Football fans can often be over optimistic and over pessimistic about their team's chances. To get an objective point of view, it's always worth seeing where people's money is going. Betfair currently has us at 8.2 to be relegated, with 8 teams at shorter odds (Bolton and Blackpool are odds on)...
Ah, but you're forgetting one of the rules of NSC: for any player that is out injured long term, or who we let go or sell, their ability increases proportionally to the time since they got injured/sold, and their return to the first team, theoretical or otherwise, becomes the answer to all of...
Why do you think Ashley Barnes will get us goals? His Championship record - an average of 1 in 4 - is worse than both Baldock's and COG's, who have both scored around 1 in 3 playing in weaker Championship sides than Brighton.