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Yeah that's probably for the Dean Smith thread then. This one's about our survival hopes.

Opinions of what, whether or not we'll be relegated? The chances of that fluctuate wildly by match week and of course opinions on its likelihood will follow suit. Unless of course you're talking about something else.

He said this time tomorrow which at the time meant at the end of the Watford game. Even if Watford win, we still wouldn't be relegated.

Just fits

Crazy how much money we spent on him and McCormack. At least Kodjia we got some great use out of. Wasted a lot of money in the Championship.

In the first scenario, we have 2 games to make up a 5 goal difference. Assuming they lose the final game, which is the only way we'd finish above them anyway, making up 5 goals in 2 games isn't the end of the world. But yeah, scary thought considering them actually getting something tomorrow.

I got the size up and it fits perfectly, or as perfectly as a kit with weird sleeves could fit

Nah impossible. Unless they beat City like 4-0 or something. So impossible.

Hope they get tonked 8-0 again just for that

There's really no permutation to predict which Everton show up on the final day. They've been so erratic all year. As long as they can eke out a draw, we're laughing.

Nah I disagree. Remember the playoff semi against West Brom? That's what I'd imagine the atmosphere to be like. Even after that silly mistake from Whelan the crowd was right behind us.

Probably would have drawn against Wolves. The atmosphere against Arsenal tomorrow would be electric if there was a crowd. Could probably lift us to another point.

Doesn't look like he'll just be fielding the kids at least like I initially feared. Any configuration of first teamers should be enough to dispatch Watford I'm sure.

Honestly don't know what you're getting at.

Well yes, the situation will obviously change and I imagine opinions will follow suit.

McGinn is not going anywhere, likely even if we get relegated. PL teams won't exactly be lining up to sign him with his form this season despite an early flurry. Mings too hasn't exactly covered himself in glory. Only one I can see is Jack, because he's actually good enough to attract interest from teams that can prize him away from his boyhood club. But then that would mean another £80m or so on top of the TV money, and as much as it hurts to say, that could be a blessing in disguise. But I agree, I hope that the owners flex their muscles. Who knows, if they reassure Jack that we'll be making major moved he might give it 1 more season. If we find ourselves battling relegation again, he can leave with our blessings.

If we stay up, I'd be really excited to see the type of business we do next summer. We'd have the TV money to spend again, but this time on 4/5 players and not 11/12.

You just have to hope City take care of business. I'll take a routine 4-0 win from them. That'll level our goal differences. Which means we'll just have to match Watford's result against Arsenal while of course beating West Ham.

Just need to avoid defeat against Arsenal if for nothing else but to keep our goal difference exactly how it is. Of course the point or 3 would be very valuable, but we can't lose any more ground on Watford in terms of GD, or give Bournemouth a chance to overhaul us. Then we need to score as many as we can against West Ham.

I felt like that Burnley game was a turning point for us in terms of how we were playing, and of course just our luck we had to lose our main striker and goalkeeper that day.

We have built a squad full of £10m players on average and looking at it like that, it'll actually be remarkable if we stay up.

Yes, we are competitive. We aren't cut adrift, and are in with a good shout to stay up despite our squad missing its spine for almost half a season. We've been in the vast majority of games we've played as well.

I mean, it's something you can breed by winning games in the Championship which we likely will do if we have that good a squad. It's not like Smith hadn't turned Bruce's "nearly men" squad who'd only just lost a playoff final into a promotion winning one, who broke our century-old club record of most consecutive wins just last year.

That just shows for all the criticism our recruiting has gotten that we've actually built a competitive squad this summer.

A draw against Arsenal will be massive. I think we currently have the strongest hand. Watford sacked their coach and have a wounded City to play next followed by an Arsenal tram playing for their place in the cup final. Bournemouth can only get a maximum of 34 points. We are playing an already safe West Ham on the final day.