I thinks its fair to say after the great promotion season in the Championship (be it the Faurlin saga) following the Rss home and away, the top flight has been quite a painful ride. I know we had some good times last year with victory over the scum and winning the last 5 home games then subsequently surviving, but this year has been tough to take. After such promice with the Fernandes takeover, if only the money available had been spent more wisely and under a better manager than Hughes. I know a lot of the new players have let us down too, but i also honestly think if Warnock would of had the whole of the summer after promotion to bring the players in he wanted he would still be in charge now and we would be sitting comfortably in the table rather than proping it up. Dont get me wrong, im chuffed that we now have Harry on board but i just think that this one is going to be too hard too fix, which ultimately means we will have to start from scratch with a whole new team again next year and probably manager. Any quality we do have will have to be sold, and those just here on a pay day we wil surely have to move on as those kind of wages cant be sustaintable in the Championship. As for Harry, i cant see him wanting to manage in the lower leagues at his age, and im sure other prem clubs will be sniffing around to lure him away. Although under Tony and Amit id be hopefull that we could certainly have a chance in getting back to the Prem wirhin a few seasons, but it just feels like a massive step backwards when we really did have a chance to push the club forward. I know this is a very negative post, but just wanted to vent the disappointment were now all feeling after such what we thought was going to bright next few years. I still have a slight hope that we may still get out of the mess, but what ever happens well still be back on the terraces to go through it all again. U Rr'ssssss
two seasons in the prem and two seasons in the relegation spots.Says it all really.I really hope we get lucky this year but I think the damage is done.Not enough quality in the team to turn it around quickly. I cant see us bouncing straight up from the championship as that league seems so tough now. Lets see
That's a very good and sobering post mate. I take it that from your username that is the year you were born and not your age? If the latter, ( Please forgive me if it isn't. ) Then I have nothing but admiration for the youngsters that chose the Hoops in these recent difficult times. The peer pressure to support/follow one of the big sides must be huge with the current exposure to football that is to be seen internationally. You make some great points, and in one way or another they're difficult to dispute. I just hope for all the younger hoops that we manage to stay up this season and kick on from there.
Good post 84 and welcome. Some good points and agree on most of it. Not sure if Colin had the cash and whole summer that he would have done much better. Dont think he would be here now. I think he got found out for tactical awareness rather than anything else. No amount of money will fix that. Thats all a debate for another day though, as its been said 100 times before. Anyway I'll let our younger posters go to bed now !
Yes, rather, it has been quite an arduous year and half, eh, chaps, what? No, but seriously, mates - it's been excruciating for me being that I was a 'uge NW supporter. The worst thing about this whole affair with Harry now is the fact that we're not going to spend any more to bring in a couple more strong players - except on loan. IF, and I mean IF we do go down - more than half the squad will be gone, and I believe that includes Taraabt as well as Faurlin - therefore we'll have a very weak side down there. We won't be able to bounce back up right away as a team like Newcastle did who were able to keep a lot of their strong players there. We've got a bunch of old fogeys anyways and as you all say, they'd be gone as well. Ah well. I hope Harry gets us going in the next month and we bring in a couple of really good ones.
When you look at what Swansea and Norwich are doing it makes our situation even more frustrating, neither have spent half of what we have and both have brought in two fairly unproven managers, and yet both are looking like having a comfortable mid table season in the top flight. Its also fair to say that if either did begin to struggle and go down, both would keep the majority of their squad together and be a strong team in the championship. Where as if we drop, it will literally be a new starting 11 again next year, which once again will take time to become a proper team.
I wish TF appointed someone like David dein from the start. Someone who knows how to build an EPL club from the ground up, on and off the field. He gave that job to MH instead and set the club back a few years. Not having a go at TF, I thought it was a good appointment at the time and I now have the benefit on hindsight. The silver lining to relegation is we start all over again and do it properly.
I think you make a very good point 12th, and hopefully if the current board is here for the long term hopefully it will be something they will learn from in the future. I also think it speaks volumes that no One has heard a peep out of MH since his departure, for his reputation is in shreads and his agent will seriously have to earn his money convincing any premership club owner to give Hughes a job, especially those with a few quid to spend.
Its been a tough 18 years - give or take two or three years; 03-04 and 10-11 stick out as good years, shight ones too numerous to mention.
Perhaps as we look back over the last 15 years or so we'll start the understand that the successful, promotion seasons were, in fact, the aberrations and that our current predicament is in keeping with the history of our Club over this period. Pretty morbid but accurate, possibly.
