Premier League Relegation Battle 2014/15

I hope QPR go down

not sure about the other two places but it would be nice if it was QPR in both of them too

 

Plus it would be good to renew hostilities with them.

 

Lot of hindsight in this. Swansea had a similar-looking transfer window. Always a gamble.

 

Burnley - A shame
Sunderland - Good riddance
QPR - Good riddance

 

Premier League football for any given season is worth £100 million odd. Look at the amount of teams in the Championship who have come down and struggled to come back up (pretty much half of them) - teams in the Prem will spend big to avoid that.

Unfortunately, we can only expect it to get worse. In two years, the bottom placed team in the Prem will get £99 million from TV money alone. To put this into context, last year Real Madrid and Barcelona got £103 million, which was the highest in the world.

 

If we go up, I believe with the Pozzo player pool and a few shrewd purchases we will do OK but won't set the world alight. If we can get 12th(ish) in the first season then that will do me fine.

 

For selfish reasons I'd like to see Leicester, Sunderland and QPR go down because I'd prefer a local trip to Hull and to see Dyche's Burnley stay up. I also think Hull and Burnley are the two least likely to show signs of improvement next season.

QPR, Hull and Leicester to actually go down.

 

To answer the OP...

Hull, QPR, Burnley. I'd like Leicester and Burnley to stay up but can't see the latter managing it.

You're forgetting they're owned by that barmy Egyptian millionaire Allam. He bankrolled them to the PL and now they're there they can spend the TV money without worrying about saving for a rainy day. He's been talking about picking up his ball and going home over the name change thing though so if they go down and he scarpers I wonder what state they'd be in?

Just 12th eh? 17th would suit me down to the ground.

 

Amen to that.

Still it would be nice if we made it comfortable and make it seem we really earned our place in the Premier League, not just limp to survival on the basis of teams being even more inept, a la Bradford/Hull/Wolves/West Brom/Villa of late.

 

corrected

 

If we could get 12th(ish) in our first season in the Prem then I'd be walking on bloody air.

 

Palace finished 11th last season and will probably finish either 10th, 11th or 12th this season. Hope.

 

Yup ... they showed enough premier class when they beat us at Wembley, it wasn't all that we failed to show up.

 

u wont have a chanse wen all ure loanz go back m8 cambiaso will merk u

 

Still pretending to be a Leicester fan on here I see lol

 

Absolutely magnificent result for on Saturday. Exactly the kind of game we'd be getting nothing from before this upturn in form.

Hopefully Hull get tonked by Liverpool tomorrow.

 

Yeah yeah

Cambiasso though eh? What a bloody star that man is.

 

I'd be disappointed if Sunderland get relegated before we get the chance to play them. Talk about your easy three-pointers.

 

Nigel Pearson really has lost his head hasn't he?

Always remember him being very composed in the Championship. This Nigel Pearson, who insults reporters and grabs players by the throat, seems like a totally different person.

 

He was always an a***, but when you have Lloyd Dyer in your team, you look like less of an a***. Now that he's gone, the real Pearson is shining through!

 

I was at the Leicester v Newcastle game yesterday. We were great and all that, but the Newcastle thing is absolutely toxic. I've seen **** players, nervous players and furious players play for and against us, but never players that looked like they genuinely didn't care. Their fans were furious by the end, as half a dozen players shuffled over to timidly applaud their support (which consisted of calling Mike Ashley a fat ******* every 10 minutes) the fans completely turned. Gesturing to the players to go away down the tunnel and unrolling quite a large banner saying 'WE DON'T DEMAND A CLUB THAT WINS. WE DEMAND A TEAM THAT TRIES'.

Pretty unsavory, not as nasty as the Blackpool protest mind.

 

Another parish I frequent is home to a NUFC section. I rarely post there, but often read it as the 'thoughts' (very loose use of the term) of its inhabitants can be amusing. The last year has seen the posters in virtual free-fall (because of events on and off the pitch) and when Ashley announced that his sustainability goal for the club was stability inside the top 10 of the premier league: each year, if they were inside the top 10 he would be very happy - the place exploded.

There was a very sincere post by one of the area's MPs who basically said he was heartbroken visiting some of the most deprived areas of Tyneside (and thus the UK) where the kids playing in the streets are wearing shirts advertising loan sharks who prey on the inhabitants of these areas - the tops had a high chance of being bought using loans of 4000% interest. Over 90% of the posters ooze hatred for the management and what the club's become whereas the other 10% state that they should get used to Ashley's ownership as there's no-one else on the horizon - if he could sell (for a profit) he would.

Their players (on paper) look good but don't appear to be able to play as a team (sound familiar?) and within the past few months appear to have literally given up.

EDIT: FWIW I think what Ashley's been doing (and trying to do) is a cack-handed attempt at the Pozzo model: "...it's my money, my team you go and manage them..."

 

Carver's comments about Williamson were amazing; the situation there looks appalling. The only glimmer of hope for them is that Hull & Sunderland both have very tricky run ins. It is conceivable that they could stay up without picking up another point, or maybe getting a solitary draw.

 

Run in for Hull, Sunderland, Newcastle

Newcastle: West Brom (h), QPR (a), West Ham (h)
Hull City: Arsenal (h), Burnley (h), Tottenham (a), Man United (h)
Sunderland: Everton (a), Leicester (h), Arsenal (a), Chelsea (a)
(assuming Burnley & QPR already gone / Leicester & Villa will stay up)

From that lot you have to think 37 points will be enough to stay up - not too many wins there.

 

Not sure how you can discount Leicester and Villa at this stage? Probably in the best form but still in the mix.

 

just think that they've both got enough form & more straight forward fixtures left to play. Not out of it for sure though.

Leicester: Southampton (h), Sunderland (a), Queens Park Rangers (h)
Villa: West Ham (h), Southampton (a), Burnley (h)

 

l - d,w,w

av - d,w,w

 

I'm now starting to think that Hull may go down, Leicester and Sunderland survive.

There's nothing that shouts 'Premier League' quite like a 0-0 draw with Hull at home.

 

Lucky, lucky Sunderland. Doesn't change the fact that they're a ****e show of a football club.

Hold that thought on Burnley, they've just gone 1-0 up

EDIT: I see that if all scores stay the same, Burnley will be down anyway. It will however increase the pressure on QPR big time, and means that anything less than a win for QPR at the Etihad tomorrow will consign them to relegation.

 

We won't be playing Burnley next season. First team relegated to the Championship.

 

Burnley down.

With Hull's massive debts to their owner, any relegation could be a very very bad thing. Assam will have even less interest in the club.