Ill go first and Im sorry , but I predict relegation for us this season! We will lose our first 5 6 games and after that itll be a nightmare.
Finishing 10th last season was a huge achievement, and with other teams improving their squads and us standing still, I can't see that happening again. 14th maybe, with a bit of a relegation battle, and Rafa off at the end. Hard to be positive, squad is still pretty much our championship team.
Another relegation scrap looms i suspect. There were some woeful teams last season that helped us out enormously as we could easily have been dead and buried by Christmas had the likes of Stoke and WBA not been so poor. Yet another season when we do not build on last terms achievements and we struggle all year ......................... how lucky we are to have a forward thinking owner!! 16th or 17th and we will be looking for a new manager at the end of it all. Rafa will not be drawn into Ashleys shenanigans and will walk away ........................ and you know what.................... ****ing good for him!!
Very frustrating. With a better exec set up and a less myopic owner, we could expand our commercial potential and structure payments like every other decent club to maximise our success. As I've said elsewhere, I think Ashley is that stuck in his "I'm right" mantra that he's even forgotten what he's digging his heels in about. A lot depends on the incomings over the next week; if, as expected, we do nothing else other than swapping Gayle for Rondon (as seems likely), then it's hard to see anything other than a season of struggles and bus-parking. Lot rests on Schar and we're down to Clark if he or Lascelles gets injured. If we pull off some minor miracles and add an emergency CB (Diego Reyes or Federico Fernandes) and Joe Bryan for cover, we should get to a comfortable-ish lower/mid-table finish, probably around 14th-12th. If by some Moses-parting-the-water size miracle we go out with this cash and add a quality, talismanic CF (given we have a good group of willing players), we could aim for 10th-8th, perhaps even at some stage pushing for a European place. Looks likely we're not gong to fiddle around with 3 at the back, so it's Rafa's 4-2-3-1 set up and with two per position we're currently looking at: Dubs/Darlow Yedlin/Sterry Lascelles/Yarney Schar/Clark Dummett/<blank> Shelvey/Longstaff Diame/Ki Ritchie/Murphy Perez/Muto Kenedy/Atsu Joselu/Gayle I honestly don't know how good any of the youngsters are, or whether we should be looking at better or just giving them a chance. CF is - as usual - woeful.
Well that makes a change. There was I thinking you would be predicting a likely champions league place.
It's 3 of Cardiff, Huddersfield, Southampton, Watford, Brighton and us to go down. I think we'll really struggle for goals, so I think 15th towards 20th is where I'd see us. Anything above that again and Rafa should get a statue.
15th but very tight and always struggling with bottom 3 position and pulling away in last month of season.
12th poor start pick up a couple of wins usual dreadful Christmas period then solid in the new year to the end of season ... Ktf
Cardiff, Huddersfield and Watford down for me and I'm not falling for all this Fulham and wolves hype the epl is a hard unforgiving league if chances aren't taking you will be punished we no this ourselves all to well.
11th. We’ve improved our squad as have others. To be honest it could be anywhere from 9th - 20th for any of the teams every season. West Ham have spent a fortune. Do I think they’ve guaranteed PL football for the season after? Nah. Nature of the league hence such small margins separate 9th-20th most seasons.
