Denis242 Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 10 hours ago, Okonokos said: Absolutely nobody! I think this is going to be the poorest standard of football in the league for quite a few years. You really think so? I mean Stoke and West Brom will spend big and keep some of their first team players. Swansea isnt worse than Cardiff either, ok there is no team like Wolves, but even the promoted teams from League One arent worse than the relegated clubs. I dont think the difference is big, but if you talk about how good and watchable the football in the league is I might agree. Fulham and Wolves were good ball playing teams, and from the relegated clubs only Swansea might play attractive football. (With Potter I guess so) I dont think it would be easier to get promoted next season, even with our current team, but I wouldnt expect us to aim for automatic promotion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilko154 Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 20 hours ago, Okonokos said: Absolutely nobody! I think this is going to be the poorest standard of football in the league for quite a few years. Disagree, the Championship is getting stronger every year. Each season teams are relegated from the Premiership they have more money than the relegated teams the season before. Clubs in the league are spending more and more money each season as well, Forest for example are splashing the cash this season. We said after the first season, no team will be as good as Newcastle next year, Wolves then went and blew the league away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 For me the teams in the mix will be the three relegated sides, Leeds boro derby us (pending on current squad) and I think blose will a suprise package meh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 10 hours ago, Denis242 said: I dont think it would be easier to get promoted next season, even with our current team, but I wouldnt expect us to aim for automatic promotion. I would still expect that to be our initial aim no matter how unlikely that might seem "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okonokos Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 10 hours ago, Denis242 said: You really think so? I mean Stoke and West Brom will spend big and keep some of their first team players. Swansea isnt worse than Cardiff either, ok there is no team like Wolves, but even the promoted teams from League One arent worse than the relegated clubs. I dont think the difference is big, but if you talk about how good and watchable the football in the league is I might agree. Fulham and Wolves were good ball playing teams, and from the relegated clubs only Swansea might play attractive football. (With Potter I guess so) I dont think it would be easier to get promoted next season, even with our current team, but I wouldnt expect us to aim for automatic promotion. Yeah, definitely. Stoke and West Brom are in a complete mess. What first teamers have they actually got that are any good anyway? I think both will have to completely rebuild and start again. Plus, now Stoke have got the bottler Rowett so I honestly don't expect either of them to be that good. Swansea have also taken a punt on unknown manager, so not expecting much from them either. All three are absolutely nothing to be feared at all. I just can't see them being anywhere near the standard of Newcastle, Brighton, Wolves and Fulham. I think the top of the table will be a lot, lot closer this year. Two of the best sides to play in the league for ages went up and I just don't see the quality there to replace them. There's so much dross in the league, that if finances aren't as bad as feared and we can somehow put a decent side together, then we can do well. The two sides I've got an eye on would be Middlesbrough and Forest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okonokos Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 1 hour ago, wilko154 said: Disagree, the Championship is getting stronger every year. Each season teams are relegated from the Premiership they have more money than the relegated teams the season before. Clubs in the league are spending more and more money each season as well, Forest for example are splashing the cash this season. We said after the first season, no team will be as good as Newcastle next year, Wolves then went and blew the league away... Yes, but as we've proven over the past two seasons, money does not guarantee success does it? I think all three teams coming down will be in a transitional period of rebuilding and starting from fresh. All three, West Brom in particular, will be keeping an eye on our situation right now and won't want to spend silly money and risk ending up in our position. Swansea and West Brom both have unproven managers too. Yes, Darren Moore did well at the end of the season but I honestly think most of that was down to him not being Pardew. Give him a first full season in the Championship and I'm not so sure he'll do that well. I genuinely see it being a lot tighter at the top this season, I just hope we can build the squad to be up there with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent_Bob Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 4 hours ago, Okonokos said: Yeah, definitely. Stoke and West Brom are in a complete mess. What first teamers have they actually got that are any good anyway? I think both will have to completely rebuild and start again. Plus, now Stoke have got the bottler Rowett so I honestly don't expect either of them to be that good. Swansea have also taken a punt on unknown manager, so not expecting much from them either. All three are absolutely nothing to be feared at all. I just can't see them being anywhere near the standard of Newcastle, Brighton, Wolves and Fulham. I think the top of the table will be a lot, lot closer this year. Two of the best sides to play in the league for ages went up and I just don't see the quality there to replace them. There's so much dross in the league, that if finances aren't as bad as feared and we can somehow put a decent side together, then we can do well. The two sides I've got an eye on would be Middlesbrough and Forest. I pretty much agree with this. Last year we arguably had the best squad in the Championship for some time. On paper. Wolves went with a decent squad and a couple of exeptional players at this level, and that was enough. The good thing with our squad was that we weren't really depending on a single player. At least in theory, but even without Grealish we should have enough quality to win most of the games. We didn't. If we next season are able to find a couple of key players as well, it could easily be enough. That's a more risky approach for a big club, as it leaves promotion not to the collective quality of the squad, but rather than on the form of a few individual players. The relegated teams will need to rebuild from expensive teams put together to remain in the league into cheaper teams that are capable of controlling games. That's no easy fix over a summer, especially not a World Cup summer when a lot of the transfers will happen after that. Over the last ten years only five teams have been able to secure automatic promption back to Premier League the following season, and four more teams have done so at Wembley. So statistically only one of the three teams relegated would be expected to go straight up again. That leaves two more spots, and I'm not giving up hope that we could be one of those two teams next season. In fact I think we should, if we're able to avoid fire sales for financial reasons. But instead of getting benchwarmers in Premier League, I would rather we looked elsewhere to find more up and coming players. Premier League clubs more or less only buy players that are Premier League quality, they don't go looking for bargains. But I think we can get quality players at Championship level from abroad. We should be looking at players that could potentally be Premier League players, but would need performing in the Championship as a stepping stone to achieve that. Much cheaper, more risk, but our only option in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpotvilla Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 1 hour ago, Silent_Bob said: I pretty much agree with this. Last year we arguably had the best squad in the Championship for some time. On paper. Wolves went with a decent squad and a couple of exeptional players at this level, and that was enough. The good thing with our squad was that we weren't really depending on a single player. At least in theory, but even without Grealish we should have enough quality to win most of the games. We didn't. If we next season are able to find a couple of key players as well, it could easily be enough. That's a more risky approach for a big club, as it leaves promotion not to the collective quality of the squad, but rather than on the form of a few individual players. The relegated teams will need to rebuild from expensive teams put together to remain in the league into cheaper teams that are capable of controlling games. That's no easy fix over a summer, especially not a World Cup summer when a lot of the transfers will happen after that. Over the last ten years only five teams have been able to secure automatic promption back to Premier League the following season, and four more teams have done so at Wembley. So statistically only one of the three teams relegated would be expected to go straight up again. That leaves two more spots, and I'm not giving up hope that we could be one of those two teams next season. In fact I think we should, if we're able to avoid fire sales for financial reasons. But instead of getting benchwarmers in Premier League, I would rather we looked elsewhere to find more up and coming players. Premier League clubs more or less only buy players that are Premier League quality, they don't go looking for bargains. But I think we can get quality players at Championship level from abroad. We should be looking at players that could potentally be Premier League players, but would need performing in the Championship as a stepping stone to achieve that. Much cheaper, more risk, but our only option in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpotvilla Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 I'm not sure Forest will be challenging yet but definately Boro and I reckon Leeds may well be a factor. Brentford also may be there or thereabouts but there is nothing there to scare us and I think we will be right up there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okonokos Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 50 minutes ago, pintpotvilla said: I'm not sure Forest will be challenging yet but definately Boro and I reckon Leeds may well be a factor. Brentford also may be there or thereabouts but there is nothing there to scare us and I think we will be right up there Yeah, agreed. Leeds could be brilliant or awful, I'm not sure either way yet haha. Forest are definitely one to watch as they're obviously trying to do a Wolves, but their signings could easily be flops. My main worry is about Middlesbrough and Pulips. He could turn them into the 1-0 kings next season. But I'm absolutely sure there's nothing in the league to fear at all. IF we can build a team, there's every chance we can compete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 22 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said: If I thought for a chance we may have a squad next year that couldn’t challenge for promotion I’d say no. He doesn’t deserve that chance. But because I think it’s going to be a pretty shit season which is more about staying in the league than anything else I couldn’t care less Bruce if in charge. He is a good enough manager to keep us in the league even if he can’t take us forward. I don’t think next season will be about going forward. It will be about preventing us from going backwards. I just can't see that he deserves another shot at it - sorry but I just don't. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSteveUK Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 Shouldn't this thread be re-titled "race for survival" ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbdrum88 Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Just looking at our squad let’s say there are the following sales. jack 20/25m chester 10m kodj 10/15 m mccormack (god knows how) 2m whelan 500k it gives us 42/52 million, the wages saved on gabby, terry, samba and leaves us the following squad :- steer Elmo. Elphick. Jedinak. Hutton Bjarnason hourihane Lansbury Adoma. Hogan. Green subs :- Davis, Taylor, bree, RHM, O’Hare, Sarkic, Gardner/Whelan hope brucey can wrangle 2/3 good loan signings, maybe add grabban full time if there’s money, hope Lansbury can recreate his Forrest form and hogan sustains a scoring run and it’s not actually that bad a championship side in my opinion ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Problem being that side isn't really suited to the way Bruce sets us up to play. That side would potentially work for a possession based side who moves the ball around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted July 7, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 7, 2018 I would like to see something like this side next season, not sure it'd get us play-offs but it'd mean the club was financially stable and dare I say it, we may even have funds for one or two bright lights from League 1. Plus it'd be pretty nippy on the counter. Sold - Hogan £6mill, Kodjia £8mill, Jack £25mill, Chester £10mill. Steer Elmo Elphick Huth Hutton Jedi Hourihane COH Adomah RHM Green 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 For me if we sell chester we are screwed. I think grealish would be a loss but chester is a bigger one. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted July 7, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 7, 2018 1 minute ago, Demitri_C said: For me if we sell chester we are screwed. I think grealish would be a loss but chester is a bigger one. I think he'll be the last out, if necessary. Bruce loves his back 4 more than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 2 minutes ago, Jareth said: I think he'll be the last out, if necessary. Bruce loves his back 4 more than anything. Yep I agree. I think if we can somehow flog hogan for 4-5m that will help. If we sell grealish for 30m and pray we can have him loaned back that be excellent for the club. I'd consider selling adomah if a good bid comes in. Kodjia I'm not sure don't look same player but let's see after pre season how he looks. I think if we can get rid of higan on loan even and have kodjia rhm davis and a loan striker as our four options we might be ok. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Stranger things have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggy_333 Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 With the recent Steve Bruce interview almost confirming that our better players will be leaving, I was interested to hear where people thought we most needed to improve our starting 11? Off the top of my head, and injuries permitting i see this as our strongest 11 for the opening game... GK-Steer RB-Bree CB-Elphick CB- NEW PLAYER (HUTH?) LB- Hutton RW-Adomah CM-Hourihane CM-Bjarnasson CM-Lansbury LW-Green FW-Davis/RHM/NEW PLAYER What would your starting 11's be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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