[Football] Are we going down?

Kosh said:

I too sit in camp Hemed. My tent is pitched.

We should have retained him and NEVER signed Locadia.

There i’ve sodding well said it.

Locadia is a trier, Hemed a doer. Who was it who once said: “Try? There is no try. Only do, or do not.”

Hmmmmm how did you get so big, signing strikers like this (big jurgs)? Hum? I’m sure he said that too.

Jurgen is too reckless, the striker we are looking for was already here (touches chest) in our hearts.

Cue cheesy emotional string quartet and Hemed highlights video.

Bring Hemed home.

Right; i’m off to the Dagoba system.

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giveusfalmerplease said:

Let me ask a different question..Would you REALLY be happy if we ended up scraping by in 17th place after a promising 1st half of the season?

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Napper said:

striker situation is crap.

We've been like this for years just about getting away with it. Amount of times we've had 1 striker fit and been on that tightrope is mnd boggling.

Should of signed a couple of strikers in the summer and certainly another in January.

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Mo Gosfield said:

For the umpteenth time.....only 6 ( arguably plus Everton ) clubs are ever ' established ' in the PL. We are in a 13 team sub-divison. Three of those teams go down. Of the remaining ten, six or seven will spend the season fighting to stay above the safety line. Football history dictates that none of those current 13 teams will become established in the PL. They might find a way to stay 5-8 years but inevitably their time will come, as it did for Charlton, Blackburn, Wimbledon, Bolton and Wigan, to name but a few, who got a foothold before sinking back.
The longer you manage to hang on in there, the more buying power you will get. The only trouble is the Elite's ability to spend goes up as well ( and usually by more ) So that gap will never be bridged. Study PL history and see how many clubs have appeared in it. Next season, clubs like Leeds, Norwich and Sheff Utd could all come up with lofty ambitions but they will quickly sink into the lower reaches of the sub-division unless they can throw potloads of money at it like Wolves. New kids will emerge on the block with big money to spend and the order below the elite will change.
If we last 5 seasons that would be a major achievement. Realistically, 3-4 looks on the cards.

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Surf's Up said:

Sorry but the answer is "yes". Our away form is awful and our home form has kept us out of trouble except we are really struggling now at home and we've sunk like a stone very quickly. Hewton does not have the ability to get us out of this and Bloom will remain loyal to Hewton = relegation.

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Nobby said:

If you want to spell it incorrectly it’s Houghton FFS

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trueblue said:

We’re hardly unique in lacking a goal scorer. Signing the right striker is not cheap or simple and may require the type of money that only comes from staying in the Premier League a few seasons. It’s not as if a Hughton and the club don’t already know the weaknesses....

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luppers said:

If you are going to critise someone spelling CH name wrong make sure you bloody spell it right. HUGHTON

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Kalimantan Gull said:

Absolutely.

One could argue that West Ham are established too, they've done 23 out of 27 premier league seasons, even if they finish bottom half a lot and occasionally duck out. Villa, Leeds and Newcastle all used to be established sides, until they weren't, but probably will be again.

Not sure how a previously unfashionable team can break into the upper echelons, but if we do it well we could do more than 3-5 seasons.

Stoke did 10
Swansea did 7
Charlton managed 8
Wigan did 8 as well
Portsmouth lasted 7 seasons
West Brom's last stint was 8 years
Next year will be Bournemouth's 5th season

What we have to avoid is the 2-season team - stay up amazingly first year but slip away the next. This fate befell Reading, Bradford, Hull on both their first two stints, and almost certainly Huddersfield as well.

In fact there are a cluster of teams that last 1 or 2 seasons, but after that most teams seem to make 7 or more seasons.

So all this talk of 'becoming established', 'pushing onto the next level' is just premature and impatient.

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luppers said:

If you are going to critise someone spelling CH name wrong make sure you bloody spell it right. HUGHTON

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Not Andy Naylor said:

Woooooshh

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luppers said:

If you are going to critise someone spelling CH name wrong make sure you bloody spell it right. HUGHTON

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mejonaNO12 aka riskit said:

if you are going to critise someone spelling CH name wrong make sure you bloody spell critise right. CRITEYES.

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mejonaNO12 aka riskit said:

if you are going to critise someone spelling CH name wrong make sure you bloody spell critise right. CRITEYES.

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Tooting Gull said:

This was posted on the Physio.com site today - thought it was a fair current analysis of the 'one from six' scenario


The Relegation Run-In – Brighton Beware

13 February 2019

If you’d stuck with Match of The Day to the bitter end, you will have caught Ian Wright’s suggestion that Crystal Palace will at some point soon ‘give someone a right hiding.’ The source of this claim was that the Eagles had just let West Ham off the hook by missing a plethora of chances, including James McArthur’s staggering miss that would have had many a Sunday league player yelling ‘I could have scored that,’ at their TV screens.

Whether Wright is correct remains to be seen. The suggestion is that Palace won’t keep missing such chances, but since they’ve made it this deep into the season and haven’t yet reached double figures for goals at home suggest otherwise.

But the comments are an interesting ‘glass half full’ approach to Palace’s play. Given the number of chances created, it is indeed hard to see Palace being the most likely side to drop out of the top flight come May, but the chances spurned is the very reason they are not sat in mid-table with the likes of Bournemouth and Leicester.

Saturday’s scores do emphasise what a chaotic relegation battle this is turning out to be. Dropping into the bottom three seems enough of an incentive to suddenly goad the prime relegation candidates into life, with first Cardiff and then Burnley clearing the bottom three in the space of a few hours.

So who is going to set their bank manager into apoplectic shock by saying goodbye to the Premier League millions? If the remaining twelve matches mirror the last twelve, there are certainly going to be some furrowed brows.

Of course, the game has been up for Huddersfield for some time. One point is all they have taken from their last 36 available, with a change of manager not being enough to change their woeful record.

The net is closing on Claudio Ranieri’s Fulham as well. Andre Schurrle’s bizarre interview in which he distanced himself from the low standards that have been on display at Craven Cottage only add to the belief that Fulham’s stay this time round is a one-season one.

The battle though is all around that third spot. Most seasons, managers talk about 38 points being the likely safety line. Based on the last 12 matches, that will again be true, but it might surprise you who would drop below this.

In fact, two sides will fall short of that magic marker – Newcastle and Brighton. Rafa Benitez has galvanised his troops in recent weeks, and the victory over Manchester City is an added bonus, but points taken off sides around them are where the lower half teams will have their season made or broken.

With Rafa also allowed to finally get the cheque book out, the Geordies are at least heading in the right direction, which should have former manager Chris Hughton sweating.

Hughton’s side are in free-fall. Nine points from their last dozen games is a badly timed disaster for the club. A side that had seemed to be of no relevance to the relegation battle is on current form, primed to fall through the trap door at the last minute.

As is so often the case, those who have been fighting the drop all season have become used to battle-hardy bodies-on-the-line performances, with the late contenders dropping out without having really been involved for most of the season. Brighton would finish on 36 points if their next dozen games reflected the last, with Newcastle on 37.

Sneaking home based on form would be Cardiff and Southampton. The new manager bounce Saints have received under Ralph Hasenhuttl has improved the football, but hasn’t increased the points haul enough to get them clear of the dogfight.

Meanwhile, the pain of recent weeks on top of being so heavily surrounded by the grief of Leicester City earlier in the season, seems to have made Cardiff a club whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a spirit from top to bottom that is now taking them through, which is the main reason why that last relegation spot is so much up for grabs.

The remaining sides should be safe. There is an alarming slide for Everton under Marco Silva, while Bournemouth’s home form should be enough to counteract their dreadful efforts on their travels, and even Crystal Palace’s atrocious finishing at Selhurst Park shouldn’t get them into trouble.

The 12 matches of the relegation fight are now counting down to one side joining Fulham and Huddersfield in the Championship…and if current form is to be believed, there could be some very concerned coastal clubs!

Three matches from the end of the season, Brighton make the long journey to Newcastle, and with the Seagulls finishing with Arsenal and Manchester City, Chris Hughton’s men need to arrest their alarming slide very quickly and emphatically. If they’re not safe by their visit to Tyneside, the damage may be too great to repair.

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Tooting Gull said:

This was posted on the Physio.com site today - thought it was a fair current analysis of the 'one from six' scenario


The Relegation Run-In – Brighton Beware

13 February 2019

If you’d stuck with Match of The Day to the bitter end, you will have caught Ian Wright’s suggestion that Crystal Palace will at some point soon ‘give someone a right hiding.’ The source of this claim was that the Eagles had just let West Ham off the hook by missing a plethora of chances, including James McArthur’s staggering miss that would have had many a Sunday league player yelling ‘I could have scored that,’ at their TV screens.

Whether Wright is correct remains to be seen. The suggestion is that Palace won’t keep missing such chances, but since they’ve made it this deep into the season and haven’t yet reached double figures for goals at home suggest otherwise.

But the comments are an interesting ‘glass half full’ approach to Palace’s play. Given the number of chances created, it is indeed hard to see Palace being the most likely side to drop out of the top flight come May, but the chances spurned is the very reason they are not sat in mid-table with the likes of Bournemouth and Leicester.

Saturday’s scores do emphasise what a chaotic relegation battle this is turning out to be. Dropping into the bottom three seems enough of an incentive to suddenly goad the prime relegation candidates into life, with first Cardiff and then Burnley clearing the bottom three in the space of a few hours.

So who is going to set their bank manager into apoplectic shock by saying goodbye to the Premier League millions? If the remaining twelve matches mirror the last twelve, there are certainly going to be some furrowed brows.

Of course, the game has been up for Huddersfield for some time. One point is all they have taken from their last 36 available, with a change of manager not being enough to change their woeful record.

The net is closing on Claudio Ranieri’s Fulham as well. Andre Schurrle’s bizarre interview in which he distanced himself from the low standards that have been on display at Craven Cottage only add to the belief that Fulham’s stay this time round is a one-season one.

The battle though is all around that third spot. Most seasons, managers talk about 38 points being the likely safety line. Based on the last 12 matches, that will again be true, but it might surprise you who would drop below this.

In fact, two sides will fall short of that magic marker – Newcastle and Brighton. Rafa Benitez has galvanised his troops in recent weeks, and the victory over Manchester City is an added bonus, but points taken off sides around them are where the lower half teams will have their season made or broken.

With Rafa also allowed to finally get the cheque book out, the Geordies are at least heading in the right direction, which should have former manager Chris Hughton sweating.

Hughton’s side are in free-fall. Nine points from their last dozen games is a badly timed disaster for the club. A side that had seemed to be of no relevance to the relegation battle is on current form, primed to fall through the trap door at the last minute.

As is so often the case, those who have been fighting the drop all season have become used to battle-hardy bodies-on-the-line performances, with the late contenders dropping out without having really been involved for most of the season. Brighton would finish on 36 points if their next dozen games reflected the last, with Newcastle on 37.

Sneaking home based on form would be Cardiff and Southampton. The new manager bounce Saints have received under Ralph Hasenhuttl has improved the football, but hasn’t increased the points haul enough to get them clear of the dogfight.

Meanwhile, the pain of recent weeks on top of being so heavily surrounded by the grief of Leicester City earlier in the season, seems to have made Cardiff a club whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a spirit from top to bottom that is now taking them through, which is the main reason why that last relegation spot is so much up for grabs.

The remaining sides should be safe. There is an alarming slide for Everton under Marco Silva, while Bournemouth’s home form should be enough to counteract their dreadful efforts on their travels, and even Crystal Palace’s atrocious finishing at Selhurst Park shouldn’t get them into trouble.

The 12 matches of the relegation fight are now counting down to one side joining Fulham and Huddersfield in the Championship…and if current form is to be believed, there could be some very concerned coastal clubs!

Three matches from the end of the season, Brighton make the long journey to Newcastle, and with the Seagulls finishing with Arsenal and Manchester City, Chris Hughton’s men need to arrest their alarming slide very quickly and emphatically. If they’re not safe by their visit to Tyneside, the damage may be too great to repair.

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