We're gonna finish bottom of the league apparently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49236095 I'm sure he predicted us relegation last season too.
I think that is abit of lazy journalism, even with the problems at the club we should have enough to stay up, depends how our new League 1 striker Joe Linton turns out, if he gels quickly with Almiron and St Maximin we should be OK, I think 14/15th is a realistic finish.
It's quite bizarre, his only argument for us to finish bottom seems to be fan unrest, which there's been for over 10 years now! With Joelinton, Almiron, Saint Maximin, Schar, Longstaff, Lejeurne, Dubravka, Shelvey etc we've certainly got more quality than the likes of Sheff Utd, Norwich, Villa, Bournemouth, Burnley etc
We don't have a relegation squad in my opinion. Obviously the upheaval and Rafa leading us down a blind alley didn't help, and relying on Bruce is of course worrying. Yet I'd still struggle to believe our squad isn't good enough to comfortably stay up. Obviously we need people to hit the ground running, but there is decent quality and squad has improved. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Rafa did anything miraculous last season, he just did a good job. Bruce would have to have a stinker of a season to get us relegated.
He basically allows the top half of the league to write itself, and pretty much C+Ps the table from last year, then tries to make it looks like he's put some effort in by throwing a few random question marks in the lower half, like us finishing bottom. Is there really so much unrest and fan toxicity? Yeah Rafa left, but we've got a new manager and big money signings well before the beginning of the season. In 08/09 it was a total mess, with Keegan walking after 3 league games, the Kinnear and Shearer debacles, and the start if the full on Ashley hate.....but even then we only went down by one point on the last day! 20th place just cos the fans are miffed that a popular manager left? WTF.
Just found the season befores predictions, and he did indeed say we were going down then: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45111234 So despite finishing 10th comfortably, we were clearly going to plummet to 18th afterwards, Huddersfield were going to stay up, Fulham were going to finish 11th and Watford were going down with us. He's had some sympathy on Watford this time and said they'll finish exactly where they did last season (really sticking your neck out there.. ) but we're getting relegated once again.
I wouldn't say we had more quality than Bournemouth - similar yes. Burnley are hard to gauge, which of the last two seasons was the real team? The three promoted teams plus Brighton, Southampton, Burnley, Bournemouth, Palace and ourselves are all relegation candidates (West Ham, Everton, Wolves, Leicester and Watford should have enough about them to be fine) but I'd put us towards the top of those 9. Brighton looked shot last season and Sheffield United are likely relegation candidates but we'd have to have a pretty shocking season to join them now we've pieced together a workable team - i was not confident a month ago...
You've just listed 9 teams as "relegation candidates", which is the whole of the bottom half of the table! The groupings can't be so sweeping that anyone outside the top 6 has either "got a chance for Europe" or "a relegation candidate". Sheff U, Norwich and Brighton are the 3 teams most likely for relegation as things stand right now. On paper, we have a significantly better team than either of those 3, and thus we are not in the same bracket as them in terms of threat of relegation. Villa have invested significantly and are therefore slightly less likely that the above 3, and then beyond Villa are Soton and Burnley, with ourselves, Bournemouth and Palace being just beyond those 2. The whole of the bottom half of the table aren't equally likely for relegation, and we're certainly more likely to finish 14th than Sheff U and Norwich.
Season 2017-18 Everton finished 8th on 49pts,bottom team finished on 31pts,was touch and go for a lot of teams in the last month.
