We should start a competition where we each predict which players will leave and which will still be with us. See who gets the most correct guesses.
Burnley-similar wage bill, attendances and TV revenue etc spent £30m on "other expenses" in last 2 seasons-we have spent £68m.
I'm not sure he will be fit enough during the transfer window to be sold. I suspect clubs would like to make sure he is ok after a serious injury before buying him hence might be the Jan transfer window when he goes
Maybe they've already got the next coach lined up. Could be the reason for Pearsons demeanor on the touchline. Wouldn't be the first time.
I think another problem is just the PL as a league. It happens to pretty much every team that isn't one of the traditional 'big clubs'. The cycle seems to be: - Get promoted, spend a bit, stay up. - Enjoy a few years with those players, whilst spending big on a few players. - Squad drifts once the novelty of being a PL team has worn off, and they've achieved everything they can (in our case, getting to the Cup Final) - Gets relegated. It's happened to Us, Bournemouth and West Ham this season. Swansea, Sunderland, Stoke, West Brom all spring to mind as examples its happened to in the last few years. I think it's just a symptom of a league that is set-up to favour the big boys.
Bolton, Blackburn, Leeds, Coventry... the list is endless. But this is our fourth/fifth time in the top flight, and we have done very well to stay here for five seasons on a Championship backline. We deserve to go down, not because of our players ability, because we know they have that - it's the general "I cannot be arsed anymore" attitude AGAIN that is reeling us in. If at least half of the players gave a damn yesterday, we would not of lost. Does that come down to Pearson? Maybe. But the players also have to take good look at themselves in this respect.
And Middlesbrough, Bolton, Charlton, Sheff Weds, Coventry if you look back a bit further...the list is huge. No point us trying to pick the bones out of something as if it's a complete mystery why we find ourselves where we are. It was always going to play out like this because that's the script. The only unknown is if this will be the year we fall through the trap door or we limp on. Stoke managed a decade but a fat lot of good it did them.
Matty Longstaff was rumoured to be in talks with 'Udinese' about a £30,000 a year contract, where he'd be their top earner (of second top, can't quite remember). Agreed about the Championship, ever since Birmingham got that big fine, teams have been less willing to risk everything to go up, but we can't just ship out our high earners to Udinese
I suppose there are a exceptions, Leicester? Palace? Southampton? But are they just temporary exceptions?
Palace have been circling the drain for a couple of years yet somehow this year they've pulled well clear much earlier than normal. Cahill, who I thought would be a poor signing if we went for him, seems to have had a big impact there, as their strikers have still had a very quiet season (we've scored more than them...). Southampton and Leicester were both bought by billionaires when they were at/near their lowest. So maybe the Pozzo Out folk have a point after all?
Palace do seem like a pretty good side now, though. Certainly easily better than the current bottom five. That said how much of that is due to an elderly Hodgson. They quickly came unstuck with De Boer so I guess they’re only one dodgy managerial appointment away from being where we are now again.
It's easy to be dismissive of players based on their last performance, or overhype them if their last game was a good one. After Leicester I had a great view on Dawson, but after yesterday it's now the total opposite. With that in mind you have to approach this sort of thing with an holistic view of a players' general performance over a period of time. How many good, bad or indifferent matches have they played. When they're good, how good are they, how often do they perform to that level etc. So with that barometer, I will apply my views on what is required next season. In my opinion needs to improve on the defence has not changed from last summer, or the summer before that. I look at Brighton and Burnley with tremendous envy, when I see clubs on a similar footing to us and the quality they've been able to accumulate. Dunk, Burn, Duffy, Tarkovski, Mee, Bardsley would all be first choice by quite a margin if any of these players were dropped into our squad. Even Ake at Bournemouth. These are all good players at unfashionable clubs who would massively be an upgrade the players we have. Central defence is a massive issue for our squad and I wouldn't have a problem if we sold every single player from that position. Wing backs/full backs are not really good enough either. Masina is probably the best of a below average bunch. He's functional, but limited going forward. Kiko, is quick but he's a converted winger and it shows at times. Janmaat is made of glass and Holebas is too old now. So basically the defence is my first priority. Get that sorted and at least we'd be hard to break down. We'd stay in matches for longer which gives us a chance of nicking games 1-0. Burnley, Brighton and Palace all operate on this principal. Midfield is aging now. Capoue and Cleverley are showing signs of decline, Chalobah has not been the same since his injury, Quina, whilst having a lot of promise, is not being trusted by managers and after recent off-the-field events you can probably see why. Doucoure has been a major disappointment and has regressed over the past couple of seasons IMO. The only player who has improved is Hughes. So midfield which was so strong, is now on the decline. Up front, well the dominant player here is Deeney, and he is another who is unfortunately on the decline. Other target men have all disappointed, be it Okaka or Success, they just have not cut it leaving Deeney largely unchallenged. Pereyra is another on the decline as he's nowhere near the influence he was a couple of years ago. Gray has been a noose around the clubs neck ever since we signed him. Remains by far the worst signing of the Pozzo reign. But there are some good signs. Sarr, Pedro, with the promise of possibly Suarez and Cucho. I've still not given up on Welbeck either because I know how good he can be, but to date he's been a big disappointment. Is what we've got capable of promotion next season? Probably not, unless we retain all our star players, which we will not do. So it's a tough one. We cannot afford to do a major revamp, but maybe forced to if we go down. If we somehow manage to stay up, then we cannot get away with leaving the defence as it is. We need two quality central defenders, and the guys we have will drop into the 'backup' category. We need to improve in the full back areas too. Maybe a little look at midfield and hopefully those loan strikers we have come in and reinvigorate the forward line.
Surely one thing we need to address regardless of the league were in is a free kick taker? How many free kicks have been scored against us? Yet we have nobody that can do it in return. Somebody that every now and then can actually convert free kick in and around the area, as well as being able to deliver an accurate corner.
The last time we scored a direct free kick goal was on 30th April 2016. The list of 'things that have happened since then' is too hilarious to even start.
Lots of Football league clubs (and European ones I expect) are going to be drastically hit financially by Covid, with many players being released or available at fire-sale prices. Even if you subscribe, as I do, to the view that we have a lot of expensive dross that needs to go from our squad, there will be a lot more opportunities for replacements than in pre-Covid seasons.
If you tag on the last 4 games from last season, this squad has played 36 matches and only won 6. They've picked up just 29 points during this time. They've lost 19. Ironically three of those wins were against very good sides in United (when they were in a purple patch), Liverpool (who are always in a purple patch) and Wolves, who are an excellent team. It's very evident the squad is not good enough, regardless of coach. The stats don't lie after all those matches. We don't score enough goals, only netting 32, but have conceded an alarming 59 at the other end.
No, I was just counting the Premier League games. If you want to add the Cup final, the record would be an extra 0-6 defeat added to the total.
Along with all the other points in the thread, I can't believe we gave Janmaat a new contract - after this season (assuming he won't play again) he'll have only started in 41% of all available PL games since joining us. Not what you want from a supposed starting player..
Yes, I’ve already written those games off. In effect we only have 3 games left. West Ham is our last game of the season as far as I’m concerned. Our last two games serve as nothing more than GD denting.
We definitely can't write off Arsenal, even on an absolutely stinking run of form under Mazzarri, we beat them, and under QSF of all people, we created chance after chance after chance. Recently beaten by the only team in the whole 92 who hadn't won a single game between Jan 1st and lockdown too
Well I've just gone through the retained list and I haven't got an effin clue who some of them are. Anyway get rid of the bad eggs asap even though it will leave us threadbare.
Del won't stay. but if he did he'd be a legend. And a hero. A heroic legend. And get a statue beside GTs. But he won't stay.
That would be absolute lunacy. Why would they undermine our chances of staying up? For the record, I still think Pearson should be kept on next season. He's done more than enough to get a chance.
Been a cracking player for us, and hardly responsible for our possible relegation, but...the only scenario in which he plays for us in the Championship is if nobody is willing to take the risk on him