Welcome Norwich btw. The prem is only good if you stay in it. We need to improve or we could be out next season. Your DEF needs to be strong as **** which is, hopefully, something we´ll address in the summer.
You guys pulled off some escape second half of this season. Your form was almost as good as ours! Truly unbelievable showing. I thought Pearson had lost it after the "Grabbing" Incident. Ultimately, I was happy so long as QPR went down (And them finishing bottom makes that all the sweeter). Fully agree defence is the most important thing in the Prem, but that comes as much from organisation and commitment as it does form the personnel and in Alex Neil I think we have the most promising manager in the country. Looking forward to playing your lot next season.
Saints fan in peace. Absolutely delighted for you guys, think you might just surprise a few people next season as you look best equipped of the 3 promoted teams to cope with the Pl? Looking forward to meeting up with some of you guys again home and away next season.
Saints and Swans are the 2 teams I feel Norwich have had a bit of a bond with over the last few seasons. It's just a shame we were so awful to watch last season. Hopefully we can break into the top 10 as you and Swansea have done.
This part made me smile. They have recent Premier League experience Most of the play-off winners who fail to achieve any longevity are surprise success stories that have never been in the Premier League before like Burnley in 2009/10 and Blackpool in 2010/11. Norwich were there as recently as last year and were a mid-table team for two years before their demotion. They did a good job keeping their squad together after going down too, with Robert Snodgrass and Leroy Fer the only ones to leave permanently for better things, and even those "better things" turned out to be dropping down a division all over again with Hull and QPR respectively.
That's odd COTB because those are the two I feel an affinity with. It's maybe a geography thing with us all being slightly unfashionable provincial clubs with a bit of yokel in us. I think the manager is the key to this. He's a typical wiry little Scottish beggar,scared of nothing.If we can keep him then I think our chances are very good.
Well we went down with the Saints both from the Prem and from the Championship and both clubs had meteoric rises back up to the Prem. Swansea are just a great club, or at least that's the impression I get from the outside. They joined us as the unfashionable club when we went up. Both us and Swansea fans were hoping beyond hope QPR would be the ones to fail. And we've had some cracking matches in recent seasons. The 4-3 at the Liberty was one of the best matches under Hughton.
We have had several promotions and relegations in harness with the Saints. The Jacks have also now become one of "us". We are trinity.
This time round we have players with Premiership experience a lot of them were in a squad which got relegated, but I think they're a lot wiser and hopefully won't make the same mistakes again, however the main ingredient to survival will be how well Alex Neil fares his got the players and fans won over, anything can happen but I feel a lot more confident now we have genuine leadership.
Fear the Premier League? To fear something there has to be a disastrous outcome if it all goes wrong, surely? Thankfully, our club now has prudent management all the way through it, so if the worst happens and in 12 months we're preparing for a season in the championship again, then we'll be in even better shape on and off the pitch than we were 12 months ago. Hopefully mid-championship mediocrity is not on the cards for us now for a while, so it's either fighting with the big boys, or mounting a challenge to get back with them. That all sounds great to me so I see nothing to fear there. Respect the Prem sure, but we're a different beast now compared to when Lambert took us up. Our squad is full of Prem experience, rather than gambling on League 1 players stepping up. We're not hamstrung by crippling debts we have to pay off, any money not going on the playing squad will be improving the club, not keeping banks happy. I wouldn't say we're facing tougher opposition than the last time we went up either. Sunderland, Newcastle and Villa don't look like they'll forge into midtable next year, obviously the promoted teams will all be in the mix, and it only takes a poor manager change to bring West Ham, WBA and Palace back into the mix. Bring it on!
If we can maintain decent away form, and doing better than CH's efforts should not be hard, then I see no reason to have relegation worries. The set up, the tactics and the mind set will be so totally different under AN. And Suarez will not score against us next season, I guarantee that.
Nice to have underlying confidence from a wide number of contributors. That has not been the case on here for a long while and long may it continue.
