I'd take a draw against Arsenal as a pleasant upset. I consider our draws away at Fulham and Stoke as a positive sign that the team is getting itself sorted out. Wins at home and draws away are the target.
It's not that Fran. You do look good at times. You have the potential to be very good. If you stay up this season I can see you building something special. I think this season is a massive one for your future. If you go down, it might be very tough to come back as the championship looks tougher than ever.
Agree with that Trix. I think our Chairman knows it as well which is why I'm confident he'll splash some cash.
That depends on how many players we would be able to keep hold of. Ramirez would almost certainly go but the others could stay. If we kept everyone but Ramirez we'd win the Championship by a massive distance IMO.
It's fairly rare that I agree with you, but in this instance I do. Yes, on current form we are better than Villa. Much better. One could also argue that we're better than West Ham, Newcastle and Fulham on current form - if we took on any of these four teams at St Marys tomorrow, I would back us to sneak victory. But form is temporary. I don't actually think that we're better than Newcastle or West Ham! Whilst I don't buy into the whole "the league table never lies" arguement (I don't even buy into it at the end of the season, when all the games have been played), I am uncomfortable at seeing so many people say that there's all these sides apparently worse than us. We're third from bottom, and have been in the relegation almost all season. Putting current (temporary) form to one side, I don't see how people can be confident that we are better than the likes of Aston Villa and Wigan,.
I think most fans have that attitude when they go down from the prem. I know a fair few of ours did. I bet a fair few wolves and Blackburn fans thought the same in the summer too. I know the forest and Leeds new owners have big ideas for next season. Then there is QPR. Wolves, Reading, Leicester, Blackburn. They will all fancy their chances. Then there is the real possibility that a big chunk of your first team would want out now that they've had a taste of the top flight. Very few teams bounce straight back. We were incredibly fortunate to do so in the end via the playoffs. You need to stay up if this squad is going to realise its potential IMO.
Hope we never have to find out, but no one should enter the Championship believing they are a cert to go back up. We were one result from being in the play offs after leading for most of the season. Lots of hard games in that League and we would be the one to shoot down. Not sure why everyone thinks Ramirez would be off...he might want to, but he is on a long contract. If he goes, it will be our choice to help balance the books.
I think you would find yourself agreeing with me a lot more when I have my sensible hat on. When I am just being a General pain in the arse, even I don't agree with most of what I say! I think it's hard to argue against the theory that once everyone has played everyone, which is almost the case now, the league table gives a fair reflection of how good we all are. You had an incredibly tough start and the league table after 8 games gave a terribly distorted view as you had played pretty much all of the best sides. Your form has improved but you are still losing very winnable games (Sunderland home) - games you need to be picking up points from if you are going to survive. Your last two results have almost made up for that defeat though and if you can just get a bit of consistency then you will climb out of the bottom 3. I think Villa, Wigan and QPR will all improve second half of the season so you will need to do much better than you have been. I think with a few new signings added to the steep learning curve you have been on, you will be ok.
He would be off Fran. There will almost certainly be some kind of release clause in there in the event of relegation. Even if you could force him to stay, a sulky flair player who wants out would be of no use to you. This is all hypothetical anyway. You will probably be ok.
The reason I say that the league table does lie, even after everyone has played everyone, even after the season is finished, is because so often there is a *** paper between teams and between results. Forget the other divisions for now, and just look at our division. Anyone can name you the top 6 or 8 teams before a ball is kicked. You might not get them in the right order, but you're going to be safe when you say that City or Utd etc will finish in the top 8. The remaining 12 - 14 teams though, it's highly unpredictable. You could replay this season three times, and those 12 - 14 teams would finish in pretty much a completely different order each time. As fantastic as Norwich have done, for example, I don't recall them winning many games by two or three goals (in fact, have they won any league game this season by more than one goal this season?). So when the margins are that thin, it wouldn't have taken that much for the result to have been different. Likewise Everton; now they're already having a great season, but with the amount of chances they have missed - and consequently, the amount of points they dropped - they could have easily have been right up there with Man City with a little bit more luck. On another day, those buckets of chances created against Reading and Norwich go in, and Everton come away with six points rather than one. And then there's refereeing decisions and injuries. I don't care what anyone says, dodgy decisions do not even themselves out over the course of the season. And whilst injuries happen to everyone, and it is a test a one's squad depth, they do hit sides more than others. Yes both refereeing decisions and injuries are a fact of football, and you do just get on with them. But because of them, I don't think you can simply say that team A is better than team B, just because A finished the season with one more point. And there are other things, the random draw of the fixture list being one, and the impact of playing in various other competitions being another. For example, I'd have loved to have started the season with West Ham's fixtures, rather than our own. Without any doubt, the league table is an indication. But I think it is wrong to say that it doesn't lie, and I long felt like that.
She loves me mate. Her insults to me are because she is in denial that she finds my incredible wit irresistible.
Yeah I can see your point mate. But we all start on zero and everyone has to play everyone twice. Every team can recall dozens of moments in games that could have gained them or lost them points though and I think that all things considered these moments probably even themselves out across the board. For example, apart for a bad Collins back pass and a glaring Vaz Te miss on Saturday, we would have beaten Reading. But in our win against Chelsea, they missed two or 3 great chances to go 2-0 up before we equalised. Had they taken one of these chances, we would have surely lost the game. The margins are so fine but all teams have moments of luck and bad luck. Some teams start badly and improve as the season goes on, others start well and tail off. Overall though, after 38 games, teams are where they deserve to be IMO.
