Evening Carrabuh, nice to know that raising a slightly different point of view is met with disrespect instead of "I disagree but accept your view point if view "from Beef. Thought a forum was for discussion not slagging fans off. No wonder people leave this forum. I have decided not to leave but continue speak what I think irrespective of certain others views. The difference with me is that I will agree to disagree not resort to name calling another fan. Moderators take note and act please as this has been going on too long.
That is indeed how it ended up bit if you think things were comfortable then can I ask how you felt after the Villa game? Comfortable?Good job WBA were on there hols. Don't think the club cancelling end of season dinners was a sign off comfort either!. Funny enough I thought we would be Ok prior to the WBA game compared to many of my fellow work fans and that is how it worked out. If you read my post it was saying things are early on and there is time to sort. Sorry you took it negatively as it was meant to raise some debate. I might be eating humble pie in a few weeks time and will happily do so
Whilst I disagree that this early pre-season has any real meaning, we were certainly lucky to avoid relegation. Our team was on a deep, deep slide until we met the right opposition with the right mindset. Any City fan who thinks otherwise is deluded, because we were atrocious for virtually the entire season, even on the good run I'd say the results papered over the severe flaws in the system Hughton adopted. I don't ever want to see us play like that again.
Well said Carra, exactly my thoughts. Your response is what I expect to get, disagreement but a balanced well thought out response, which is fair. What I just want to debate is that there seems to be an almost arrogant belief that just because we are signing " better quality" signings we can automatically get a cup or Europe. Hopefully this will be the case but largely these players are untried in this league. Things do look to be moving in the right way. Of course I want City to win every game, playing good football, but there is nothing wrong with stimulating debate. Look what happened after last pre season. How many were concerned about goalscorers? Just debating that early doors for me there are still concerns in this department that need sorting. I am not saying they will not get sorted, I am sure they will so I am not " pant wetting" about it, just asking some questions to get others views.
Last season seems to be mostly forgotten about Surgery. There is a false pretense based on nothing that Hughton has changed his dogma, I'm really only interested in Hughtons argument once I finally see actual changes such was the damage injected into the team. I don't expect to see a change particularly with the type (not quality) of players he has signed but if it does occur he will get my support.
Again another sensible response, which I agree with. Hopefully if Hughton assembles his own team, we may start to see improvements but I am not fully convinced. The way to do that is seeing improvements on the pitch so fingers crossed. Need a couple more in yet, which I am hopeful will be sorted.
Surgery, I can't argue with the quality of players Hughton has signed, he's pretty much been perfect in terms of value. I just abhor his playing style and reluctance to play the ball across the midfield. None of our signings will bring about this quality. Diagonals left and right at a push.
We have to go try to get a cup run if we can, of course survival comes first but every year every top team signs " better" players so its moving goal posts we are more likely to get a cup run now with the better players we have, when we were L1 and CCC , and when we where down there we dare not have a run because promotion came first
Far from being a "reasoned response" to my question about what was lucky about our surviving last season, this is not a response at all. All it says (again) is that carrabuh does not like the style of football he thinks Chris Hughton serves up. We already know that. However, the fact is that the football we played last season saw us finish 11th. Will someone please tell me in what way luck played a decisive part in that?
We were lucky to catch the right teams at the right times when the wins were necessary (something we just could not do at the time). West Brom were already punch drunk and shot to pieces and Man City didn't really care. The games that we needed to win against others in a similar predicament, we fell to pieces and couldn't adapt from the bore draw philosophy.
I think we were lucky in the sense that every single team from ourselves down was lucky - it was QPR, Reading and one other, and that could have been any of them, including us. So seven teams got lucky and one got unlucky in my opinion.
In point of fact the wins weren't necessary. After 36 games we had accumulated 38 points, which proved sufficient for survival (as many on here had been predicting for most of the season). We survived because over those 36 games, despite the poor run in the latter half, we were good enough. Over the season we had some good luck and some bad luck, just like any other team. To say that we survived because of luck just isn't supported by any facts. Regarding your dismissal of our unbeaten run in the first half of the season as just "papering over the cracks", what does that actually mean? Are you suggesting we were lucky to the get the results we did? If so, the facts simply don't support you. Were we "lucky" to beat Man Utd and Arsenal at home? If so, in what way? Were we lucky in the other eight games in that run? If you think we were, I'll find just as much reason to argue we were UNlucky in most of the games where we suffered narrow defeats. That particular luck game can be played both ways. The fact is that while there are indeed cracks in the City wall, much of it is also sound, and over the season the sound bits proved enough for survival and to produce some good performances. Nobody is saying there's no room for improvement; but nor is there justification for constant sniping, grumbling and moaning. I have to agree with you on that vietnam. And weren't the teams that finished above us lucky they weren't in the mix at the bottom! In fact, when I look at any team I can see reasons to say that they were lucky to finish where they did. Man Utd were lucky that Man City didn't strengthen in the summer and lacked the experience to win back to back Championships; Spurs were lucky they had Gareth Bale; Villa were lucky Wigan played Arsenal and had a pile up of fixtures due to their Cup run; and HOW lucky Liverpool were to have Suarez and Arsenal that Spurs screwed it up on the run in. I could go on, but you get my point.
