I don't personally mind being the underdog, it takes away the pressure from all concerned. The pressure comes when you are expected to do well, when you are favorites. It also gives us a focus, to prove others wrong. That or Chopra has been down the bookies again....
And some quality crunching ones they were as well. If his success rate was lower, his booking and sending off rate would have been much higher! Being a centerback myself, I do love a meaty bonecrunching tackle, all fair and above board of course
When the pundit speculation begins pre season I will be quite surprised if we are down there.Daft as these people are they don't actually want to be wrong.Villa though I do expect to see about mid table.
I don't see why people think it is so wrong or get upset about it. We are 5th favs to go down because punters, bookies and their money places us in that position. The year we came up we were odds on favourite to go down. Last year we were 6/5 second fav. This year we are 7/2 5th fav. That is progress and probably an accurate assessment. As things stand at the minute if, as I suspect, Garrido starts we will have the same defence as last season and apart from Fer we will have the same midfield in a team that with 3 matches to go last season were facing relegation. Our strike force has been substantially improved and that is why we are 7/2 and not 6/5 to go down. As I have said on other threads I fear that some people have unrealistically high expectations for next season and could be in for a big disappointment as to me 5th to 7th from bottom is an accurate assessment of where we will finish.
That's a pretty accurate assessment in all respects,apart from the fact that positions 8 through to 20 are really pretty much up for grabs and quite possibly will be covered by twelve or so points,say 38-50.
i agree about the odds, although we were not 'facing relegation'! why exaggerate? we weren't even in the bottom three after october. even if we'd lost our last four games last season we'd still have stayed up. we drifted and we were sloppy at times and we certainly were in danger of being dragged in to it but we never 'faced' it. we were never less than 4 points above the bottom three were we? we've made some good improvements to our side in all departments (especially if you consider getting ruddy back like a new signing) and we've got better competition at left back and in midfield so we should do a bit better this season.
What happened last season was that Wigan were accredited with some magical ability to dodge the drop based solely on the fact that they had escaped before.Ultimately The Pie Eaters had a finish best described as mediocre and fell well short of the line.
Right, we are NOT GOING DOWN!!!!!!!!!!! - nor are we going to be anywhere near going down FACT!!!!!!!! Christ where is Col_u Mike or whatever his name was. I don't care what any bookie says if they are putting us down as bottom three then take their money. Seriously we are looking good, take my word for it!
Their money isn't there to take.If you turn it round and bet on us NOT going down you get about 1/4 on at best.So that puts it into perspective.
This is exactly what is annoying me most. I don't think the odds on us for a top ten finish are that good either, but I bet on it anyway!
id fancy a go on the odds on Norwich with a +40 handicap to win the EPL. much better odds than a top 8 finish! http://www.bet365.com/home/FlashGen4/WebConsoleApp.asp?&cb=10881413380
There's no way in reality we are 4th worst team in the Division, Stoke, West Ham, Southampton + the three promoted I'd say are worse than us. If we really clicked we could finish 7th. I don't think there's a lot to choose between the sides below that position.
I think you could comfortably add Sunderland and Fulham to that list as well with Villa, Swansea, Newcastle and West brom all within our grasp too. Will depend on how well we gel and finding some consistency to our form.
I'm not sure how they will gel, I don't know if a rigid style is easier to gel than a free flowing style. I'm thinking a rigid style is easier initially. There is alot of new players that are all being bunched to link together, a totally fresh frontline which needs to work to a pattern, plus, if we are to believe a more counter attacking style which is also new. Although the counter attacking stuff is a natural progression there is a lot to contend with, new cultures, new movements, new abilities. Its also different for the old players.
For sake of clarity please substitute ' still in danger of ' for ' facing ' I was not suggesting that I thought City will go down this year I was just trying to explain the reasoning behind the bookies odds. I am sure that most of you agree that the main target for the season is 40 points and safety and anything better than that is a bonus. It does worry me somewhat that some people have unrealistic expectations and that there will be an awful backlash from those people if only realistic expectations are forthcoming.
