Well yes, injuries can play their part as with any other club but I bet you didn't take that in to consideration for any of your players when assessing this Pre-season is not looking too bad but still leaking goals a bit. Hertha Berlin 3-2 NCFC (Vaughan 2) Celtic 0-1 NCFC (Holt - get in ) Pleased to say we are only playing Championship teams and above this year and are away to Peterborough later today and home to Ajax on Tuesday . Not a case of hyper-sensitive mate, just bewildered at how some folks come to their conclusions. A bit like MasterOfNone above, tells me that Holt could get injured, while of course that is very true and it could well be damaging to us the same could be said about your best or most influential players but that in all probability has not been taken in to account I agree opinions don't need to be logical but being a little rational sometimes wouldn't go a miss
I'm probably on my own here but I feel QPR's signings are distinctly average players despite all the money they're chucking at them. I've got QPR to struggle but stay up by the skin of their teeth because of squad depth giving them an advantage over relegation rivals. Norwich will be ok I feel mainly because they've got a manager who seems to know how to adapt to the opposition and get results. Believe they've made a couple of good value for money signings and not lost anybody yet. Swans. Not being complacent, can easily imagine a scenario where we have an awful start and struggle to recover, but have just got this feeling that we've improved the quality in the squad and will do further. Also believe Laudrup is sensible enough to only attempt a tweak of our system. If the new boys in midfield and the forward positions find their shooting boots early enough I'm confident we will improve on last year. Still need strengthening at the back though. And still would take 17th if it were offered.
You are not on your own about QPR. Hoillett will be a very good signing, Park will be good but the others are questionable - this is the viewpoint of most Canaries, myself included. I think they had the highest average players age last season (or very close) and look to be making that average even higher this summer. It may pay off for them but who knows. All the same I expect them to do much better than last season, perhaps as high as 12th.
Think Chico Flores is more than an adequate replacement for Caulker. He's a better player in fact, with more experience under his belt. Not too worried about defence but some real competition for DG wouldn't go amiss.
The Norwich midfield isn't necessarily "Better" than Swanseas, and of course BR set up the Swans midfield to play the passing game so it looked great. But Norwiches Midfield is more adaptable, we were able to change it it overcome different opponents last year (including Swansea) and it works a treat. I think the Swansea fans that believe QPR will do well need to take a step back and look at the players they are buying, they are not buying quality, theres no gel, no balance. I think it will fail. I think Norwich and Swansea will probably do alright because we have players that actually believe they can achieve and do well. QPR's players are either on a last payday or not arsed if it goes tits up because they'll still get payed. Genuinely. Good luck Swansea. Given whats happens to us pre-season we deserve to regroup and rise. We are the deserved new kids on the block in the prem. Teams that are run in the way we are run and play the football we play deserve to succeed.
Some strange views on here! Anyway the way I see it is this, ALL teams will be ok, but QPR will be the team to struggle of the three, not seen anything in their signings to make me feel any different, and MH is not a manager I rate, and with a motley ill fitting squad, that to me will still struggle to gel this season, will have their work cut out to stay above the drop zone. Norwich will be fine in my view, yes Lambert has gone, but I have full confidence in Hughton to bring Norwich a comfortable mid table finish. Finally Swansea will at least finish mid table, but I have predicted a 10th to 7th finish this season, our squad is largely in tact, and Laudrup has give some great fire power to our midfield, hopefully if he can add to our forward line the same, then we will be an even bigger handful for most Premiership teams this season. As regards who will be for the drop, I have not given much thought to this yet, but one thing I do know, is Wigan will not be the patsy this year, they have finally clicked, and I expect Wigan to have one of their best season's ever this year.
