This was Hulls situation last year wasnt it? Surely the neutral saw Hull scrape into the auto spot on the last day of last season and wrote them off as well, so im not worried. Just looking at the tables from this year and last, if you'd got 79 points this season in the Championship, you would have finished 5th, just shows the greater divide between top and bottom this year compared to last year. Arguably you went up in an "easier" season and survived, so we have just as much of a chance of staying up, like ive said previous, Bruce made the right purchases and this went a long way to helping the club survive and Pearson will haveto do the same, but not 6-7 first team players, i'd be surprised if its more than 4. Our owners aren't likely to Vincent Tan it!
We were good enough to compete because we made many changes without completely ripping the squad to bits , had we of gone up and kept the same side I would have said we would of been relegated likewise in my opinion unless you make at least 6-7 quality signings you won't be in the top flight very long .
Oh if we keep exactly the same squad then we will be going straight back down, I have no doubt. But why 6-7? You think we need to change over 50% of our starting 11 to have a chance of competing? You think we need to make even more changes than you did, given the stark contrast in ways we were promoted?
What makes me more optimistic than I've been for years is the age of the first team squad ... there are many young men there who have done very well this season but will be even better next ... ... two of them may even have experienced a World cup ... Drinkwater, James, King, De Laet, Schlupp, Moore, Mahrez and Knockaert were all 'regulars' this season and fall into the category I mention above ... yes the Prem is a whole new level but they have all shown that they have the potential to make it there ... Kasper is also 'young' in goalkeeping terms ... Vardy's pace will cause defenders palpitations .. he will need to step up again and markedly ... but he couldbe the best player to make than transition frm non-league since Ian wright (again he is relatively 'young') .... it's a very good time to be a Leicester City fan ... personally I think Nigel will being in perhaps up to 5 new faces over the summer ... these will then have to prove themselves ... nobody will be walking straight into our current team, that's for sure...
It's not just your starting eleven it's your squad , keeper is fine don't rate either of your full backs , haven't seen enough of Moore , always thought Morgan was vastly overrated , Your two wingers look fine two in the middle could do with a little improvement maybe drinkwater with someone else could do ok , don't rate nugent as a premier forward never have championship is his level and pinning all your hopes on vardy could be very dodgy , I would of said you need two forwards for a start , we have a big german if your interested !
.. have to disagree about the full backs ... De Laet and Schlupp both electrically quick - yes still a little raw defensively, but so are Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne at Southampton ... and both Shaw and Jeff Schlupp might get a game out in Brazil so I think that tells a story about the progress of each this season? Liam Moore just been called up for the latest Emgland U-21 squad ... Drinkwater and James as a midfield combination have been superb this season ... yes it's a big step up but they will be even better next season ... Nobody's pinning all our hopes on Vardy .. but he has potential e.g he's a far better finisher than Matty Fryatt is and electrically quick (that's not having a pop at Matty by the way - purely a rational assessment having watched the two first hand and Matty hasn't looked completely 'out of place' on his few appearances in the Prem for you guys IMHO) ... Vardy's sheer pace means that he will get chances ... he'll also scare the crap out of defenders in and around the penalty area ... Nugent is not a Premiership quality striker agreed ... but he he has matured as a footballer since he was tlast there and may still have a contribution to make as he is undoubtedly a 'clever' footballer ... As I said before - the youth of the squad gives planty of reasons to be both excited and optimistic about our prospects next season ... I do think we will bring in 4-5 players of decent quality as we do need more depth ...
Disingenuous? To whom? Is it not disingenuous to suggest that fans of any club can't make predictions which aren't clouded by favoritism? What are you going to tell be next, referees shouldn't take on matches that include teams from within a 100 miles of there own city? By "numpties", I'd assumed you meant people who "watch" football but don't really understand it. There are plenty of those around. They're different from both WUMs and "wishful thinkers".
Well I don't gamble for starters, but if this is true odds, the difficulty would be in selecting actual league places as opposed to saying Man Utd won't win the league or Liverpool will do better than usual. On paper, I'd have said pre-season Liverpool were the better side though. Every signing United tried to make fell through, hence the hugely desperate signing of Mata in Jan.
Difference is, you squad was barely good enough to go up in the first place. I think though in fairness, we will sign between 5-7 players. Some may only be only squad players though.
I'm not sure I agree with barely good enough it got promoted so was good enough to go up two sides got relegated with fifty odd points so you could say the division was more evenly matched that year
I think the evidence you've provided re teams at the bottom getting more points actually back my argument too. When teams at the bottom are taking points off teams at the top, it means the teams at the top aren't as good as usual in this league. Even Watford, who played some excellent stuff at times, were too inconsistent. That's why the bottom sides, some of which were awful, took points off better teams. Anyway, what matters is you've made it, stayed there and now we've joined you. People will back you to go down, but it's up to your manager and players to prove them wrong. If Bruce can work his magic in the transfer market again and you strengthen, you may surprise people. If not, could be a long hard season.
I would settle for just staying up again but really think with a few canny signings we could improve on this season
No I don't think it is ... football support by it's very nature involves a lot of 'hope against hope' ... very rarely do fans go to game thinking the outcome is an assured loss ... won't bother responding to the point about referees as I can't for the life of me fathom how you predicting that I'm going to make a comment on a completed unrelated topic is relevant to the discussion .. or are you going to tell me next that you like to dress up as a banana at weekends and run through tangerine city singing "oranges are not the only fruits" ...? ... by numpties I mean those that would deliberately attempt to undermine a poll by voting falsely and deliberately to undermine the credibility of the poll ... your assumption therefore way of mark ... that's the problem with "assume" it can make an "ass" of "u" and indeed "me"
Already been linked with a few none of which hold much truth I would of thought brucie joked about Ferdinand and the press was all over that , Campbell rumour has surfaced again amalfitano from WBA , just about anyone at Sunderland who is out of contract , a young left back from Donny james husband and a host of players from France and the season only finished last week !
... no chance there brother ...we have the French market covered ... move over Arsene, Shakey is the new kid on the block
You're generalising yet again. Not everyone thinks the same. Some football fans are very pessimistic by nature. They may hope for success, but that doesn't mean they think their team will be successful (and that's what predictions are about, what you think will happen, not what you hope will happen). If I remember rightly, few of our own supporters on here predicted good things for us last summer. Myself, Proud and one or two others seemed to represent the minority. The very fact that you yourself and your negativity towards our expectations under Pearson contradicts your own argument is the very definition of irony! My point about refs is this: Referees presumably have an interest in football to get in involved in the game in the first place. Therefore, they will have private opinions on certain clubs, whether that be their local clubs, or clubs with reputations such as Millwall and Leeds. It's just human nature to have opinions. Your argument is essentially that, whether consciously or unconsciously, impartially is impossible. Therefore this must apply to refs too, or are they some how superior to us mere moral fans? Oh dear. Are you Queenie in disguise?
I rarely take much notice of media speculation; if you'd seen the fuss around the supposed transfer of Nicky Maynard on this very forum a couple of years ago, you'll know why (much like your own attempt to sign Campbell). No point in getting excited or upset about potential transfers in or out unless they look imminent. Still, it's fun to see them coming in (gotta love ****e that comes out of twitter!) - I just take them all with a pinch of salt.
... so it is a generalisation that most football fans go to games hoping to win? ... even if it's against form and the 'odds' ... all I'm saying ... (as contrasted to what you think I might say on a subject that I haven't even been considering ... refs ... which YOU have now brought in twice for some bizarre reason ... suspect this is your usual tactic in debates ... where you feel you are losing ground you need to invent something silly and attribute it to someone else as you feel that substantiates your argument ) ... as I was saying ... before I departed on a Gangstalike tangent ... is that, IMHO, most football fans err on the side of optimism where their own team is concerned ... if you disagree with that fine ... but personally, I think you are wrong ... I've a mate who is a Norwich fan who kept telling me that 'mathematically' they could 'still get out of it' despite their closing fixture list ... and who, other than a die-hard Sunderland fan, would have thought they could take seven points off Man City, Chelsea and Man United from their position? ... ... in an attempt to help you understand I'll quote one of our own "I believe" from ed - during that disastrous run last year (which you brought up (surprise surprise) as a dig about me and my negativity ... yes it was 'negative' to be rather pissed off at a 17 winless streak ... I should have been dancing)) ... but you know what, even though I was pissed off by Nige's inability to manage us out of it (at that time) ... it didn't stop me going home and away still thinking (hoping) "it will turn this week" ... and that's my whole point ... which you are either too stupid to see or just refuse to because it's me making the point ... and you then have the cheek to ask if it's me that is Queenie? ... no, but he likes to dress up as Vikings if you'd like to put on your banana suit and go play
