Regardless of where we finish in the league this has been a fantastic season. Even the most miserable s0ds must by now have sufficient faith in our owners to realise that we are establishing ourselves as a solid mid-table EPL side and there is every reason to believe next year will be as good if not better than this.
Exactly ! The danger is managing expectation. We have no right to expect to finish close to 7th in the prem. Remember how delighted we were to actually stay up in that first season, a whole new experience. Well now there will be plenty of fan expecting us to improve on this season. Every season in this league will be a battle to stay up against bigger clubs with more cash who buy the better players. Seasons like this will be once in a blue moon. Don't under-estimate the performance of Gracia this season and don't call his head for "under-performing" when we are 6th bottom after 10 games next season.
5 games so far, assuming you mean the semi. 1W, 1D and 3L. I'm sure you're right, there would be people crying about that if there wasn't the cup final on the horizon. But I think in the context of the whole season it'd be limited to the reactionary fringe who always need a drama rather than the normal folk.
Yep touch and go for a while. Looked like we might have even exceeded that. Alas no, but well done Gracia and the boys. We'd take 11th again next season, wouldn't we Nath ?
It has been a poor ending to the League season, no doubt. But the fine margins at key moments that defined or changed the direction of the games since the semi final demonstrate that we could easily have finished 7th with a little less bad luck. And that was a run of games where we have not played as well as we have done for most of the season. We have been lightweight, and I think the Cup Final has affected our mindset more than is realised. No one is suggesting that "we have a right" to finsh 7th, and what a horrible expression that is, but anyone that actually saw those games and looks beyond the results, knows that none of the teams below the top 6th are actually better than us.
Player for player, the 4 other teams who finished directly above us, have the better players. Compare the defenders and strikers in particular.
If you say so. I’d say Wolves, Leicester and Everton are all better. We are roughly on a par with West Ham.
This season we were only out of the top 10 for three weeks. Sadly that includes the one that most matters. Holebas’s madness today means that since our promotion, we’ve had more red cards than any other side. 16 in total. This season we took 3 points from 36 against the top 6. We beat the sides who finished 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th. We took 16 points from 18 against the relegated sides, and a further 4 from the side who came 17th. The lowest finishing side to beat us came 14th (Muff) and the highest side we beat were 4th, and Champions League finalists of course! We kept more clean sheets at home than Man Utd did.
The table doesn't lie. We are the 11th best team in England.....that's not too shabby, but it still has the feeling of underachievement. It's the way we just fall apart in every season that makes it seem like this. I've enjoyed the first 30 odd games, but how we end carries so much weight. Had we won 10 on the spin going from relegation certainties to 11th, that would give so much satisfaction and optimism going into next season. However, when you're 7th with 6 to play, 4 at home and you only pick up 4 points from a possible 18, it really makes you feel cheated. I know we have the FA Cup final, and that is fantastic, but going on current form, there's not even a 1% chance for hope, just the dreaded forgone conclusion that we'll be making up the numbers. This one is over, we need to invest and improve the squad. But a bad run at the end of the season, makes everything look so bleak for next season.
We Woz Robbed If Holebas had not been WRONGLY sent off, there is every chance we would have won against The Spammers, as we had just scored and the momentum would have been with us
It's what dreams are made of, one to tell the grandchildren in years to come. Hopefully there's a open-bus parade being set up.
Every season in the Premier League season before it starts I have been hoping we stay up with a prediction of around 15th to 16th place. Now for the first time pre season I am saying we will stay up. League position mid table 9th - 13th region. 11th again wouldn't be a surprise. If we sign Sarr and he's amazing we might do even better.
Massive achievement to be out of the relegation zone before we even kick off. A lot of respect for Scott and Gino on this one. For a club as alphabetically challenged as we are, this is a huge step forward.
True though we will lose by more than 3 when we go there so NC have effectively already stolen a goal-difference march on us before we have even played. A long hard winter beckons.