IT was Rudyard Kipling who said something about keeping your head while all around you lose theirs. I bet that is how Sean Dyche feels at the minute.

The defeat at home to Newcastle on Monday has plunged us right into the mire but Dyche, as you’d expect from him, is refusing to get carried away. I just wish I had his calmness.

Having watched the performance back in the cold light of day, I don’t actually think we were that bad but we do have big problems at either end of the field.

We’re leaking goals at one end but not scoring (enough) at the other – exactly the sort of rut that is difficult to get out of.

I’ve seen a few people losing patience with Dyche but we would be mad as a box of frogs to get rid of him.

The squad doesn’t become bad overnight and neither does the manager. But, as a unit, we need to adapt because this season’s Premier League is very different to last.

The teams who were promoted offer so much more than those who were relegated – well, Fulham and Wolves certainly – while teams that perhaps didn’t do so well last year – chiefly Bournemouth and Watford – have improved massively.

We, I’m afraid to say, have been caught napping. Other teams have evolved but we haven’t, certainly not to the extent needed.

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but we have to work out what went wrong with the summer recruitment – and something obviously did – and rectify it in January.

At times we’re too principled in our approach and while I admire the fact we refuse to pay over the odds, something has to give.

The transfer market is what it is – you either compete or you pack up and go home. We’re on such a sound financial footing that surely now we can reap the rewards of years of sound financial manage-ment by Dyche and the board.

Dyche is absolutely the man to take us forward but he needs the backing of not just the fans but the money men as well.