Where we're at.

[Oldsparkey]

Bottom 6 and that's an FACT, unlike the Nottingham Forest one that wasn't. Where could we be? Well after that unexpected win at Sunderland, we had 2 home games and we should have won both.

Even setting aside the earlier seasons poor games for a moment, we could/should be 6 points better off and top 10 right now - hence the problem that we all recognise from the outside. It's what's going to happen on the inside that matters now and Hudson has got his contract.

The Hull game was a right cock up from the off and 3 points thrown away. Follow up that with the Blades game when we should have been out of sight by half time and you have the perfect storm brewing.

When we resume after the WC break, there are 4 games before the transfer window opens to sort this out or we could be looking to get off the trap door by then - I especially don't expect West Brom to stay behind us particularly having a game in hand.

Will it take the distinct reality that come the New Year we're very likely to be looking at League One next season for Tan to act positively? That's either by providing cash in an attempt to buy our way out, or managerially if "bottom three at Christmas" is a get out clause for the club written into Huds contract.

 

[BluefromBridgend]

Bottom 6 and that's an FACT, unlike the Nottingham Forest one that wasn't. Where could we be? Well after that unexpected win at Sunderland, we had 2 home games and we should have won both.

Even setting aside the earlier seasons poor games for a moment, we could/should be 6 points better off and top 10 right now - hence the problem that we all recognise from the outside. It's what's going to happen on the inside that matters now and Hudson has got his contract.

The Hull game was a right cock up from the off and 3 points thrown away. Follow up that with the Blades game when we should have been out of sight by half time and you have the perfect storm brewing.

When we resume after the WC break, there are 4 games before the transfer window opens to sort this out or we could be looking to get off the trap door by then - I especially don't expect West Brom to stay behind us particularly having a game in hand.

Will it take the distinct reality that come the New Year we're very likely to be looking at League One next season for Tan to act positively? That's either by providing cash in an attempt to buy our way out, or managerially if "bottom three at Christmas" is a get out clause for the club written into Huds contract.

Agree with all of that.

Tan will need long arms and deep pockets to: -

A. Buy or loan in players of the quality to get us up the table, and

B. Employ a new manager with the tactical nous and player management skills to ensure the same aim.

Tan is not going to walk away from a £200m + "investment" and a sale to get this back is like pi$$ing into the wind. Despite what many posters on other sites think he should do.

My conclusion is that he is going to have to stump up many millions more to get things in order. Has he the balls to do this?

 

[ninian opinion]

My conclusion is that he is going to have to stump up many millions more to get things in order.

Blackburn are 3rd, Millwall 6th - how much money have they spent?

In short we’re where we are due to Morison failing to bring in good enough players in midfield and especially up top, keeping too many plodders and bringing in too many duds.

This has been exacerbated by the stupendously naive decision to promote again from within, with cost cutting to the fore.

 

[BrizzleBluebird]

So, I've left this a little bit too long but after watching MOTD2 a week or so ago, I couldn't help but be struck by how similar the analysis of a Man Utd game was to how we appeared to be in recent games i.e. pretty decent up until that final third / final pass / final shot etc.

The general consensus was that it was "fine margins" that were preventing Utd from being a good side now.

I can't help but feel that we are indeed very similar (no, madness hasn't set in.... Honest).

We have proven on several occasions now that we can live with the best that this division has to offer. Sadly we've not managed to do it consistently enough, either from week to week or even, in some cases half to half of games.

IF (and it's a big if) we can add another striker (even if it's just Hugill back) and perhaps a better left back, then with others getting fit, I see no reason for us not to be mildly optimistic for the rest of the season.

If we just look at both our near neighbours, the Wurzles not that long ago were on a high, almost anticipating challenging for the playoffs, yet now are more concerned with the drop....
The Jacks were the opposite, dreading the drop but now (at least until the last couple of games) were pushing for the top 6 quite comfortably.

It doesn't take a lot to swing your fortunes in this division, and if we can find a little bit more consistency we can move up the table...