I went to a corporate dinner this week. It’s not something I do very often and do wonder whether people really enjoy them. It’s a social event where you can let your hair down, except you’re with your colleagues and boss, clients, suppliers and potential future employers. It’s fun in a very targeted and specific way.

I was sat next to someone who did this type of thing two or three times a week, he had a series of well-rehearsed anecdotes, the tone of which seemed to change whether he was talking to women (where he told stories about his children) or men (where he told stories about women).

On the other side was someone who works in a business development and regularly socialises for work. At the end of every anecdote, he let out an extraordinary high-pitched cackle, putting his fingers to his eyes like he was stemming tears of joy and doubled over in his seat as though trying to compose himself. He seemed to be having the funniest night of his life, except people having the funniest night of their lives don’t react like that.

There was a comedian who you’d recognise from occasional appearances on Mock the Week. He did what I believe is known as a ‘tight five’ – a well-rehearsed routine of guaranteed zingers, sitting in a comfortable space of current, relevant, and inoffensive. 

He did a joke about how much he was enjoying the evening; it was such a good party, he thought Boris Johnson might have had a hand in organising it. The people on either side of me fell about laughing as if it were an entirely unique comedic observation. 

Then, he said something about social media being the equivalent of checking your front door every five minutes to see what’s going on outside. I found myself laughing; it wasn’t funny, but I kind of felt I had to.

I couldn’t have been the only person laughing out of politeness or to follow the norms of the people around me. Did those either side of me find it funny? I doubt it. I know comedians do corporate gigs for money and generally hate them. On that basis, nobody was really enjoying themselves, we just all had to pretend we were.

This week the club finally announced the takeover by Anindya Bakrie and Erick Thohir. They had to pretend that this hasn’t been public knowledge for at least a year. The press had to report it as if it were news and we had to respond as if it had come as a complete surprise. The Price of Football podcast discussed it briefly and their conclusion was, new stadium aside, little would change.

The club have called it a new chapter, but the objectives are well documented and remain unchanged. The announcement was hardly the night of the long knives when Gary Waddock was replaced by Michael Appleton during the takeover of Eales and Ashton from Ian Lenagan. 

It’s all very necessary I suppose, but it’s very inauthentic, like laughing at a comedian doing jokes everyone, including the comedian, doesn’t think are particularly funny, we all must play along and hope that it’ll soon be all over.

The club know they must play along too, but this kind of thing does make it difficult to get a grip on the club and the season. It’s been such an odd campaign all round – it started too early, results have been nothing to get excited about, there’s been no breakthrough star, and we’ve had two blank weekends.  

Even yesterday against Charlton, train strikes made getting to the game a pain, we’d normally take good numbers to London, but there was little sense of the mass movement of an away-day pilgrimage. There’s no flow, that metronomic reassurance that comes from the routine of the season. Are we really engaged?

In context, the draw against Charlton is a solid result, and it’s good to see Moore and Taylor back and Browne playing well. This all bodes well for the future. But it still feels like we’re treading water waiting for something to happen. Next week’s game against Wycombe is likely to be the biggest home game before the New Year and they’ve had a worse start than us. I suspect the reality of the World Cup being in November will mean that the season will continue in this fashion until Christmas.

There’s an opportunity in the coming weeks to build up some momentum in terms of results, get players fit and creep up the table. Maybe we’ll get an interesting FA Cup draw. The real tests will come after Christmas though, and maybe we’ll be in a different place. For now, it feels like we’ll have to dig in and pretend we’re enjoying this.