Since there is only a week left and Gino has run out of money from funding Udinese, I think it’s safe to say we are going down. Nothing happens on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday or Thursday for us. Meaning we have 48 hours left of the transfer window. Clearly not enough time considering we’ve had over 2 months initially. So if Gino can’t make anything happen in 2 months he definitely isn’t doing anything in 48 hours. Team to get us relegated this season: Foster Femenia, Dawson, Cathcart, Holebas Hughes, Doucoure, Capoue, Pereyra Deulofeu, Deeney Our run has been memorable, one I will tell the grandkids about. From finishing in the dizzy heights of 11th to an 6-0 drubbing FA Cup Final. Watford have certainly given me fond memories in the Prem. Back to the championship we go to compete with teams on our level like Preston, Barnsley and Brentford.
Glass half empty. Problems? We will continue to inspire and entertain and frustrate ... we will not be relegated ... If you feel so negative dont come to the Vic
The fact is Linekar, gob mouth Carrighar and the media hate us. They hate it when we win or get positive press. We will continue to frustrate them for as long as we can. L**** aren't going to pull up any tress in the Champo but I gaurentee they get more love. I like it this way. Let everyone else make the pundits drible and we can continue to go under the hyperthetical radar.
I don’t think we will go down this time around. However our squad is ageing and with our lack of investment/money to burn it will only be a matter of time in the next 2 or 3 seasons. We are comprehensively financially outgunned by nearly every other rival.
We’ll finish about 15th and I will have completely forgotten every detail of the season by the 1st June.
Investing a lot of money in youf. Hopefully if our current lot can just about survive this season then next year quina, wilmot, bashiru, pedro, dalby, bachmann and some others start making the step up to permanent full time first team players.
I think we will go down. Most of our regulars from last season will have a Prodl-style collapse in form due to age and we'll go down comfortably. Our team is way too old and has not been strengthened in 2 years now. We'll get off to a bad start - including a frightful beating at Everton - and will be in the relegation zone all season and go down without a whimper. After the abject world record cup final defeat, does anyone think we have a single player with the spine for a relegation battle?
I think we will finish bottom 6 but hopefully not bottom 3. For the first time we will spend some time in the bottom 3 over the season. Survival depends on Foster, Deulofeu, Capoue, Doucs and Pereyra playing at the level their ability permits....well at least 4 out of the 5.
Foster turns 37 this season. I would suggest you don't pin your hopes on him. Capoue had the season of a lifetime last year. The chances of him having 2 such seasons in a row are astronomically small, given his past performance and age. Yes, pereyra, douc and deulofeu are our brightest sparks, but an injury to just one of them will leave us horribly weakened. We have nothing but utter dross in reserve. And injuries are certain over a season. I see nothing by doom and misery. Unless we make at least 2 stellar signings.
Not sure that picking up a few cast offs and paying a million here and there is investing a lot of money? (Joao Pedro aside). Of the current batch Lukebakio has been flogged, Peneranda has flopped badly and Cucho remains to be seen. Doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Never a truer word spoken about the dross that offers first team backup. Kabasele, Mariappa, Masina, Prodl, Sema, Okaka, Success What a horror show. Based on last season’s cameos I would add Cleverly to the list. Every chance that age catches up with Foster, Holebas, Deeney, Capoue. The owner is unwilling or incapable of strengthening. Bleak times.
I don't think they hate us, they just couldn't care less about us. Ironinc really as I couldn't care less about them and Carragher just makes me switch channels
It's frightening when you see those names actually typed out. Those terds would struggle in the championship, it's really no exaggeration to say that. The chances are Chalobah can be added to that list too. Obviously I hope I'm wrong but relying on a crock is not wise. An injury to any first teamer sees calamity ken sema starting. It's a catastrophic position to find ourselves in a week before the season starts. If the first eleven aren't performing we have nothing to bring off the bench to give us a hope of rescuing a match. Not one single player. "what about Quina!" I hear people cry. To that I say: faded away badly last season and most probably can be filed under "dung".
It's not all doom and gloom, you can get 10-1 on us getting relegated from some bookies. Lump on, those odds arent going to get any longer.
We will be fine and will probably finish roughly where we did last season. There are far worse sides than us in this league, Sheff Utd, Norwich, Brighton, Palace (without Zaha), Burnley to name just a few. We are clearly looking at the age of the squad hence signing Dahlberg, Quina, Wilmot, The lad from City that I can't remember the name of, Cucho, Pedro and a few others. All of these come highly rated with maybe the exception of Wilmot who had only played league 2 football before joining us. Just because we haven't signed somebody for £30m we seem blinkered by that and don't look at the bigger picture. There are clearly some glass half empty people on this forum who have nothing good to say about the club even despite just having one of our most successful seasons in our entire history. That's fine as it's all about opinions but I prefer to look at the positives of which there are many
I admire your optimism. And don't forget, we'll be here to help you pick up the pieces of your shattered dreams as the season progresses.
It's not the fact we haven't signed anyone for £30m, it's the fact that all we've signed is a past-it Championship centre back and some kid that couldn't even get in the Man City Youth 2nd XI. We have glaring deficiencies that have been ignored despite the executive's big talk after our embarrassing cup final defeat. Concentrate on your positives about players who will never play for us by all means but don't criticise those who live in the real world.
Though I think our recruitment in recent windows hasn't exactly inspired loads of confidence, I don't get the need to talk down Dawson so much. It's not just you. I've noticed it seems to be a trend on here in the last couple of weeks as optimism around signings has faded. He's only just 29. He's not 'past-it'. He was more than up to the standard during his stint with WBA in the PL and has been out of it for a year, when he fell out with the owners and tried (and failed) to force a move. He clearly strengthens our choices in that position.
8 extra games in the championship too. Plus the chance of a cup giant killing against one of the big clubs like WHU, Wolves or Everton. Can't wait.
He's just another bottom half level defender. People on social media can try and spin it positively in order to get likes and a free away shirt with their 'channels' that have 100 followers but it doesn't change anything. He's no better than Cathcart and we need better than Cathcart.
Glass half full - a relegation battle may at least finally bring some excitement to the league season post January.
Saying he's a bottom half level defender is probably a fairer assessment than past it. We don't have the money to compete on a level footing with pretty much everyone else in the league. We're never going to wheel out a succession of 8 figure transfer fee signings like most of the others. I'm not sure they get the return to justify it anyway. What does it get them? A couple more wins over the season and 9th instead of 11th?
This comes from somebody who spends their life posting on a forum with the same unfunny jokes! The lad from City is very highly thought of and just wanted to play, much like Jordan Sancho did. The centre back has experience in the top flight but time will tell if he's still good enough. Most importantly we haven't sold anybody so the likes of Doucoure or Delefeou. I would much rather that than sell them and hope we can find a decent replacement I very much suspect the deficiencies you talk about have not been ignored but trying to get the right player, at a price we can afford, is not so easy
But how long do we have to wait to see these players? Richarlison aside, in the PL, we have rarely regularly gone with youth and even Gracia showed he didn’t like him much. Doucoure and Capoue will be 1st choice in CM this season and very likely every season they are still with us for the next couple of seasons. So Quina will play sparingly. Wilmot is young, but I really do fear that he will get itchy feet before long - doubly so is poor defenders like Mariappa are seen as a better option than exploring his obvious talent. Dahlberg is yet to make his debut and we have favoured far older GK’s under Gino’s reign - does anyone really expect either of our young GK’s to be given the gloves when Foster departs? I’d wager a large bet they bring another GK in. Lukebakio didn’t even play 90 mins for us! The money in the bank was more important than giving a young exciting prospect a chance... We certainly have some exciting young players on the books - but I for one am certainly not falling over myself expecting to see any of them as first team regulars anytime soon.
The reality is we are competing on financial terms with only 2 or 3 clubs in this league. Norwich, Burnley, ??, ....the rest can pretty much spend what they want. At some point our inability to refresh the squad each summer with players of the same quality as our premiership peers will cost us relegation. We just have to accept that. Our scouting network might act in our favour but we are swimming against the tide.
If they can’t afford it, there’s not really an argument to be had. But if they can afford better investment than they are giving, then I’d say strengthening the squad to the extent of being comfortably assured of being around 9th every season is worth it. I don’t think what we have currently could be comfortably assured of 11th each year, and with every window that goes by where we show little activity, the comfort levels of being able to maintain our status subside.
