Well - having seen the lads for the first time in ages I sat down to see what I thought the rest of the season would bring - do we need fear the drop?- can we make the play-offs? I'm afraid the answer to both is no way. Realistically we have been safe from the drop for a few games now but as for the play offs we have some tough games still to play. If we had more money, a bigger squad and the ability to rest players then playing sides competing with you for the play offs would be an advantage as whenever you win you deny them 3 points. But from last night we are just not good enough yet. To get a point at Swansea would be a result for any team and we thoroughly earned it but we are full of youngsters who have no experience of the pressure for a run in to take us to promotion - that would take at least 22 points from 11 games - and 2 points per game is only what QPR have achieved. We will get between 60 and 64 points in my book - a fantastic performance in my book and that should put us 9th give or take a place or two - progress on last year and with more and more of our own youngsters coming in and a manager who is gaining experience with every game it is next year we should hope to join the serious play off contenders.
Leo I posted this somewhere a couple of hours ago ,ie 64 points and 9/10 place finish, great minds think alike!
Exactly - I looked at the last of our fixtures and can see quite a few draws in there but few "easy" wins and not a lot of obvious defeats. I think that would be a tremendous result for the season when you think that up to Christmas we had two very influential loanees who we lost
We should be thinking about next season now. It should finally be possible to put a proper budget together as the last of the "Premier" wage players will be gone. It would probably be daft to believe we will not cash in on at least one player - I hope we hold on to DG - but personally do not consider that Loach is the difference between a play off push and mid table. If we can get good money for him the is the player I would most like to see "Cashed in" - especially if we can get a decent Left Back. I can say this on here coz I don't think SLB is yet a regular visitor - but I have never rated Doyley - great bloke and all that but a liability in the LB position - I even preferred it when he was used at RB
I know and SLB used to take me to task for it - but those were the days when he and I could not quite agree on the silky skills of Tamas
I like Doyley as a bloke, but as a footballer I have my reservations. No one could ever say that he doesn't try his hardest, but...........
thing was with Tamas if he was good he was brilliant if he wasnt he was offside continually!! I think selling him for 1.7m was great business!!
Tamas has talent, but he needs the right manager to bring it out. Under Malky he would work a great deal harder, learn about offside and score lots of goals. Or he would have put in a transfer request on the grounds that the manager didn't like his hair cut.
i think we've missed Doyley. He make make some interesting passes occasionally, but in the last couple of seasons he's made some great tackles and worked tirelessly. He's the people's player . Meanwhile, i agree, i don't see us making the play offs but it'll be great to get passed that target of 52 much earlier than probably most of us expected. If we manage to keep hold of DG, (which i do think is a big 'if') then next season, we might set our sights a little higher. Ever the pessimist though, so i don't want to tempt fate! lol
Unless there is investment I fear DG will be on his way to reduce a bit of club debt! Then Troy and Marv have to form an understanding! I dont know how long DG has on his contract but we should prob try and extend it!! If only so it bumps the price up!!
From what i hear, Norway, he has about 18 months left on his contract. Not sure if that's accurate or not though.
I think DG is rapidlly turning himself into the new tommy smith in regards to good loyal goalscoring pro! Would love him to stay , but well aware the club is still making an operating loss albeit a lot smaller one, this summer when the last big wages fall of the wage bill we should be even closer to sustainability! If we could just find someone to clear the debt we should be ok! If not then DG SL will go and we will rebuild again!
