All this 'lack of preparation' and 'turning up late' stuff, is there any actual evidence to support this? I often hear it mentioned, but I've never actually heard any facts about it. Of course I could have missed something so I'm not necessarily doubting it, but has it been proven?
Perhaps, but the table at the end of September doesn't mean much. I like Barnes but I don't think anyone would claim he is the 30 goal a season striker that you want to get you promoted.
We only had a potential top two squad from January onwards, once Ulloa had signed and Orlandi and David had finally found their feet. How can you say we had a top two squad when for the first 5 months of the season we didn't have a goalscorer in the squad? And had we had Ulloa from the start...