Quite possibly worse than ours, given the strength of their squad and how they did last season. Obviously, the horrendous injury to Raul Jimenez has severely affected them, but, as I say, the “pundits” have said “Saints are in danger” but no mention of Wolves .....
It tells me Ronald Koeman can do no right in your eyes Have you looked at his record since he left Everton? Hardly terrible.
I’ve only just looked at this thread and I have to say well done Tom for keeping the faith I reckon 1 more point will actually be safe, but we need 3 more to mitigate for any surprises. Then we can look upwards Weird how some people don’t get how lucky we are to have Ralph
I think he’s alright, he’s just not good. His record since Everton? He’s been at Barca. Quite hard to be **** there.
Barcelona are skint, Messi is an old man, most of their other stars have faded. So I'd say it was very easy to be **** there, and that job was a poisoned chalice if ever there was one. He also got Holland to the Euros. First tournament finals since the 2014 WC. I know you don't rate him. For me he's a total legend, a giant amongst pygmies. No one ever rocked a blazer and chinos combo like Ron. I love the guy, and love isn't rational, but I won't have it that he isn't a good manager. His record quite clearly speaks for itself, and his defects only add to the lustre of his good qualities; something you could also say about Ralph.
I don't especially dislike him. I just think he's really average. You've shot yourself in the foot there - "his record quite clearly speaks for itself" - indeed it does. He's only ever once exceeded expectations, and that was with us. Ralph has exceeded expectations at every club he's managed. (You are right regarding the blazer and chinos though....!)
I defended Ron to the hilt while he was with us but the stuff that's emerged since he went, particularly about the academy, leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Him and Les Reed set us back years. I can't remember the name of the not606er (he left here ages ago), who several of us had run ins with when he posted stuff about Ron that we didn't like. Most of it turned out to be completely true, and I apologise to whoever it was for doubting him.
I'm aware that if we hadn't beaten Burnley and only managed 1 or 2 points from our last 8 games, then we would have ended up with a **** GD and if Fulham had managed to get 8/9 points from their last 8 games, theirs would be better The Maths is better now as they need 10 from 7, which is definitely the most they could achieve with a bloody good tailwind One more point for us and loss for them will do it, but I want the Toon to go down, I love going to Fulham and Newcastle is too far away btw I want the Toon to go down mainly because they need rid of their **** owner, what with the Shepherds and Ashley they haven't had much luck in that regard (and I like Harry being in the Prem)
I seem to say this same thing every season around this time, but I'll never feel safe until it's a mathematical certainty. Just to cheer everyone up, as it stands, Fulham, West Brom, and Sheffield United could theoretically all finish above us. I know they won't, you know they won't, but they could, OK?
I am the same to be honest, though it would take an extraordinary sequence of events for us to drop into the bottom 3 the season.
It's a bit of a double-edged sword that 2 of our last 8 games are against West Brom and Fulham. Even 2 draws from those 2 should be enough, without any other results, but losing both of them isn't something I want to think about.
My main concern was not that we are bad enough to go down but that we could lose another 11 to injury. Touch wood that won’t happen. And the main benefit of drawing up this thread was seeing how many matchups there were between relegation battlers meaning that there were fewer points available than I expected. The loss against Brighton was worrying but the burnley performance has removed most of the worry but not all of it as chilcs said.