Very very early days yet but the three promoted sides doing differently. Burnley at the moment are in the dreaded drop zone with only 4 points from 6 games and have had 4 losses. Leeds who are on 8 points so far have also been really unlucky by having a freak own goal in the 95th minute against Fulham which we actually deserved to take at least one point from that. Also robbed again last week when we had a victory snatched in the 94th minute, so 3 points knicked and would have seen us on 11 points, which would have seen us in joint 5/6/7th place. So besides a trouncing to Arsenal Leeds have competed very well except for up top. Sunderland however seem to be doing really well as they sit 5th in the table on 11 points having 3 wins already. So do we compare the transfer windows of Leeds and Sunderland where the black cats outspent Leeds by circa £40m, or do we account for this in the tactics of the coaches. I am no big fan of Farke but so far he is doing what I hoped he would do and show us that given the tools he would be able to compete at Premier League level. I believe he got the top keeper he wanted and he got the defence and midfield he wanted, which has allowed him to demonstrate what he can do defensively. However I think he was shafted in the forwards stakes as the club took gambles on forwards who have a history of injuries. A huge gamble which could turn out to be a jackpot or relegation and I also believe investors are not too happy with what happened in the window. Sunderland have a coach who has a reputation in France but unheard of here until last season. He has been backed substantially and they went out for some players who Leeds were interested in and Sunderland won those players, why? How? Have Sunderland got a better project, have they still got cash to spend in January, do the players fancy Reggie over Dan?. Not even 10 games gone yet so very very early days. I really hope all three promoted clubs survive. It must also be said that we could be having a freak season like the one we had when Leicester won the league. They won because Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City all had crap seasons at the same time. This time we are seeing WHU, Wolves, Man Utd, Newcastle, Villa, Forest and Brentford all below us. So is it down to the better coach or the better squad? Solomon or Okafor Struijk or Bijol Would we have been better selling Piroe For me Solomon was a loan and we knew his wages so could have saved £18m. Bijol is better than Struijk and if we had sold Piroe who we will hardly use we could have had Okafor cash and Piroe cash to get that top forward
It could also be down to the effects starting to kick in with several clubs. Villa had to offload some young talent to comply and look where they are and many other clubs seem to be in a tight position. Fulham only managed one substantial signing. I was initially critical of it but let's face it, if some form of per didn't exist some clubs would be in a position to spend 100's of millions. I think if we can hang on for another few seasons we might find ourselves in a strong position especially with the greatly increased ground capacity
