Yes but the standard of other teams increases each year and wonder how that morale would hold up after 5 straight defeats ??
When you say "shrewd" do you mean "cheap" ? How many do you think will impact the first 11 in the next 5 matches ? Holebas even seems to be holding down the LB position.
http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2018/watford-rayo-vallecano-interested-in-achraf-bencharki/ We'll be loaning him to Vallecano then.
It is not possible for everybody to improve. Some will, some won’t. I’ve said it elsewhere but we have improved. Masina, Foster, Delefeou and hopefully Chalobah only losing Richarlison who did nothing from Christmas onwards. I would love us to sign Alcacer as he would clearly improve us but this squad is not as bad as some make out and I think we will be fine
All the noises coming out of the club suggest that we'll maybe sign another midfielder, but not a striker or defender. Dangerous game to play, because if we lose on Saturday the support and atmosphere will be toxic and that's not a good way to start the season... My prediction is that we'll sign a midfielder on loan and announce that Peneranda has a work permit.
Fulham and Wolves will be tougher propositions than WBA, Stoke and Swansea after their considerable strengthening. WHU and CP have added players we would have been in a frenzy about. Muff have broken their record on a midfielder. The bar is raised every year and we need to improve the quality of our starting 11 just to stand still. We showed relegation form after the great start under Silva and seem to be relying on Chalo coming back and showing the same form he showed for 5 games last season. Which 3 clubs do you think will finish below us and why as squads stand now ? Its not that the squad is "bad" it's that it needs to be "really good" just to stay in this league.
Does the standard of other teams really increase each year? Really? Sounds like cobblers to me, certainly based on my 20+ years of watching football. The amount of money spent by clubs every year definitely increases. But that never guarantees success. In reality, it’s been an ‘undeniable truth’ on here for ages that this league isn’t actually as good as people thought it would be. Loads of teams have a soft underbelly and are gettable on their day. One transfer window hasn’t changed that. History says at least one (over)hyped team is going to flop completely. And that’s before you factor in the normal things that turn a team from fancied into non-runners the week before you play them (injuries, suspensions, players falling out…) This 'playing football on paper' exercise of comparing squads before a ball is kicked is fun but futile. Last time I checked we’re still in a competition with 14 teams with the main aim of avoiding relegation and then taking stock once that’s achieved. It’ll be the usual hard season whatever happens. It would be nice to see some reinforcements today but I don’t see it as the difference between survival and certain relegation like some seem to.
I shall be popping into WGC in forty five minutes. I shall go to the bank and pay my John Lewis account fee. I shall then go shopping. I need the usual items;human food,feline food,fox food. Please let me know what players you prefer and I'll pop them in the trolley. I have my vouchers.
Huddersfield Newcastle Southampton Cardiff Bournemouth. Palace Fulham Brighton Could easily finish above those teams. Jury is out on Wolves, West Ham and Everton. Burnley could struggle with the extra games. We all want to improve and as I mentioned Alcacer would have done this but we don’t have a bad squad especially in midfield.
I know Social Media and the Internet is an echo chamber, but it's already toxic on the Internet. Lose badly on Saturday and I think it'd be very toxic.
So you don't think the quality of football in the top league is any better now than 20 years ago ? Really ? You have a lot of credibility as a poster but you risk losing it with comments like that. Of course a couple of quality signings would improve our chances, and conversely, no quality signings will leave us at a greater risk of relegation. Otherwise why does any team bother to sign new better players ?
Perhaps you are right. Perhaps we will finish top half without any further additions and despite the quality that teams around us have added. I doubt it though.
Yes we could finish top half. But all things being equal we are ranked the 3rd/4th worst team by spread firms and that is about correct.
For every gobby internet moron there's hundreds of 'normal' people who actually attend games and don't feel the need to take to social media every 10 seconds to tell the world how they're feeling, so I doubt that you need to be too concerned
It won't though. Even at our worst, in modern times, it has never been 'toxic' at VR. It won't suddenly happen on the first day of the season because we didn't sign 2/3 new players when we should have. There are too many families etc for that. It will only ever turn toxic amongst WFC fans at away games when the team show little effort and we are struggling at the bottom. We are some way of that this season...not that it may not happen mind you.
Unfortunately I don't think it takes many to make an atmosphere fairly toxic. It's not like the rest of our fans will be drowning them out with lots of chanting eh I think a leaner fitter deeney is a real positive, if he can get back to his best I am much less worried about the lack of firepower. I'd like Alcacer but if we don't get him I still think we'll be ok. Everyone wants an exciting signing or two to end the window, but we have spent big bucks over the last few years so I doubt there's a huge amount left if we can't shift some of the deadwood.
To be fair, I'm fairly confident if the last 2 seasons had lasted for 2/3 more games, we may well have been relegated in one of them. We haven't been close to relegation per se....but we've certainly shown prolonged stints of relegation form.
I didn’t say the quality of football in the top league is no better now than 20 years ago? I dunno how you jumped to that. I’m saying the standard of teams does not increase regimentally each year like your comment suggested. Some get better, lots stay roughly the same, some get worse. Even then, some of the ones who get better occasionally get relegated and some of the ones that get worse somehow avoid danger completely. That’s what watching football for 20+ years has clearly shown me. In essence, football is never logical and isn’t just about guaranteed linear progression brought about by breaking your transfer record or signing 9 players in one summer or whatever. There’s more to the mix than that.
I didn’t say the quality of football in the top league is no better now than 20 years ago? I dunno how you jumped to that. I’m saying the standard of teams does not increase regimentally each year like your comment suggested. Some get better, lots stay roughly the same, some get worse. Even then, some of the ones who get better occasionally get relegated and some of the ones that get worse somehow avoid danger completely. That’s what watching football for 20+ years has clearly shown me. In essence, football is never logical and isn’t just about guaranteed linear progression brought about by breaking your transfer record or signing 9 players in one summer or whatever. There’s more to the mix than that.
I didn’t say the quality of football in the top league is no better now than 20 years ago? I dunno how you jumped to that. I’m saying the standard of teams does not increase regimentally each year like your comment suggested. Some get better, lots stay roughly the same, some get worse. Even then, some of the ones who get better occasionally get relegated and some of the ones that get worse somehow avoid danger completely. That’s what watching football for 20+ years has clearly shown me. In essence, football is never logical and isn’t just about guaranteed linear progression brought about by breaking your transfer record or signing 9 players in one summer or whatever. There’s more to the mix than that.
Teams like Everton and West Ham splash cash every year. They top dollar for established players. They basically use a revolver to crack a walnut, they don’t worry how much a player costs they just pay whatever it takes to sign the player. Some of these players will work out some won’t, but there is always a lot of fresh air above what a player is actually worth and what they pay for them. To us it makes us feel like we’re losing ground and those teams have improved, but in reality just because they've spent tons of money it doesn’t mean they’ve improved more than us.
This summer, Everton and West Ham have improved more than us. The quality they have added is better than us. Same with Leicester. Same with Wolves. Same with Fulham.
So if we have had prolonged stints of relegation form then we must also have had some good form as well. You say had it gone on for much longer we may have gone down but we were fairly well clear points wise and actually our home form for 2018 is very good with just one undeserved defeat
