Got a feeling where we end up at the end of the season will be based on the next 2 away league games(although would also like to see them having a decent go at Leicester). Plymouth on a Saturday followed by Hull on the following Tuesday (great work EFL). Can we finally translate our home form to away games. Will the team that turned up at Sheff Utd and Watford and to a lesser extent Cardiff and Norwich be there to execute a well earned victory, or as Bob alludes to a lot, the team that bored us to death at Blackburn, Leeds Burnley, Derby and Bristol City with zero intention of winning any of these matches? Isn't it time for MC to release the shackles away from home and give us a positive 2nd half of the season, guess we might find out at Leicester on Saturday, but definitely by the end of the Plymouth and Hull games
Wasn't it a couple of seasons back that Forest were rock bottom, then spent shed loads on about 30 new players and got promoted (illegally!)? We have not spent shed loads but no reason why we can't emulate what they did?!
Through a delightful coincidence entirely planned by me it looks like I’m in Yorkshire the day of the Hull game for a meeting so will be in the freezing 500. Double coat for that one, hats, thermals.
Do you really want to go up? The wife and youngest, Southampton fans aren’t really enjoying the experience. The gap is getting bigger and bigger, sadly I can’t think we’d be all that competitive.
It gets very dull after a while but as long as we don’t spunk our third lottery win it secures the future of the club which is still haemorrhaging money I believe. Plus we can’t do a Leicester without being in the Prem or at least fluke 8th and have a day out in Azerbaijan.
Yep, you have to be willing to do the yo yo thing to stand any chance of building a long term presence in the PL. Strangely enough, last night's opponents are doing exactly the right thing by spending their top tier windfall on building a new stadium which will sustain a better go at it should they ever get the chance again - something our club has singularly failed to do. It's just a shame for them that the bubble of passion that got them promoted has now thoroughly burnt out and they look more like relegation candidates.
If you go up with zero expectations other than your team will try its hardest even if relegation is near inevitable it could be enjoyable, because at least you get to see some fantastic players (for the opposition). I’d rather see us struggle at the bottom of the PL than the bottom of the Championship, which we have become far too familiar with, if I get to see Haaland and Salah take us to pieces rather than whoever plays for Swansea. We are poisoned by our last couple of PL relegations, where the players and management did give up, sat there and took the money, and the owners behaved like stunned mullets.
If by some miracle we do get in the Premiership again then I think that the club would have learnt not to go round handing out high wages to players at the end of their careers. We need to nurture more players ourselves like Kolli.
I don’t think Kolli would be ‘nurtured’ by playing in the PL, I suspect he would be destroyed. I’m struggling to think of any of our players that would get into a team which could stay up in the PL. Nardi perhaps. If Isaac Hayden, who I thought was a really solid player, can’t even get into Newcastle’s squad I don’t see anyone else in our current squad at that level. But they would all give it their best, which is all you can ask.
Ainsworth saying on Sky last night our fans were talking about Marti being sacked when we were doing badly. The reality is we were selling out home and away even though we were bottom (proper fans) and even singing his name. I think it was the fans who got behind him and kept him in his job. The board would have seen we were behind him. Here’s to the excellent fans we have.
Perhaps he read the criticisms on this board and took that as representative of the views of matchday crowds at HQ?
Yes we will all have to huddle together, do their wonderful fans still pretend to be a mauling tiger when they score, always an amusing site!
Despite how it all ended I actually enjoyed quite a bit of our 11/12 PL season, we had a good go early on and just when it seemed to be getting away from us we won the last five home games on the trot including taking down Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool. The finale when we scared the sh*t out of the entitled Mancs is the stuff of legend. The subsequent relegation seasons scarred us and that scenario is becoming sadly familiar for all promoted sides now. When you look at how much stronger the top four were in our league last season and see a similar situation this season the gulf is enormous and the PL is almost becoming a closed shop by default...
If by some miracle we got to the playoffs, I sincerely hope we don't get promoted. It would do us no favours at present. We need to get to the point where the majority of the squad can perform at the higher level and where 4 or 5 additions are needed. Currently we would need a new squad that would cost the earth and still have the financial burden once relegated so any financial gains would be eaten away. The other down side is I haven't watched a prem game for over two years and I am not going to start now, poxy VAR keeps me away.
Great that we've improved sufficiently for thoughts to turn to the possibility, albeit highly unlikely, of reaching the play-offs. I've been delighted with how the team has performed in the last few home games and am happy to give Cifuentes full credit for this. What he now needs to do is to bring the same positivity to away games, where performances have been consistently dire. Fixtures at Plymouth and Hull are the perfect opportunity for him to do this.
Good question. The answer is different according to the issue being addressed. In terms of the fans, winning games and enjoying the experience, then absolutely we do not want to go up. In terms of a massive financial injection into the club, the possibility of becoming a yo-yo club for a bit with a chance at becoming a more established PL club or even the very remote chance of 'doing a Leicester', then, yes, we would like to go up. It would also be fascinating to see Marti having a go in the PL too. For this season, with the other teams in the Championship, it is a pretty unlikely scenario anyway.
The main benefit of promotion is of course having a year off from playing Blackburn and Preston before the next decade of constantly playing Blackburn and Preston.
