How do people think they would do? Boro for me look like they could survive. They will certainly not grace the Prem in terms of silky footballing skills, but they look ready for attritional games against Hull, Sunderland and Villa. They won't have any fancy ideas about playing football. They can defend, which will help in the inevitable relegation struggle. City, I think would be best placed out of the rest. Our defence is prone to errors and we lack real penetration against good defences, but we have players who've been there before and I think AN would be inspirational just as he was with Hamilton. Bournemouth might get a nosebleed. By general agreement they have been the most attractive team this season in the Champ, but that may not be enough against the greater savvy of the Prem teams. Could see them being a Blackpool. Good start, then nosedive. Watford I think will struggle badly. Although they're quite likely to go up as Champions, they've won lots of last minute victories. They've basically got promoted by being flat track bullies and they have a pretty awful record against decent sides. They'll need to spend big time to have any chance of staying up.
Agree with pretty much all of this. Would like to see Boro undone because they have the feel of John Beck's. Cambridge United. The ball pinged a lot around in the air on Friday night. There was also the slow deliberation about set pieces used to disrupt opponents - a tell tale was watching excessive wiping of the ball before throw ins. In truth they were an absolute eyesore as were Cambridge when they reached the play offs - I well remember their semi-final against Leicester when Julian Joachim suddenly realised in the middle of the second half that they were rubbish on e deck. He took the ball down from the air on the edge of his own penalty area ran forward dribbling past six players before sticking the ball in the net to take Leicester through. A victory for football if ever I saw one!
Boro - Might survive thanks to their defence but a lack of goals could cost them dear. Need at least one striker that will hit double figures City - Need fire power, and to play for 90 minutes Bournemouth - potentially the next Wigan but will will have a bigger stadium soon, which hopefully they can fill. I can see them surviving, just. Watford - as their record against the other top 6 sides is quite poor, I think they will struggle
Its easier to fix a defence than a lack of goals, I could see Boro mirroring us under Hughton. By that token, I could see Watford fairing a little better, with some clever defensive reinforcements. Bournemouth could either be the next Swansea, or the next Wigan. I expect them to spend the not this summer, which will be ignored by pundits so they can continue the "aren't they punching above their weight" rhetoric.
It is getting increasingly difficult to stay up. In my opinion of the three teams who went up last season both QPR and Leicester had better squads than any of the top 4 in the Championship this year yet all 3 teams occupy the bottom 3 places. Quite simply, in my view, whoever goes up will come straight back down.
I'm afraid I disagree 1950 Both on squads and how easy it is to stay up. There is some absolute dross in the PL, from about 14th down. It's a lottery - I would say this season is the exception rather than the norm, in that all three of the promoted teams have poor squads and two of them have had average managers for the most part.
Dross? Villa - Delph, Benteke, Agbonlahor, Guzan, Cleverly, Sinclair, Vlaar, Grealish etc etc. Hull - McGregor, Huddlestone, Livermore,N'Doye, Jelavic, Dawson etc etc. Newcastle - Krul, Coloccini, Taylor, Williamson, Sissosoko, Colbeck, Tiote, Anita, Cisse etc etc. Sunderland - Patillimon, Johnson, Brown, O'Shea, Cattermole, Fletcher, Defoe, Larsson etc etc. Top class Premiership players - no. Proven Premiership players - certainly. Dross - certainly not. Let me look at the top 3 in the Championship for proven or likely Premiership quality. Bournemouth - I'm struggling. Watford - I'm struggling even more. Boro - a couple there - oh dear they are on loan and won't be there next season. I stand by my prediction - whoever goes up will come straight back down again. You can throw that back at me this time next year if I am wrong!!
I guess I'd answer the question in a different way- I don't see that many of the teams in the bottom half have substantially improved since Ncfc were relegated and there is every chance that Ncfc squad will be improved (assuming promotion) and will play more as a cohesive unit than during the relegation season- Neil has only had half a season to work with an inherited squad and will have a full preseason to continue to put his stamp on the team- can't really see the reason for pessimism
I'm not saying they haven't each got a few decent players although I look at the likes of Cleverly, Williamson, Brown, O'Shea and Larsson and I don't think they'd be guaranteed starters in our squad. But then I would expect all three of the teams who go up to invest in some "proven or likely Premiership quality". By the time these teams go up there won't be much in it. And some of those players you list above will have been snapped up by the big boys... I should have said from 13th down - West Brom are pretty rubbish too. A couple of decent players exist in all teams. One swallow and all that. In the season we went down any one of about six teams would have merited relegation. Nothing has changed in that regard, except that this season the promoted teams have been particularly bad.
I can see one of any of the bottom three staying up currently. Hull have the type of run in we had last season and Sunderland can't score goals to save their lives and ship a good number every other game. Leicester are bang in form and QPR actually look adventurous now. Burnley are the ones I wanted to stay up but it looks like they are the only ones of the bottom 3 that cant quite get the goals flowing. All to play for still!
As long as QPR go down, I'm not too fussed who stays up. Apologies to QPR fans for my somewhat irrational dislike.
Any teams going up will be the three favourites to head straight back down. There is some dross in the PL but I'm not sure how many of our players would get into any of the teams in the bottom six. An in-form Ruddy fair enough but none of our defence are exactly stand-outs at PL level. Maybe Howson and BJ on this years form but I can't see Jerome or Grabham getting a start for any existing PL teams. Logically I suppose if someone thought they were good enough they would have taken a punt on them and they would not be with us. A fit and on form Hooper may get a berth at Hull/Sunderland level but no higher.
I think that's all fair Norfolkbhoy. I'd say the following players would have a strong shout of getting into most squads in the bottom six: Ruddy, Olsson, Bassong, BJ, Howson, Tettey, Redmond, Hooper and, while I take your point not starting and his stock has fallen over the last couple of seasons, but let's not forget that Jerome has played 150+ games at Premier League level. I also think Tettey and Dorrans would have a decent chance of getting game time with most, if not all, the teams in the bottom six.
Players that have been there before............and failed. Any team that goes up will need an overhaul....imo
Or in our case players that have been there before and also succeeded. A couple of times. Be honest, man-for-man, do you think Norwich have the strongest squad in the division? I think only the most one-eyed Binner would look at the Norwich squad and say that it is not, overall, the best positioned to survive in the PL out of the promotion candidates. The real question is can the team be good enough. Since Neil took over at the beginning of the year, Norwich have been comfortably the best team in the division by points and possibly goals scored/conceded (of course that might not bear out over the last two matches). Overall, this is not surprising at all - the Norwich squad remains quite similar to that which survived in the Prem two seasons ago and we have been fortunate to have PL riches to help invest at all levels. When you add in that we lost very few players in the summer, this means, inevitably, if we get promoted there will not need to be much more than the addition of a few extra high quality signings. The difference will come if we do not get promoted, we will likely lose several key players and then if we were to get promoted next season the task would be more difficult as quality rapidly deteriorates. It's more interesting for the other promotion candidates. What do you mean by "overhaul"? Any promoted team that tries to buy too many first team players is likely to struggle. That's borne out time and again. If you Binners go up, you'll need to invest heavily to have even a chance of staying up of course, but you don't want to destroy the ethic that got you there in the first place. Same goes for all of the other teams up there right now. I look back and think that Lambert was seriously lucky when we signed so many players in our first season back in the Prem - look where many of them are now (Morison, Pilkington, James Vaughan, the two Bennetts). The others were Johnson, Howson and Ayala (who admittedly at least have a chance of playing PL next year).
Personally I see Bournemouth as a Blackpool. They are likely to start very well but once they are sussed points will be extremely hard to come by. Watford and Middlesboro will struggle from the off. Unfortunately, so will we unless our lack of goals/shots is addressed. We are not likely to get 20 shots on goal very often, and to get only two on target will be suicidal.
