How Do We Survive?

Indeed they can but imo it should be getting looked at.

 

At least we've proven we can win games unlike the three below us.

Problem is we don't pick up any other points to edge clear. Burnley will keep clean sheets so they are my pick to survive by a hair.

 

We have also shown we can lose more than them (same number as Norwich).

 

We pray that there are three worse teams than us.

 

One thing that could be quite interesting is Leeds have to play 5 of the 'big 6' in their remaining home games. Win our game in hand and we are only 3 points behind them. They may have more points on the board at the moment, but they could struggle in the second half of the season - a big factor will be how long Bamford is out for.

 

King, Sarr (according to the WO a week ago he'll be back early next month) and Pedro? Cleverley might come up with the odd one as well.

 

Yep. Let's be honest, we suck and we deserve to get relegated.

 

I'm not sure we do. I just bought two tickets for the Brighton game for the lolz.

 

I've been banging on about this already. Winning home games is always key to a team trying to stay up and we have a better remaining schedule than most. We must take advantage of it.

 

Fletcher was signed to be our centre-forward next season if we go down. I would have thought that was pretty clear.

 

I think we survive by getting more points than three other teams.

 

Well that’s great news considering he’s struggled to score goals at Championship level throughout his entire career.

 

An intrestin angle. What's your sauce ?

 

There is no way we are winning all three games this week. I would be delighted with two wins and a draw, but expect a win, a draw and a loss.

 

Massive surprise in that Alan Shearer thinks the bottom three will be Norwich, Burnley and Watford. It's like asking Noel Gallagher who's going to win the league.

Alan Shearer makes bold Premier League bottom three prediction with Newcastle United, Norwich City, Burnley and Watford battling to survive | Shields Gazette

 

That’s not a bold prediction at all though, that’s what the majority of people would predict and probably what it will be.

 

Does anyone know if we were at all interested in Bowen? I honestly can't recall us signing any promising young players from the lower divisions (and I think that includes those in other countries) during the time we've been in the Prem under the Pozzos. Even when we went up in 2006 we took a punt on Shittu from QPR who'd finished 21st in the Championship, who turned out to be one of our better players (although he was nearly 26).

 

We don't play them even if we do, which is probably a large part of it... part of that is, in turn, because it's easier to introduce a promising player from the lower leagues into a team that isn't fighting tooth and nail to survive (in circumstance rather than spirit) whilst severely unbalanced and juddering from one head coach to another every other week.

That being said, Bowen joined West Ham at this point in the season in 2020, so midway through the season they were competing with us at the bottom to avoid the drop. He went on to make 13 appearances, registering one goal and four assists, so it's far from impossible - other clubs seemingly manage it.

They do also, however, it should be said, manage to spend £20m plus add-ons on a highly promising Championship player. Something we are not likely to ever do.

 

Ben Wilmot was very highly rated.

And we decided he would be best used at a defensive midfielder in the few times we bothered to introduce to the first team.

 

As usual, Shearer is spot on. Very underrated pundit.

 

Hopefully we are not intending on a promotion push then.

 

Ha. 'Bold prediction' ? Just imagine the intelligence, experience and imagination of a sub-editor at the Shields Gazette working full-time to come up with that one. Maybe she doubles as the 'gardening correspondent'.
Local newspapers are in much the same position as Watford FC aren't they? The money just isn't there.

 

Or be able to do, unfortunately.

 

Newcastle have to get a lot of bodies in if they want to avoid the drop, add that they have Howe as manager and I can see them still struggling at the moment. We have done some transfer business early which may help us come Saturday.

 

Saturday's team talk done.

 

Well, my point here has not been to make the case for it, but it is clearly theoretically possible, or was before our recent series of debacles, at least. We've spent almost double that on a promising player (from a lesser league!) before - but, of course, it would mean a different thing to us financially than it does to West Ham, and indeed, Ligue 1 is still of a higher quality than the Championship.

That being said, Bowen spent three seasons in the Championship with Hull, and outscored Ismaila last year in every one of those seasons. He outscored Sarr (16 goals to 13) in just the first half of the 19-20 season, before moving to West Ham in the January window...

 

We’ve spent those sums of money before, we spent £18m on Andre Gray.

 

That was then.
I'm thinking of now.

 

Score goals, don’t let them in.

 

I was alluding more to signing these players when we were seemingly established in the Prem, having got the impression Bowen only played a minor part in West Ham's survival push but went on to become one of their best players (he was voted pretty much unanimously by West Ham fans as the MOTM in their recent game against us - incidentally, worryingly the fans didn't think it was one of their best performances, as Wolves fans said after their game at the Vic this season) - I thought it was more down to key players like Antonio, Rice and Noble getting together and performing as they should. On further investigation though, I noticed that while the one goal came in a 3-1 win against Southampton, two of those assists came in their surprise 3-2 win against Chelsea, and one in their 2-2 at Newcastle. That won them four points, without which they would've still stayed up, but I guess there were other factors at play, like key passes, all-round play and possibly the lift his arrival gave to a vastly underachieving squad.

That said, even if we had signed a promising youngster from the lower leagues as one for the future, it could've had the same beneficial (if not a better) effect long term as signing such a player to help avoid the drop, as reducing the average age would've likely meant the squad wouldn't have got stale and under-motivated and we wouldn't have found ourselves in the situations we have done in 2019/20 and this season.

 

We survive by continuing whatever we are doing as we are not in the relegation zone. Improvements are likely given the new signings, so I imagine we will come 15th.

 

And what is the plan if one of the three teams below us improves slightly? We’re currently on course for 27 points, you think that will be enough if we just carry on doing what we’re doing?

 

We need at least 5 wins to have even a chance to survive. If Newcastle play their cards right they might be able to save themselves. Norwich looks certain to get relegated so they aren't much of a concern but Burnley might be able to pass us by actually being able to tie games. Leeds and Brentford could get sucked into the fight but they already have a head start so if they aren't complete sh*t they should be able to stay up.

 

They’re no more likely to improve than us, we easily have more scope for improvement. The table doesn’t lie.

 

I just wish he'd try to look a little more condescending when he gives an opinion. He's far too humble and respectful.