FOR the last few months it hasn’t been appropriate to write negatively about Newport County AFC in this column.

It wouldn’t have been right to say the club made a mistake in appointing Jimmy Dack as their manager, to express concern and fear over next season and the general direction the club is headed, because they’ve been battling for a chance to secure League One football next term.

Now that chance is all but gone.

It’s time to look at Newport County more critically because they absolutely must show clarity and leadership off the field. Not in the coming weeks, but right now, before next season is a write off.

Don’t think for a minute any of this is fuelled by disappointment at the Exiles missing out on the play-offs. It categorically is not.

I couldn’t care less if Newport County don’t contend for promotion in the next few years.

You don’t teach a baby to run the 100 metres in 11 seconds, you teach a baby to walk. And in Football League terms, the Exiles aren’t even toddlers yet. Now go and have a nap so you don’t get grouchy.

Promotion doesn’t matter for a club who have two years in the Football League. Progress does. As long as the club is progressing, a succession of mid-table finishes is absolutely fine with me.

I don’t care that Newport County’s lottery winning owner and chairman has decided the club has to now be entirely self sufficient, just grateful that his generosity allowed the Exiles to complete a 25-year odyssey with a successful and glorious conclusion. If you live to be 100-years old, it might not ever get better than beating Wrexham at Wembley. It was an era defining day.

Newport County AFC don’t want to go the same way as their Ironside version did, nor do they want to replicate a Hereford United, or an Aldershot – the list of modern day horror stories is nearly endless – they want to be self sufficient, they should strive to be.

I don’t have any concern about the supposedly big issues of Les Scadding’s financial investment and the Exiles fading from the promotion scene. I have a big issue on ticket pricing – in football in general and certainly at Newport – but I’m banging my head against a brick wall on that one, apparently.

But I have big issues with how this season was frittered away and what comes next and it is imperative the club’s decision makers get firmly on the front foot, not next week, not next month, but right now.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the club made a mistake in giving Dack the job for the remainder of the campaign, it is pretty clear.

Wonderful guy, good coach, potentially a good manager, but Dack was on a hiding to nothing with the approach being to keep everything as Justin Edinburgh had, just without Justin Edinburgh.

He was the Pied Piper and it was wrong to believe his deputy was going to be able to play the same tune.

And by only committing to one another for months, until the end of the season, Dack didn’t have the tools to change things even if he wanted to.

County took the easy option in plumping for Dack, even though he made clear from day one that he didn’t see himself remaining in the role long-term. It suited him, it suited them, but it wasn’t what was best though.

And the club failed to back the Dack properly. He has had to deal with horrible situations with both Rene Howe whose wife is seriously ill and Chris Zebroski who has just been sent to prison and neither player was replaced (though Newport, in fairness, handled both scenarios as well as they could have on a personal level).

Newport put the blame for failing to secure a striker down to FIFA, but plenty of other clubs did manage to recruit a deadline day striker signing. It might have made a huge difference. We shall never know.

So assuming Dack is Exiles manager for just two more games, then what? Who is assembling the squad for next season? When will a new manager be appointed? What the hell is going on?

The Exiles wanted stability in the wake of an unwanted departure, but they’ve created a situation whereby they will get anything but. Chaos could be around the corner.

They need to conduct interviews within the next couple of weeks, before the season ends, because a new manager is inevitable. Even if Dack does now want the role permanently, his audition hasn’t made a compelling case, sadly.

More than anything though, the board have to decide quickly exactly what sort of club Newport County want to be.

They’ll be a selling club; that goes without saying, few fans would take issue with that, but surviving and looking to sell top talent isn’t enough of a plan for longevity.

What style of football are Newport aspiring to play? To what degree are they expecting to rely on their youth academy to produce players? Will the manager be given full responsibility for identifying and signing players? Do they ultimately want another director of football? Is that the real role Nathan Blake is being lined-up for?

These are questions fans of the club want answering, but that doesn’t mean the club actually has the answers, because all the evidence is that they just stuck Dack in charge and hoped it would all work out.

A reduced budget is no issue in the right hands, but having to build almost an entirely new squad is hardly to be encouraged as this group, which finished 14th last season and could make the top ten this time, is clearly talented, if short on goals. They have the nucleus already in place, that nucleus must be retained.

Fine-tuning is required, but if County keep just waiting around to plan for next term, fine-tuning won’t be possible.

This squad of players will be gone, most will have other offers and County will be playing catch-up, gambling entirely on the wisdom of one man to recruit a new group.

It doesn’t need to be like that, as long as County’s decision makers make clear and bold decisions now, putting together a true vision for what they want to do in the future.

Because the example of how to build properly is right there for them. It took Burton Albion seven seasons to go up from League Two to League One after their own non-league odyssey and they didn’t do it by splashing the cash and making decisions always with an eye on tomorrow, and never the day after that. They also did it on a similar budget to County, with a similar sized fanbase.

County are now at a crossroads and they must choose their path very carefully.