QPR- Shaun Wright Phillips & Anton Ferdinand Blackburn- Scott Danns Wigan- Shaun Maloney Swansea- Brendan Rogers tends to make good signings and has found 2! Norwich- None We already knew that Lambert had bought well over the summer, but is anyone else worried that the relegation bar has been raised overnight??? OK there have also been some pretty poor signings from two of these teams (Barton/ Yakubu) but in general the relegation candidates have held on to their best players and bought well!
ILWT, but we will be up against some pretty strong teams! I'm hoping that Samba throws a strop about being made to stay at Blackburn; Barton assaults half the QPR team over some minor issue and Worm decides he can't stand Wales! That should make sure that 40 pts will be enough and I'm confident Lambert can deliver that target!
I agree that they have all strengthened their squad but it's only similar to what we did in the pre-season period and our lot have had 6 weeks more together. The only potential game changing player in your list is SWP and we couldn't / wouldn't pay that ridiculous wage anyway. Lambert has stated he is reserving cash for January when we may need it more so let's not get too worried yet. However, I am a bit miffed that Lansbury ended up at West Ham - I wonder if we did try.....
Don't know much about the Swansea signings. I think Barton is a great signing for qpr. He's not as bad as he used to be and he seems to be passionate. I think the rest of the players are overrated and haven't done much to light up the premiership, except swp.
I expect Arsenal would have been happy to loan him to us, but we can only loan 2 players at once. If I had to choose 2 from Lansbury, Naughton and De Laet I think I would make the same choice! I bet Lambert would have been interested in a permanent move, but clearly either Arsenal or Henri weren't keen! Before the season started I was worried that there was no competition for Hoolahan's place, but Lambert showed against Stoke that now we have two wingers we don't necessarily need an attacking central midfielder in our starting line-up.
I have to agree with the general thrust of this thread. Last week I was quietly confident that there were at least 3 weaker squads in the Premiership - Wigan, Blackburn, Swansea QPR - but after yesterday? I still live in hope especially as I am convinced that PL will get 100% from all the squad but even if the worst happens we will have had a season in the Premiership and the squad and the Club will be a lot stronger than when we went up.
Not really fussed - let's see how many of those mentioned put in a similar performance to ours against chelsea...we've bought well, only difference being that ours buys aren't big names...yet... also, regardless of who Blackburn sign, while they have kean at the helm they're nothing to worry about...
If we do get relegated we will be able to keep all if not most of our players. If QPR get relegated SWP, Barton and others will want to leave.
Beeston's point above is spot on. Lambert got in early and ensured the majority of new signings had several weeks to gel together before the season started. No need for a Christmas Eve-style panic purchase!! We don't have the resources to buy "big names" and Lambert has proved we don't need to. Situation hasn't changed, we simply need more points than 3 teams in this league. Confident Lambert's our man to do it.
Last year (and the year before) we proved big names dont count for that much it's actually more about team spirit and confidence. That was what won through for us last year competing against teams that had signed "big time charlies" eg Cardiff. We got promoted, they didnt. I really believe our best chance of staying up this year is to pursue a similar strategy and it's exactly what PL has done. If come January it isnt working and confidence is down then is teh time to lok again. I'm actually quite pleased we havent blown our money on star signings.
i tend to dissagree with the 'we don't have the resources' point; we could have spent more money if we wanted to, getting a PL-experienced player in for £5m and higher wages, it just we have chosen not to but buy unproven players. the jury is out as to whether that policy will work in the Premier League.
Lambert's thinking long term. If we get relegated I don't think anybody will want to leave. We will then have a strong squad to build on and get us back into the premiership. If we stay up all is good and then we can add some quality to compete higher up in the premiership.
Well said. I think we've tried to do a cross between the two... and whether it works remains to be seen! Good luck to you guys, I hope we both stay up. For some reason, I kind of hoped QPR wouldn't during the preseason... but they're signings have made that feeling stronger somehow! Barton? Dyer? Taarabt? Bothroyd? Same team? Warnock? Urgh....
There was always going to be a gamble between playing it relatively safe financially, building for the future (factoring in the possibility of being relegated) and a more flagrant use of money and gambling on staying up. I tend to think that we have been overcautious and am concerned that the lack of quality could well be our undoing. Also I bought in to the 7 year plan when we first got promoted to the P, now we here I think the plan should be try out utmost to stay here and I think we could try a little harder, in terms of bringing additional quality to the team.
