What a ****ing stupid article. *Talking about DQPR* "They'll probably be one of the most competitive, at least. Leicester have been far better this season, but QPR arguably look better equipped to survive in the Premier League". Based on what? The side that failed so spectacularly at surviving in the Premier League last season? The fact they're miles behind a side that's spent 400k this season? Their egotistical, attention seeking, retirement impending manager? Their spectacular strikeforce? *Talking about whether it'd be good to have Reading back in the PL* "A team of mostly dull players playing Championship-football-by-numbers stuff in a bid to get promoted thus adding one of England's dullest towns to the collection of Premier League away days. Sorry, but no". That'll be the side that has scored 17 goals in their last 7. Very dull *Talking about our squad* "The rest, however is a team of Championship lifers. Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Sean St. Ledger, Kevin Philips, David Nugent, Dean Hammond ... " Take out Nugent and you have about 3 starts between them.
The fact he write "Would they be nice to have around?" kind of shows that hes a premier league boy and knows nothing about Championship football. Like what he wrote about Derby They have practically the same squad, they just have a different manager ... dumbass
"There's still a way to go, but it'll take a pretty hefty collapse now for Leicester to fail, something that all available evidence suggests is very unlikely." Absolutely no evidence of that happening before, oh wait... Similarly impressive reviews of the other teams too. What a cock!
It's a good article. We've got more money than you, a deeper squad, and more recent premier league experience. Our owners know exactly what's required now- they've had 2 seasons to learn. Yours would be complete newbies to the PL. I think only the most jaundiced myopic Leicester fan would deny that really As for Reading, I follow them closely- and they've been pants for 90% of this season. Blackpool, Bolton, and Millwall are diabolical. Sticking a couple goals past that rabble doesn't mean the Royals are suddenly world beaters. Read posts from their "Hobnob" forum pre-Bolton and they'd exactly mirror the sentiments in this article.
Deeper squad? Where did you get that from? Two injuries and you're down to the bare bones attacking wise. Your recent Premier League experience is relegation. We're so jealous.
I'm not saying you should be jealous, it was 2 years of embarrassment/misery The club from top to bottom have experienced the demands of PL football now though, so would be better placed to meet them were we to be promoted. It's pretty uncontroversial to say we've got the edge in that regards? Phillips and Austin are our best players, but their replacements should be sufficient to get the job done.
1) Not sure you have more money ... our owners are pretty wealthy ... plus we have a bigger fan base and stadium ... so from a FFP perspective, simplistically we can spend more than you ... all of which, frankly, is meaningless in terms of predicting future footballing success ... 2) You certainly have an older squad ... not sure what you mean by deeper ... 3) You have been in the Prem more recently than us, I'll concede ... so have Blackpool, Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan, Reading and Wolves ... and the point is?
If, despite all that Premiership experience in your squad, Phillips and Austin are your best players then I think our "inexperienced" squad will do just fine.
1) Lakshmi Mittal alone is worth over 10 times what Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha is. That's without mentioning Fernandes/the consortium behind him. You have a bigger stadium for now, but our plans there are well documented. Financial fair play is flaky at best, and won't really end up limiting much- isn't it based on income Vs expenditure? Owners can artificially boost the balance sheet by having their own companies "sponsor" the club. 2) Deeper as in strength in depth. We've got about 5/6 top-class players on loan at the moment too, in addition to the championship squad. 3) The relevancy of our prem stint is in how recent it is. Lessons have been learnt, failures are fresh in the memory. You seem to have a good board but the top tier would be completely new ground for them. If Reading or Wigan were in our position, I'd give them the edge over Leicester as well.
I'm suggesting board/ownership premier league experience is a benefit, not player experience (although it might well be). Phillips/Austin have looked most dangerous attack-wise recently. Maybe it was unfair to call them "best", it's hard to compare with other positions. Kranjcar & Barton could equally lay claim to that accolade.
Barton. Lol. Just because someone has experienced something, doesn't necessarily mean they've learnt anything from it. Your owners certainly haven't learnt to stop throwing money around.
I think they have, look at the signings from the most recent Summer and January transfer windows. I won't bore you all to death by listing them, but they're all good honest pros on sensible length contracts. We didn't spend pay a single transfer fee this January- which is a massive shift from the 8mill on Remy and 12mill on Chris Samba a year ago. The days of Anton Ferdinand, SWP, and Julio Cesar on 4 year megabucks contracts are long gone. Most opposition fans have rated Barton this season, he's put in a lot of MOTM performances.
Grif, i think you're wasting your time mate. Your talking to a bunch of fans that are 13 points clear at the top and so confident that they posted a "Mind the gap" post over the last few days. We know exactly what happens to fans and clubs that do that as a large section of our fanbase made themselves look stupid 2 years ago also. look at what happened when we went up with all the bravado...Now take a dep breath, congratulate them on winning the league (probably)..then sit back and let it unfold...
Talk is cheap guys we all know that I'm still not convinced with QPR and they are starting to feel the heat with the chasing pack (derby and forest) closing in on them I think they will lose at Derby on Monday with Forest winning too and then it will really be interesting. Could be the play offs I fear for them. To be fair they have plenty of "experience" throughout their side to help them through these nervous few weeks. God help poor Harry though and his twitching, bless him. Going to be a roller coaster ride guys. Ups and downs for all of us. Fun though isn't it!!!
Fair points! We wouldn't like to admit it...but derby and forest are definitely feeling a bit close for comfort. Massive game on Monday Fun just about sums it up!
I almost wish we could fast forward to the last 5 games of the season to see how things stand and hopefully we will have things wrapped up by then. Wishful thinking probably as Leicester never do things the easy way, but it would be a dream to see out the last few games knowing promotion has already been secured and looking forward to a summer of crazy transfer speculation and the World Cup. Anyway back to reality Mark....17 games to go yet...well I can dream can't I?!!!
