I don't disagree with any of that Rick. I loved our football in the Championship but it's not fit for purpose with our squad in the PL. I'm not sure Pep or Klopp could keep us up if i'm honest so no disrespect to DF and I'm not unhappy about having Smith and Shakespeare lead the charge next season.
Thanks for telling me, I didn't realise. It comes round so quickly when you're losing game after game.
Just because Farke got us promoted at a canter twice does not guarantee he would do it again, don’t forget he also finished 14th as well. As I have said before I loved Farke, but I do feel that Buendia and Pukki carried us in those Championship seasons. Buendia had to be sold because he wanted to go and we are finding out painfully that the squad beyond him was fairly mediocre. Dean Smith played entertaining football with Brentford when he was in charge and some of his players are still playing today, Rico Henry for one. He has also been promoted form the league with Aston Villa. The most important thing for me is that he also then kept Villa up for 2 years, and the first half of this season. That is where my hope is, I believe that DS is capable of getting us promoted and then more capable of keeping us up given the time to build his own squad and style. Let’s not forget he is using the last managers squad.
Having said that I don’t understand the midfield selection yesterday, we are yet to see McLean and Gilmour have a good game together. If we are going to play 3 in midfield it should be Sorensen, Normann and PLM/Rupp
Oddly quite relieved our "star" Chelsea loanee won't be able to play in the next game. Hope Rupp or PLM makes the most of the opportunity. Someone else needs to take the free kicks too. Too many lofted kicks in from Gilmour.
Even then you have to question if they would be good enough at PL level. Aside from Normann, we have little muscle in the middle. When I look at other sides, they bully sides with big, strong centre mids. We signed the shortest CM ever who gets bullied off the ball far too easily (Gilmour). McLean isn't much stronger either. Smith must see something in them, but I feel it's just the best of a bad bunch. Rupp may have started yesterday had he not been injured. Lets face it though, he is hardly the answer to our PL woes. As I mentioned in an earlier post. We have about 8 players in our squad who are capable of playing PL football and keeping us there. The rest are top Championship players (at best).
Though I didn't like him, I liked Roeder's concept of players who were 'in betweeners' in that they were very good at Championship level but not yet good enough at PL level. Beyond the 8 or so PL players, most of our other players fall into that category. The younger ones still have time to develop into PL players and others can reach that level on a 'good day', but not consistently. I agree that Smith will now need to develop tactics which can succeed with the players we have and any we bring in. If Lambert and Hughton could manage that in our survival years, surely he can as well.
The fat lady told me she has almost finished her warm-up and is expected to be on stage any moment now
In view of recent experience I think we all now realise that the difference in class between the Championship and the PL is big and getting bigger. Perhaps people have not completely realised that in reality the PL was set up to become a closed shop of big city clubs with big grounds for income. big fanbase for merchandise income and owners with big wallets - exactly the same as the failed European Super League. There are now already about 10 Clubs in the PL who will not be involved in a relegation battle and a few more such as Leeds and Everton who will get in that category with a bit more investment in grounds and/or squads. Others such as Southampton stand a reasonable chance of avoiding problems. Assuming that the current bottom 3 go down we can already calculate what will happen next year. The top 4 will be four from the current 4 plus Man Utd and Spurs. The two who fail will join 3 or 4 others in the quest for the other European places. The relegation battle will involve the three coming up from the Championship plus Brentford and possibly Brighton and/or Palace. Clubs like ourselves have to accept the benefit of Promotion to the PL is purely financial to the Club and to the fans the chance to watch the best players in the world. How many Clubs of our size have been promoted in recent years and stayed up for more than 2 seasons compared to the number who have not. Look at our ' best ' players we have sold recently. Buendia - can't get a regular game at a time when Villa are looking to buy more midfielders. Godfrey - 1 decent season but a player Everton were trying to replace even before he got injured and, worst of all, Lewis who can't even get into the Newcastle squad of 25. Chelsea are up for sale and there is a queue of rich people wanting to buy. Would any of them be interested in buying NCFC or any similar size club? Of course they wouldn't. I'm afraid that the truth is that we should accept that we are lucky to support a yo-yo Club rather than the many other Championship Clubs who are, and probably will be, stuck there for the future. On the bright side I really do feel that we have a Management team and the strong basis of a squad to challenge for another season in the PL.
Observation, squire, rather than criticism. It really is so much easier to read and digest if you break it up into paragraphs Excellent and well considered post, btw.
