That's right. With FPP, the parachute payment crowd have the advantage over the other Championship sides now. We need to get promoted ASAP, even if we do come straight back down. I hate to admit it, but our Tiger loving friends have got themselves promoted with perfect timing. They'll have to mess things up pretty badly to fall away from the top 30 within the next 5 years.
I'm with you. Don't 'hate' him either - but whilst the optimism amongst some of our posters is admirable I think it is a little blinkered - this 'group' of players under this manager underperformed incredibly in the last third of the season and our form was relegation rather than promotion. I think the league will be a lot tougher this season. So still think he has got ten games... I'm also not big on 'cross that bridge when we get to it" - again just my view - but I think you have to at least start your 'plan' for how the group of players will deal with a Prem campaign before you get there, rather than once you get there - otherwise you are very likely to to confirm the bookies thoughts that you'll be straight back down. I felt like O'Neil did that .. but Mickey Adams didn't.
Blinkered by what? I put to you and your fellow pessimists that it's actually you that are blinkered, because you can't see beyond the three months out of the nine month season when things didn't go so well. Even during this period, we got some very acceptable results, overlooked because of the fact that we lost some we didn't expect to lose. "I think the league will be a lot tougher this season." I literally hear that every season. It would be a Hell of a lot tougher if Villa had gone down. Wigan, QPR & Reading hardly put the fear of God into me and I don't expect any of the sides coming up to do much. Watford and Brighton will look very different and everyone else we finished above last season - that's not to say we're guaranteed to do so again, but they'll have to improve because we will. I've explained above why surviving in the Prem is very much secondary to getting promoted in the first place. By the way, I don't regard myself as an optimist but a realist, so I won't be making any predictions on an unpredictable league. But I do expect improvement on last season.
We won 1 in 16 ... so I'll just take the blinkers off and ... we won 1 in 16 ... interesting how you view pessimism versus realism ... it's not pessimism that leaves me nervous about how this group will perform without strengthening ... it's realism. ... and if you don't think that the 3 that have come down will be stronger than the 3 that did last season ... well fair play to you... but there are no 'nut jobs' like Blackburn and Wolves in terms of managerial appointments... and one of them did happen to outplay the then current Premier league champions and win the FA cup ... but then thinking that they are gonna be one hell of a threat with the buys they are making is of course pessimistic rather than realistic ...
To have that awful form and yet still finish 6th just proves how well we did before. Thats show that Nigel is more then capable of putting a team together As Nigel says every week. Dont get too high when you win and dont get too down when you lose
1 in 16? Our worst run in the league was actually one win in 13 games. Negative exaggeration - the sign of a pessimist. We also had an equally good run earlier in the season. I, as a realist, take both these, and our final league position, into account when summarising the season. A pessimist will simply go on endlessly about the winless run, which actually included some very decent away points at Brighton, Cardiff and Blackpool (on a terrible pitch). It's realistic (not optimistic) to say we shouldn't fear anybody, any season in this league. If we live up to our potential, we have nothing to fear. It's also realistic (not optimistic) to say not every season will contain a rough patch like last year. You said yourself you can't remember a blip like that, and you've been going far longer than me. It's also realistic (not optimistic) to say that young players, more often than not, tend to improve as they gain experience. We have a LOT of talented young players who now have a full season playing together at this level behind them. It's also realistic (not optimistic) to say Pearson is the only manager to get us anywhere near promotion since Adams inherited the remnants of O'Neill's team. It's therefore realistic (not optimistic) to expect him to repeat or better these outcomes.
It's been a while since we've had a Gangsta vs Fosse debate regarding Pearson, hold on while I get me popcorn (Have to say I am part of the pro-Pearson clan, but can definitely see both points of view)
Its clear for anyone to see the club are working very hard to adjust to FFP Sacking Pearson would have cost the club alot of money in terminating contracts and then we would have to get a new manager and maybe pay his club compensation We have very little money to spend and all of it would have went on changing managers The new man comes in doesnt like Nigel's squad but there is nothing he can do about it. This is Nigel's squad No one is a Nigel Pearson fan. We are all Leicester City fans, but IMO Nigel Pearson is the best man for Leicester City so he has my full support.
My recollection was 1 in 15 league games - if that's wrong then fair dos - but whatever the number its still abysmal ... and whilst its convenient to fit your argument by suggesting that the season has to be viewed as a whole, frankly, it doesn't - I'd be far more likely to have your 'realism' if our season's form had been in reverse ... but facing up to the realty, and therefore being realistic, I'm left with the hard fact that form wise we finished as one of the worst not best teams in the division ... and therefore the realistic expectation for this season for me, if we don't add some quality, is very much akin to what Barwell has already stated - I just hope we can add a couple of quality players and then I'll become less 'pessimistic'
It does, otherwise you're only concentrating on the negative. Which is pessimism. My opinion is based on the overview, warts and all. We finished 8th in the end of season form league (not including the play-offs), above Cardiff, Hull and Palace.
Last season there was only 5 better teams then us and 3 of them are now longer here and the 2 others will look totally different next season. QPR have alot of work to do before the season starts, Wigan have a new manager and made quite a few signings so they might take time to gel and Reading will be very strong. Other then that there is no one to be worried about. Any team can have a good season out of nowhere and got promoted. Its about time we stop looking at the negatives and think about the positives. How many teams have 2 strikers capable of scoring 15+ goals in a season? How many team have a player capable of pulling something out the hat like Knockaert? We have the best keeper and the best defender from last season so there is already a very good team for Nigel to work with
