The problem being we need 3 wins from 9 after 5 in 29... Two of which came from West Brom! I've got faith that our squad is good enough but we undoubtedly have the poorest manager in the league. Back to back matches against Newcastle and West Ham coming up now and we'll know a lot more after them games.
You will. Even after that though a lot can happen. If a team say wins last few games then there is a good chance they'll survive. I expect lots of twists and turns.
So in the opening game of the season after our best league finish in 30 years, we needed a goal before it 'picked up'? Does that not prove my point that we're not great at being supportive for the sake of being supportive...
The best way I can describe the relationship between the fans and the team at SMS is that the former have fallen out of love with the latter...
I think it's what happens when a team stabilises itself in the PL. The fans become less important to the club and are treated as such. We become 'customers' not 'supporters' and people understandably resent that.
We were a bit **** in the first half though! Going a goal down at home to Watford wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping for was it?
Vs Spurs, January 2003, FA Cup. 24,000 there and the joint was rocking. After that, Walsall in 2011 and Coventry a year later.
I'm sure the team weren't hoping for it either, but you know what? **** happens. It's the most competitive league in the world and if the support are going to throw their toys out of the pram at the slightest set back then to be blunt then they deserve everything that's happening to them now. By the way I'm sure the team was hoping that the fans wouldn't turn on the team 45 minutes into the new season either, particularly months after a top 6 finish.
Funnily enough, if we go down I expect matchday atmosphere to improve even if we aren't challenging for promotion.
I’ve lost track of where this discussion is going to be honest. Can’t be arsed with arguing any more.
Allowing for the way the PL has changed, we probably had a better team in 2005 than we do now. The current lot have a lot more heart imo, but we lack a spark because the ability is limited. The passing is slow, the movement is poor, we have a desperate shortage of natural finishers. That may be coaching, but that certainly isn't the whole story. We have sold our best players summer after summer, and are not blessed with great footballers, currently.
Me too, I think that we were sold an unrealistic dream by the club during the Cortese years and when things inevitably evened out and we reached our ceiling, some fans heigtened expectations were not being met. There is no doubt the football side of the club has been very badly managed this season, but the discontent started last season what we were still doing relatively well for our status. If we do go down, there will be a regrouping and our identity as underdogs will be reaffirmed and any success will be greeted positively.
It might be different if it was an inevitable evening-out. The fact that it has happened rather abruptly and has coincided with some truly strange decisions by our board (and a lot of hollow statements about our intent that clash with our actions) has certainly exacerbated matters. It doesn't feel like we're reverting to the mean; it feels like we have been undercut by the very people tasked with leading us forward. I also cannot emphasize enough: outside the top six, there's no such thing as "our status", for good or bad. Financially we're on pretty level footing with everyone else. Above them, often. There are no real structural barriers to finishing around the European places every year. The flip side is that there's no permanent advantage to being in that realm; you can easily fall from being 7th to getting relegated in a season.
This was bound to happen, if you keep moving on your best players then any connection with that team lineup goes as well. It's difficult not to think that our current crop are only here for so that they get a big payday move to a "big" club.
Well personally, I was perfectly content to finish effectively "best of the rest" and reach a major Cup Final last season given that we had only managed to achieve either a handful of times in our entire history.
Our status if you're going historically is basically a mid sized club who is sometimes upper second tier and sometimes first tier. Same as about another 25 or so clubs.
I said it at the time and I'll say it again. If you're disappointed with 8th and a cup final then you're supporting the wrong club.
