Oh go on then. Leicester, Burnley, QPR for a start. Then there's WBA - A manager with a hopeless record and seemingly equally hopeless transfer strategy. Southampton - Whilst they have a **** load of money, so far they have lost most of their squad that made them decent. They also have a new manager who is new to the PL and a mass rebuild - a decidedly tricky position to be in. Sunderland - Unknown quantity as manager. Players not wanting to return to the club who played for an entire season last season. Seemingly missing most transfer targets. Villa - A train crash waiting to happen. Poor manager no money, up for sale working on free transfers. I can also see Benteke gone before the season starts. There's a lot of **** around.
I think Quinns ****ing ace. We've only got Huddlestone, Livermore and Meyler ahead of him so we should be able to find room given the number of games we've got. I think he's better cover than say Bruce is in defence, but because our defenders are forever getting injured we've needed Bruce a lot, whereas our 3 main midfielders are almost always fit so we never end up needing Quinny. I really hope he stays and gets more games this year. Best player in our promotion year and everyone forgets that.
As I said earlier, DQPR and Villa - no chance. Both much better than us on paper. It's only Harry being a s**tc**t that stopped DQPR winning every single game last season. I would still say Saints are better than us even if they dont sign a single player. The others you could argue and that would still make us one of the worst squads in the league, which is precisely what i said. Why is nobody naming Swansea?
Where did I 'write off' our squad or say 'some of our first 11 arent good enough for this league'? I said we'll be in a relegation battle, which the fact that you're dodging my challenge you seem to actually concede. There is no way in a million years we'll be 10 points clear of the bottom 3 for the whole 2nd half of the season. Therefore we're in a relegation battle. THis is not 'writing off' the squad or saying the players arent good enough. It's simple fact and could be said for at least 6 other clubs in our league right now no matter what happens before the end of the transfer window.
As we found out last season we will be in our own mini league, with probably Burnley.Lesta, QPR, WBA, Swansea, Villa, Palarse, East Spam, maybe Soton & Stoke. Personally feel we have better squad than Burnley/Lesta/WBA/QPR/Swansea/W.Spam at the moment, so even though as BCC says we will be in a relegation scrap which we will, we have enough to stay clear of the trap door.
Well yes, that's all precisely what I said. Some people seem to think I've said we've got the worst squad in the league or that we will go down but I said nothing of the sort.
Perhaps. I just think people dont read carefully and come to false conclusions about what they think I meant.
It was probably because you came out with this load of nonsense. So you aren't writing off the squad at all, nor are you saying they're not good enough, just saying that they're one of the worst in the league? Before the end of the transfer window, before the start of the season and after we've had just a couple of weeks of pre-season? Gee, I wonder how anybody could mistake that for you being pessimistic. Or oxymoronic.
Just to run through this from a practical point of view. You're suggesting that before an evening away game in Europe Bruce decided to hold his (outgoing) transfer talks with a player on the pitch. The player then decided to have an animated conversation about it with someone (the other club?) on his phone, also on the pitch rather than in the empty dressing room. After that he went and shook hands with all of his teammates to say his goodbyes. Then he sat and watched the game for a couple of hours before travelling back to Hull with the squad. Depending when they travelled he may also have spent another night in a hotel as well. Personally I'd say he might be going, but if the on pitch stuff was relevent I'd be amazed. There were plenty of more discreet places for both Bruce to have the conversation with him and for him to make his phone call. He wouldn't be doing handshakes and things with the players unless he was about to rush away, and being away in Europe he couldn't do that so he'd have waited until after the game rather than shifting attention from it at that point.
fact is a squad has to take more than the first XI and subs bench incase of injury etc quinn wasn't included for whatever reason, it 100% was not due to any transfer news..
Yes precisely. ONE of the worst. I didn't say worst. For me ONE of the worst means amongst the 6th or 7th worst. I bet if you asked Steve Bruce if there are 13 or 14 teams in our division with better squads than us he'd agree. Where is this 'nonsense' you reference? This represents a massive leap forward and shows positive progress and optimism if anything because i bet if you asked any football fan in the country this time last year, we would've been declared as definitely having at best the 2nd worst squad in the division.
What would concern me next year is seeing us regularly playing 352, we simply don't have the players for it any more, and if that's what we're playing then it makes the Snodgrass and Ince signings pointless.
FWIW, I reckon we'll finish around 16th, which will do absolutely fine. With the make up of our growing squad, we'll be even stronger next year, so staying up is all that matters. Bruce? The same one that got given MoM everywhere I've seen and read?
So, if we finished 13th, by your reckoning we'd be considered to have the seventh worst squad in the PL? By most people's reckoning, that represents a midtable finish. The word 'worst' shouldn't come into it. That's like having a list of the top ten worst teams in the PL, what'd be the point in that? In most people's eyes, one of the 'worst' would be bottom 3, maybe bottom 4. Not bottom 6, 7 or 8. You can't say you're not writing off players and then go on to say we have one of the worst squads in the league. Sorry, but that's the nonsense bit. You also seem to use the term 'I bet' a lot; if your betting is anything like your semantics I'd stay well clear of the bookies.
Just had a quick look at the Hull City Footymad board & even their generally optimistic posters see us struggling near the bottom of the league & three have us down for relegation & you think BCC is a pessimist !!
Anyone who sees anything but a season of struggle needs their bumps felt - the squad has certainly improved but *mid-table safety* is one for the dreamers. *It would be great to be proved wrong.
You'd have a point if 1 team got relegated, but the reality is 3 teams do. This whole discussion came about cos i said we'd be in a relegation battle. If we finish 13th, thats 4 places above relegation and ergo we'll have been in a relegation battle. If only i was paid to write for a living.
