If you need to understand how opinions effect us all... Please take time to search through last year's championship predictions 2010/11 via any search engine. Some had us down for a possible play off most mid table at the best. It's an interesting fact about the fickle football fan. We are playing in a higher league BUT we have a better team ... anything is possible Fear not my brothers
Its only history of course and means very little but at a time where people are writing us off because we haven't spent millions it may just show how we are all effected by expert pundits. I will try and put something together on this thread to back up my statement .. One thing is for sure in the meantime ... Predictions for the premiership 10/11 were very easy at the top but a lot it wrong at the bottom excluding Blackpool of course
Stats show that teams that don't invest sufficiently tend to go down. Blackpool and Burnley being case in point. As well as Burnley did by beating United and Blackpool by beating Liverpool and Spurs, they couldn't sustain it. I feel this season is a lot different though as a lot of teams in the PL have weakened significantly whilst the top have strengthened significantly. Wigan, Newcastle, Bolton and soon to be Blackburn are all significantly weaker with little investment coming in from above. Wigan IMO are gonna struggle to stay up big time. Newcastle may as well. Bolton and Blackburn may be okay though.
Newcastle may well struggle IF they don't invest the Caroll money in players rather than ground improvments. Plus, with Nolan leaving, Barton on his way out and possibly two defenders leaving they could find this season difficult, but I think that Blackburn will find it just as hard as their owners, much like ours and the Geordies have cash (allegedly), but just don't want to spend and basically milk the clubs dry.
My early prediction for predictions made last season 10/11 for teams to be relegated are forming a trend it appears so far: Blackpool, Wigan, WBA, Newcastle and Wolves were favourites to go down. Championship promotion 10/11 : Boro, Reading, Burnley, Forest, Ipswich, Cardiff, Leicester, Barnsley, Sheff Utd are at this point before us on the predictions .. Note not come across anyone who went for Norwich City. And Swansea look like they were possible relegation certainties back then We have had a few inclusions as possible play off contenders. Of course not all this information is still available (ie Betting sites) Funny old game and we all have short memories as fans
Go have a lie down would ye Oddball? There aint nothin' fickle about accepting the truth when its staring you in the face. That one little sentence sums it all up for me. Like I said in previous posts, Reading are the only outfit in recent years to spend f*ck all and stay up. Its only in exceptional circumstances that Clubs can pull it off.
Hers some stats for you all from this time last year: Players brought in prior to last season starting: Investment my arse ... tell me which brilliant player set the premiership on fire last year from the start from this lot Arsenal : Marouane Chamakh, Laurent Koscielny Aston Villa: Barry Bannan Birmingham City : Ben Foster, Nikola Zigic, Enric Valles Blackburn Rovers : Mame Biram Diouf Blackpool : Craig Cathcart, Elliot Grandin, Malaury Martin, Marlon Harewood Bolton Wanderers : Martin Petrov, Ivan Klasnic, Robbie Blake, Marcos Alonso, Tom Eaves Chelsea: Yossi Benayoun, Tomas Kalas Everton : Jan Mucha, Jermaine Beckford, Joao Silva, Magaye Gueye Fulham : Philippe Senderos Liverpool : Danny Wilson, Christian Poulsen, Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic, Jonjo Shelvey Manchester City : David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure, Aleksandar Kholarov, Robinho (loan return), Jo (loan return), Joe Hart (loan return) Manchester United : Javier Hernandez, Chris Smalling, Bebe, Tom Cleverley (loan return) Newcastle United : James Perch, Sol Campbell, Dan Gosling, Xisco (loan return) Stoke City : Carlo Nash, Kenwyne Jones Sunderland : Cristian Riveros, Simon Mignolet, Marcos Angeleri, Nedum Onuoha, Titus Bramble, Ahmed El-Muhammadi Tottenham Hotspur : Sandro, Giovani dos Santos (loan return) West Bromwich Albion : Boaz Myhill, Nicky Shorey, Pablo Ibanez, Steven Reid, Gabriel Tamas (permanent deal) West Ham United : Pablo Barrera, Thomas Hitzlsberger, Frederic Piquionne, Tal Ben-Haim, Winston Reid Wigan Athletic : Ronnie Stam, Mauro Boselli, Antolin Alcaraz, Ali Al Habsi, James McArthur Wolverhampton Wanderers : Steven Fletcher, Steven Mouyokolo, Stephen Hunt, Jelle Van Damme, Adlene Guedioura We are doomed : Taarabt, Dyer, Campbell, Gabbidon, Bothroyd plus a couple more all start for Rangers so far 1.25m ... very good business
I put him in on purpose as i have thread after thread from doom city claiming he was gone ... so much so that he was written out by NW " its like having a new signing" Its very simple: 15 years wait ... enjoy it and recognise it for what it is .. we have enough problems off the pitch without dooming about we have on it. Hoops
Type them out then; and also remember we haven't started yet so all untried as team members with their teams ... Man city should have won it on Paper my point was the players above were the actual signings each team made to hold on to Premiership status or for some win more last year Funny old game
As we approach KO, DTs positive posts are more appealing than Swords fecking doom laden ones. Bring Bolton on, I bet we beat them!
Javier Hernandez point taken and accepted but did we all feel that he would? Honestly? There are few surprises in the list and a lot of threads have been asking for millions to be spent ... it hasn't and no one on this forum I am guessing could build a team ... we could all be happy on paper i am sure ...
I'd of liked to have seen the team Warnock would've built, with the same budget as our fellow newbies.
Great point Northolt but alas inside I am thinking he may not of got the chance ... Lippi may of. I don't think we could get better than NW in our current position: Taarabt would be worth f*** all and we would have already played this season ie: yesterday. I have a good memory and people thought NW wasn't good enough for the Prem .. he is and so is the team he has built
