I see one of the North East teams struggling this season, maybe even going down. I also think that Fulham and Stoke are unknown's this season. Stoke now has Hughes at the helm who failed miserably at QPR and pretty much took them down as well as spending a load on crap and Fulham have not signed hardly anyone and they dropped like a stone last season after Xmas too. There is always one team that surprises you when they struggle. Last season it was Newcastle, Who will it be this season?
I think Fulham will be ok, but once again go nowhere. They always tail off towards the end when safe. They have a decent squad in terms of depth and I think Stekelenburg and Amorebieta are fantastic signings.
The reason we are a I get the favourites for the drop is because we are Norwich basically. Let em place their bets
I know I keep banging on about it, but for me the Baggies could be in trouble this year without Lukaku up front and the 9/1 I've found them at to be relegated appears ridiculously generous
I reckon there will be a fair amount of movement on the markets between now and the kick off. Were we to sign another couple of top players you would think that our odds would lengthen but were we to lose one of our top players to another club or a long term injury they could shorten further. We still have to see whether CH can mould the new players and the existing squad members into a cohesive unit by the start of the season - as a city fan you have to optimistic as he has a significantly better squad to work with this season only Olssen has any real PL experience so by definition the others represent a bit of a gamble and realistically not all of them will hit the ground running and set the league on fire. Be brilliant were they to do so but common sense suggests otherwise.
Unlike last season we have done a lot of our business early this year (as we did with PL) so there is a good run of pre-season games for the squad to gel. Hopefully we will pick up at least 6 points from our opening 3 games and not look back.
if we're fourth favourites to go down in march, then i'll be worried, but right now.... completely meaningless
In terms of whether we are actually likely to go down, very true. However, it tells us what the general perception of our club is. I find it fascinating that despite signings of almost universally acknowledged quality, other fans are still convinced we are the most likely to go down of the non-promoted teams. I think we probably (especially looking at our prediction thread) have the greatest difference between where we as fans predict Norwich will finish and others predict of Norwich than any fans of their respective clubs in the Premier League. So are we deluded? I don't think so - of course it's impossible to be objective, but an 11th placed finish (up from 12th the year before), strong signings and healthy financials, a settled manager and squad, players sold entirely on our own terms and improvements everywhere else... It makes you wonder what other teams are basing it on. I was interested to see that Wet Sham fans (a) didn't know that Snodgrass was one of the first names on our team sheet and (b) thought he was distinctly average and overpriced at £5m - there was consternation on the forum I read that Snodgrass had six goals and ?nine assists because they all think Vaz Te is better. I think, ultimately, they don't think about us at all. They don't notice our signings, they don't notice our results, they don't notice how Snodgrass fares. I suspect, like with the national newspapers, we are the forgotten team of the premier league. The team where, when a Man U fan puts down his predictions for 1st-20th, he wonders why he has two Fulhams. The team where you go and grab another beer while MotD rattles through their match for the best part of 20 seconds. I don't think it is a bad thing. In fact, I think it is something we can take huge advantage of, because if fans continue to underestimate us their support will get tetchy in matches and this has a real influence on the team, even if the individual players and managers have not underestimated us at all.
to be fair though, we were favourites to finish 20th in our first campaign, 18th in our second and now 16th this season, so we are improving! we are still perceived as little norwich - that's fine, doesn't really bother me too much as we all know where we stand - but i don't think it's particularly harsh to view us as being one of the favourites for relegation. we struggled 2nd half of last season although we go into the next on the back of three wins from our final five games so we were actually in decent form when last season ended. as munky points out, west brom should also be perceived one of the favourites, as should newcastle and probably sunderland and the two which i find weirdest are saints and west ham. its odd that we were told we were favourites last time cos of 2nd season syndrome yet west ham and saints won't suffer it according to the bookies! i pay no attention to it to be honest - the important thing is where YOU think we'll finish. i see us being more comfortable this season and another mid table season. that's all i'm bothered by. if the bookies get it right for once then we'll still be safe according to their odds. if we were below palace, hull and cardiff THEN i think we could moan.
Yep. Such is the lack of logic amongst football fans. To be honest, I think those justifications are actually more a case of justification of predictions rather than people genuinely predicting. I think first and foremost they put Norwich amongst the candidates for the drop, then they try to work out why they've done it! I must admit, I have no plans to moan about where the bookies put us, even if it's 20th. As I said, I'd rather the opposition underestimate us. And if everyone overestimates Newcastle and Sunderland, so much the better.
re west ham and snodgrass. i saw a twitter timeline yesterday between a hammer and a city fan. the iron was digging adeeper and deeper hole, it was hilarious. i can't find the exact conversation but it went something like this: west ham fan: snodgrass is ****. why would big sam want him? norwich city fan: he's better than anything you've currently got, not that you'll get him! whf: jarvis is a million times better. so is vaz te. (i spat my tea out reading that one!) ncf: jarvis scored two goals and got 2 assists last year. snodgrass 6 goals, 8 assists (stats might be wrong - going from memory!) whf: stats are meaningless. he's slow and has no skill. he's a donkey. jarvis created more chances, we just missed. ncf: snodgrass chances created 66 (2nd highest in the league), jarvis chances created 40. ncf: hello? why won't you respond to me???
looking at where bets have been placed for relegation, hull and crystal palace have seen by far the biggest volume, but Norwich and then Stoke are the next biggest. Cardiff less so for some reason. And very little on Villa this year.
And not unique - it's essentially the same on their forums, except that they miss the logical response from a Norwich fan. I think it's called knees up mother brown.
snodgrass was probably our best player last season and a little unlucky not to win player of the season but bassong was more important
