...or the continued existence of the club!! Look at what happened to POtsmouth when they tried to 'buy' their way to Premier League safety .......
I have consistentally said on this Board since well before the season started that I thought we would go down this year based purely and simply on the improvement in other squads and the fact that the teams coming up had more skill, money and enthusiam than the teams who went down. Overall I suspect that our squad is slightly better than last year with Bassong, in particular, plugging an obvious gap but against that I think we were weakened by the return to Spurs of Naughton. Hughton is a brilliant replacement for Lambert and if we do go down, as allowed for in our plan, represents our best chance of a swift return to the Premiership. For anybody to suggest that he should be sacked either now or if we go down is ludicrous. We are not playing badly but facts do have to be faced. If we lose Bassong for a few games we will struggle, if we lose to Liverpool - another team playing well without getting results - we will be in the bottom three, if we lose the next 2 very difficult games after that we will probably be bottom and at the moment we cannot score for love or money. I know ' if ' is a small word with many conclusions and if we get unexpected points all will be different but on the balance of probabilities we will be bottom after the next 3 games with 3 points from 8 games. Not a position where you are unable to recover but not where you want to be. I agree entirely with Supers that 17th is what we are aiming for and if we achieve that it will, in my opinion, equal all the other achievements of the last 3 years but I do find the arguement of ' keep the faith and everything will be OK ' to be a bit naive. I think it will be a fairly close call as to whether we stay up or go down and I agree that the doom and gloom in certain quarters is completely unwarranted but I also have to agree that people are finding it difficult to see too much light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps Kane will score a few, perhaps Bassong will be fit for Saturday, perhaps we will get a few unexpected points but if that doesn't happen we are deep in it and no amount of optimistic ranting will change that. I want City to stay up because the Premiership is more entertaining but if we go down it won't be the end of the world.
Don't be put off. We aren't a minority, the majority of fans. An keep their emotions in check and provide rational arguments but some just fly off the handle, we seem to be able to discuss things on this site and it's why I stay. I have plenty of views on the way forward and none involve "getting Harry redknapp before Ipswich do" Because I'm Not an idiot
I await further contributions from 'the cap' with interest and wonder if he will always set out to be so controversial and provocative in the future.
Watched the game on Sky today , thought we did ok Canary call is for losers cant abide it dont listen to it. CH is the ideal man for the job and a gent what more could we want
Excellent OP and discussion this. I think that most of us City fans are concerned about the present position with three difficult games coming up. Had City won against QPR or West Ham (which they easily could have done, IMO) none of this soul searching would be going on now. I agree with those who say that CH is building a much more solid team that will perform week in, week out. Certainly this is the strongest squad City have had in the 40+ years I have been watching them. CH will again turn out an almost totally different starting line-up on Wednesday and still have solid quality throughout. Fox, Tettey, Butterfield, Whittaker, and Kane have yet to show what they can add to the mix when their turn comes, as it will, and the return of Elliot Bennett and Pilkington will also offer new options as the return of Hoolahan did so strongly on Saturday. PL was fortunate to get a win against a less than daunting Bolton side (even before they had a player sent off) in the fifth game last year which finally got the ball rolling after 2 draws and 2 losses, but IMO, he never achieved the solidity and depth that CH is building in the team. There was a nervousness about the 5 penalties conceded in the first 5 games that I don't see now. There are still at least 6 teams at the bottom fighting for survival and others like Stoke, West Ham and Swansea could well be dragged back into the bottom 3 over the season as a whole. Far too soon to be pessimistic, IMO. If City are in the bottom 3 at Christmas after playing all the other 19 teams, then we should worry. I don't think they will be, but it will be a battle through and through. There are still 33 games to play and 99 points to play for to reach the 36-38 points required (given the 3 points already acquired). I think they can do that.
Excellent post Rick. Completely agree about the current strength of squad and the amount of other teams who could be in the releagtion mix come May. If we are struggling into the New Year then we will have to choose whether to buy big in the Jan window to try to get a bit of impetus or stick with the quality we already have and rely on them plus CH's management to get us through.
Maybe I didn't elaborate enough. Obviously year on year to improve a team needs new players, but to suddenly say we need a new striker, or a new left-back when the current players have had only a few bad games is stupid. Especially when the performance can be improved through training.
Pretty much how I feel about our present predicament and any points we pick up between now and November wll be an added bonus!!
