haven't had one since promotion. We can blame the board all we like but it is a manager thing, nothing more. Besides, we would hate it if our board started insisting on what players to bring in.
The last five seasons have been a portent for what was coming. Promotion year was all about showing we had the teeth to compete. We got it right. Our year in the Premier League should have been the same, but we misjudged it completely, stuck somewhere in between prudence and ambition, ending up with a 4ft has-been from Bolton at centre back and waiting until Christmas to show we actually wanted to stay in that league.
The following seasons were just fire-fighting, money-saving operations that went horribly wrong. It gave no-one, in or outside the club, the impression that we were a team about to go places. Spending £3m on Earnshaw was a desperate bid to appease the fans, and while his goals were welcome, asking him to play with players worth a fraction of his value just highlighted our failings on and off the pitch.
This season had potential, and Peter Grant has received a lot of unfair criticism when it is conveniently forgotten that our first-team coach walked out on him at the start of the season. We then proceeded to play like a team without a coach, and the rest is history.
So big decisions need to be made. Gary Doherty must go. He symbolises most of what has been wrong: nice bloke, top effort, can't quite cut it. Huckerby must go. It's a shame but we need to move on, and I'm afraid he needs to bear some of the responsibility for this season. Complaining about the squad was the single worst thing he could have done, and whether he was right or not, when your best player publicly says the rest of you are shit, it can't be all that motivating.
The board must squeeze money from every orifice to help Roeder get what he wants. My guess is that we'll have an interesting mix of youth and experience next year. As we've seen at other clubs, Roeder doesn't handle big names too well but neither do Norwich. So solid players like Martin Taylor need to be brought in alongside youngsters who are hungry. Bertrand and Evans have been superb this season, and if Roeder can keep bringing in that kind of kid, we're in for an exciting time.
Fotheringham must be the fulcrum of everything we do. He will be a superb player if we get promoted, with a bit more time and space in the Premier allowing his game to really flourish. For now though, we must be thankful that he has a tough side to his game that doesn't allow him to be bullied in this league. If Lee Clark can teach him the value of more goals, we will really be on to a winner.
So it's a summer of symbolism. I just hope that people realise it may take another season to really get ourselves sorted. That won't cut any ice with the strait-jacketed residents at the Pink'un hospital - they'll be posting furious messages blaming their nemesis Delia if we fail to pick up anything less than maximum points in August - but if we don't look like we mean business over the summer, the board can wave goodbye to goodwill from any fans.
Anyway, a nod to Dion: You stood as a shining beacon of professionalism when all around you were falling apart but frankly, we should never have got ourselves into the position where we needed your help in the first place. But thanks anyway - we couldn't have stayed up without you.
