Has nobody considered the scenario that we could possibly be relegated but also be playing in the Europa League next season? That would not only give us another income stream from BT Sport, but also require us to hang on to as many of our current first team as possible, at least until the January window.
I think that we should go all out to persuade Pierre and JWP to stay and build the team around them, Lemina can go, too inconsistent and I expect there to be strong interest for Romeu.
I'd like to see us build a team around our homegrown players, with JWP as captain. If we could hold on to Long, Pierre, Davis and Yoshi from the current squad, and add a striker from god knows where, maybe we could hit the ground running.
Yeah, i'm not as doom laden about our prospects next season as some on here, we have a lot of very talented players in our squad depth at Championship level. It might take a couple of years of the young players gelling together, but we will definately be one of the better teams down there. The nightmare scenario would be us cashing in on our younger players and replacing them with lower quality journeymen.
A lot depends on the players. I seriously think the vast majority of the squad will have interest from top flight teams either here or abroad, and if they want out then it will be hard to keep majority of them. The older higher paid players I think will most likely stay (Forster, Davis, Long, McCarthy) and some of the more fringe youngsters (McQueen, Sims, Stephens), but I think virtually everyone else will have interest and then it is down to them how big a fuss they want to make to leave. Call me cynical but I think if there is interest then all of them will do everything they can to leave, JWP included.
Sadly I am in the relegation nailed on camp now... I had allowed myself a glimmer of hope and at SMS on Saturday I dared to believe until Giroud came on and that first goal came in. What it showed was the damage done by Pellegrino and that it was probably going to be too late now for Hughes. He has got more out of the squad since he's been here than Pellegrino ever managed. Sadly they gave MaPe too long and I believe had we appointed Hughes as soon as he was available then we'd not be where we are now. I know a lot don't like him but he clearly knows how to motivate and get that squad playing, he just hasn't had the time to stop the malaise and panic when under pressure. I'd love to keep Hughes and a good deal of this squad but I guess agents and money will prevent that. Been disappointed with Lemina and guess he isn't up for the fight; Cedric has no end product and is always caught out at the back post so don't mind him going; Forster can go, McCarthy is better IMHO; can't see us hanging on to Gabbi either. Would love the rest to stay and it will be interesting to see the board's resolve or whether they want to sink, dismantle and hope we get lucky all over again. Hoping at least Gallagher comes back to us and we can build more around some of the core players. Sadly the long-term plan seems to have gone with Cortese and MoPo and whilst Koeman papered over the cracks since he left we have been on a pretty horrific trajectory that cup runs have masked... Still, I enjoyed the Championship last time and League 1 to be honest, at least we saw players that wanted to play for the club; hopefully if that becomes the reality, I'll enjoy watching some excitement and effort at SMS next season
Indeed. That Glen Murray miss on Saturday against Palace may yet prove huge. To be honest, sides around us having been giving us opportunities all season, due to them dropping matches in other matches. If Brighton or Huddersfield finish on 35 from here, it'll just be yet another opportunity handed to us. The problem is that, to date, we haven't taken advantage of any of these opportunities.
It's a scenario, yes. Just how likely a scenario... (If we progressed in the league cup, we'd never have a midweek off!...)
I absolutely enjoyed 2010/11 and 2011/12. And 2006/07 and 2009/10 were quite good. But 2005/06 was a bit meh, and the less said about 2007/08 and 2008/09, the better. It wasn't all rosy in the next division down.
We’re only 2 more wins away from lifting the cup, after 4 successive victories in that competition. And whisper it softly, the only goal we’ve let in was against the mighty West Brom!
Totally agree, there were some dark times down there whilst we sorted the club out, sadly I thought having done that and developed "a way" we were going to be good for a while, this collapse is all about the club management and lack of vision; sadly not sure we have the management in place to rebuild this time because the vision is missing
Home to Burnley. But then away to Liverpool. That first half is swaying me more towards wanting Stoke to win this. Absolutely nothing I have seen in them to fear. (There's a reason they're below us!)
If this stays 0-0 for a while, it'll be interesting to see if Stoke go for it. In my book, a point isn't enough for them. Even Lambert himself has said they need three wins (and that is a minimum requirement for them, I would suggest - if we think seven points gives us a very small chance, well Stoke are a point further back and with a much weaker GD; thus seven points becomes nine points for them).
