I've seen some threads already on other forums talk about relegation candidates next season, and surprise surprise we're featured heavily. So I wanted to start this thread now and make a prediction that doesn't include us. Can't wait for the Four Four Two season preview to come out and predict our relegation for the third season in a row as well. I suppose one day they might get it right.... 18. Swansea 19. Reading/Huddersfield 20. Burnley Early shout I know. We'll end up 14th by the way.
Waiting till our new manager is appointed and all the PL 25 man squads named before predicting my selections.
I predict we'll get relegated. If we don't, I'll deny ever suggesting it and edit this post accordingly to 'we might get relegated' or 'i was right because we nearly did'.
I've gone early this year. Might tweak it later in the summer, but just got fed up of seeing early predictions with us as relegation fodder elsewhere.
I think we could be in the mire next season. Brighton and newcastle different proposition to hull and Boro. Are we likely to rely on returning from serious injury zarate and Pereya? Is deeney going to be here? Can we get enough points before Xmas to cover our inevitable Jan slump? Will turning the squad upside down going to work again or will we finally get caught out. Will the players continue to stroll about or will their attitudes change over the summer?
It feels like groundhog day My pre, pre season prediction, is that Gino will make the changes so we do enough to stay up, but not enough for us to reach 50 points
I think the mix will include the Play-Off winners, Palace, Burnley, Brighton, Swansea - and us. My opinion might be somewhat skewed by the season we've just endured, but it's also very hard to say what's going to happen on the basis that we haven't seen any transfer movement yet.
The teams coming up should be better than the teams going down. Swansea improved. Palace improved. Leicester improved. At the moment I'd say us, Reading/Hudd's, Burnley and possibly even Stoke will be in the mix.
I do think we will be the pundits favourites to go down next season but Playoff winners will be weak whoever that is Palace back to square 1 like us with fat SAMs departure Swansea think selling Siggurdson to Everton will weaken their team Burnley,will good organisation be enough? Brighton enough squad depth? Another Norwich? Bournemouth, will injuries bite Stoke, been poor this season A lot depends on the new coach we have, I was excited when Schmidt was mentioned but sadly think we'll get an Italian journeyman like prandelli
Despite the way we ended the season there wasn't a lot between the 10 clubs that finished between 8th and 17th at all; I don't think we should be any more worried about next season anymore than the fans of those other clubs as no doubt the same 10 clubs and the promoted 3 will form the bottom 13 next season. I just hope that Gino gets the right head coach this time around.
The way a team finishes a season is often a guide as to how they will perform the following season. The best example is Leicester, when they carried on their excellent end-of-season form into the following year when they won the league. If this happens to us, then we are Donald Ducked.
I don't disagree with you, but our run in was particularly tough, from the last 8 we won one, 5 of the other 7 were against teams who will be playing in Europe next season (4 of those 5 were away / 4 of those 5 will be in the CL). Of the other 2 games we lost away to two teams with decent home records but admittedly at Hull we should have done better particularly as we were playing against 10 men for over an hour. The other mitigating circumstances were that we were ravaged by injuries plus Britos missed 2 and Pr*dl 1 for suspensions; not forgetting that the players were not playing for the manager.
This was quite an interesting read from the loathsome Geordies who frequent A. N. Other parish I frequent (nb it's quite a long, but interesting/chilling read): Max characters reached - continues in next post.
Third half here: C&P (I think) from here. Although for some reason the link was sending my anti-walware bananas (hence the C&P mods).
I think next seasons strugglers are probably harder to predict than they were this season. The three promoted sides will no doubt have a fight on their hands, other than that who knows? So much depends on the summer ins & outs which haven't really started yet.
Burnley - difficult second season stripped of their best players in the transfer window. Terrible start. Dyche sacked. Going down. Swansea - Poor management appointment, Sygurddson (sp?) leaves. Not a good squad. Relegated. Reading/Hudds - rock bottom from first game of the season. Threaten record low points total. Straight back down. Watford - 11th.
The pessimist in me can see us struggling next year. We will inevitably get another defensive Italian WM clone as manager. We will get our 4-5th choice pick in terms of the players we bring in for positions. Gomes is getting older. There will be team unrest with players played out of position and the manager rigidly sticking to favourites and a horrible style of play. The teams worse than us have gone. Of the 3 coming up at least 2 will be better placed in terms of squads and spending. Hard to see anything but bottom 2
