I dont want this question answered in August, I want it answered NOW! OLM lock the doors, nobody leaves this thread until I get the answer I want...and it better be positive!
its a piece of piss to predict that we will go back down and point to Bruce as the reason , but it must be one of the hardest leagues to survive in and I was saying before Christmas how much a breath of fresh air SB is for the club . He has hardly made a mistake in his first year , win lose or draw he has been unflinching in his interviews seemingly honest but certainly believable . I might be crazy but i think he has been the best manager we have had in the modern era , who give a frig about plan B and C if plan A is what he is trying to instill into the football club. Cant have headless chickens on the pitch , its against health n safety laws
Looking at the teams in the Premier League - excluding the promoted clubs - they seem to be strong squads and/or have the money to spend on players. Cardiff have the money, too. Hull City and the play-off final winners will have to spend a lot to stay up. I don't think that saving the money and accepting relegation is viable. It may have worked for West Brom but it hasn't worked for anybody else. We need to spend money on the spine definitely and also on a squad which is still short in a lot of areas. The most realistic way for the Allams to get their money back is to ensure we stay up for at least two years without leaving survival to the last day.
Personally I have no problem with the thread I just don't entirely agree with your viewpoint on it. I think Goochie has been misunderstood here. There's no negativity, we all agree Bruce has been brilliant and everything's dandy. However the debate here is simply whether a good manager is enough to keep us up. If no one wants to come here it won't matter who the manager is, we'll struggle regardless. If we had Man Utd's team we'd be competing for the title regardless of manager, but we don't. People suggesting that having a good manager will automatically attract players who could go to bigger clubs than us just doesn't make sense to me. The manager is only a small part of it. I agree with Gooch that there's definitely been a lot of Bruce ****ing threads recently - and again that's not to say I disagree that he's done a good job - just that I don't think he's a miracle worker. If we finish 17th on the final day by virtue of goals scored it will be a massive success. Just as it was last time before everyone got too big for their boots.
One Steve Bruce, there's only one Steve Bruce, one Steve Bruuuuce, there's only one Steve Bruce. what a manager, what a job, what a season. Someone should start a Steve Bruce is God thread. Glennonlastpint is right, you can choose which threads you want to follow, if you hate it, avoid it. Back to the thread, I think it's a strange one, since we last went up, we started a trend of Unfancied teams having a roaring start, I don't suppose anyone thought Swansea would hang around, but they have the feel of an established team now. We have to live in hope , the EPL can be a devastating place to be as we found out last time we were there. Whatever SB does in the EPL, he's done an unbelievable job getting us there
Steve Bruce has Premier League experience that may be vital in our fight for relegation, that added to the financial backing that the Allams sanction for him. I think our survival depends entirely on who we bring in and if we can have one or two out-and-out goalscorers because, let's be honest, we can't score goals... Malky Mackay is an interesting one. Unpredictable to a certain extent. It'll be interesting to see who he lets go and who he brings in. He has a strong financial backing with the Malaysia owners, and I can't see him doing a Neil Warnock/Mark Hughes at DQPR (basically changing the first 11 every transfer window). I think Cardiff will struggle at the beginning and finish strong. TBC: Zola has been a Premier League player of top quality, and he's obviously had a bad time with West Spam last time he was managing in the top flight, but Watford's foreign partnerships have gotten them to good places. I couldn't really comment on their situation, because I don't fully understand anything about their transfer embargo situation. Ian Holloway tried with Blackpool and failed in the top flight last time. It was an amazing achievement to get Blackpool there in the first place, and they didn't exactly go out with a whimper. If I remember rightly, it took them 'till either the 2nd to last or last game of the Season before their fate was determined. I think he gained some vital knowledge last time out, but his abrupt nature and negative media attitude could prove costly. It's hard to tell between us, but I think us and Cardiff will be OK (touch wood). The winner of the Play-offs will struggle IMO. As a certain Mr.Tickler would say, "time will tell".
Watfords transfer embargo isn't really an embargo, they just need to send all details of each signing to the FA and gain permission to make each signing before it can go through. There's no ban at all they're just being inspected that its all being done properly.
Who do you think will go down? That's the problem for me, it's easy enough to imagine us staying up, but when you look at the sheer quality of the existing PL teams I can't see who is possibly going to finish below us (that isn't meant to be in a negative way). You look at teams like Fulham, who I believe finished around 15th, and are we anywhere near their quality? Berbatov, Ruiz, Duff, etc.? The quality in the bottom half of the PL is amazing
You're usual suspects. With the right attitude and playing style, we could easily stay up; play with no fear, and don't act like an inferior side, similar to our first half of the Season in 2008/09. Stoke, Villa, Hull, Cardiff, Norwich, Newcastle, Watford/Palace will all be battling to stay up. Just because we're new to the Premier League again, doesn't necessarily mean we're in significant danger. Look at Swansea/Norwich/West Ham etc who have all gone up and done fine, Stoke until lately too. I honestly think we will stay up. We'll be down in the mix obviously, but I think we'll stay up. You can't predict who's going down until all transfers/manager changes have been made to get a clearer and more accurate view.
It's gonna be a battle to stay up next season, but with the right signings and astute leadership we won't be canon fodder when we start the new season. There's some good teams in the Premier League and I can't see Villa been as poor next season. But on the other hand there's still the likes of Norwich, Southampton and Stoke who could be in for another tough season and as we've seen with Sunderland and Newcastle having a better squad on paper doesn't mean you'll be safe from the drop or a relegation battle. I understand what people mean about us following the West Brom model but I'd love it if we could follow what Swansea have done.
Thing is we don't have the money or players that Southampton do for example and they finished about 16th and in fact Sunderland in 17th have some brilliant players. It's going to be really difficult. By all means be positive but don't let's get our hopes up that it'll be easy.
I honestly expect Norwich to go down next season. Then you have teams like Sunlan and Stoke with new managers trying to improve very poor teams and are thus a pretty unknown quantity. Saints should be fine, Villa will be top 10, Swansea very much depends on their transfers both in and out.
Great, whilst we disagree on everything, this point wasn't actually for you. It was for Goochie who criticised the thread - then proceeded commenting on it.
Firstly, we have an excellent manager. Not just because he got us promoted, which let's be honest exceeded all my expectations at the start of the season. Only an idiot would say he's not a good motivator of players - he's got McShane looking like a great player - for the Championship, and more than likely the Premier League too. His recruitment policy has been, I think exceptional. I would say he has a 90% success rate in the Premier League. There are lots of new managers in the Premier League who won't have a clue what they're doing - this will definitely help. Steve Bruce has also been the best ENGLISH manager in the Premier league over a 10 year period. That I expect will mean far more than having a 'newbie' at the helm. In certain positions we already have Premier League capable players - we already look better than the team that started our first stint in the PL.
Two wins and 36 draws is all we need. That'll give us 44 points and should see us safe. Seriously though, I think we'll be fine, Bruce has the experience and the respect in the game to attract good names. I also think Cardiff will be fine under Rogers. The playoff winner will have to spend the most money out of all of us, Palace will struggle with Zaha gone, there's only really Speroni, Jedinak and Murray that bring anything to the table in that team in my opinion. Watford won't have it as easy as they think; their players will return to their parent clubs and then the Pozzos will have to decide where to put them. Udinese have just qualified for Europe next season, so your Vydras and your Abdis might want to play there.
