To avoid the drop, that is? For 90 minutes against Fulham, it looked so. But that was one, lung-bursting performance which didn't look sustainable with such a small squad. Gerhard's PPG tally would see us pro-rata gather a total of 44 points, which looks unlikely to be enough. But in the remaining games we have Wednesday at home (too strong for us in my view, despite their patchy form) and Fulham, Stoke, Leeds and Brentford away, where we are unlikely to gain much. Very hard to believe that we have enough, even without the loss of Diaby, who for me has been the best and most enthusiastic member of our inexperienced central defence. And I have a suspicion that his exit from the side has hit morale. Is the situation limited to Diaby? Yesterday's inaction suggests the Board have accepted relegation - for the second time in three years. What happened to "stability in the Championship"? They accepted the departure of our contracted central defenders and our joint leading scorer before securing suitably-experienced replacements and the result has been inevitable. Only one team in the division has conceded more goals than us; only two have scored fewer themselves. But we are solvent. Hooray! There is at least a chance that we will beat up League One next year, but does anyone care? That is not where we should be playing. And if (director) form means anything, the likelihood is that anyone who stars in a League One promotion-winning side will be allowed to cash in their chips in Summer 2021. It's not a strategy for stability, let alone progress.
I remember the heady days when we shopped for our players in “Aldi” Now it seems we have to resort to the “food bank” for footballers. Can we be good enough on this strategy? Only time will tell.
Objectively, we are far from good enough. Defensively, we are miles off. the problem is that stability in the championship requires investment and the owners of this football club are just not prepared to do that - not with their own money. In fact, I’m fairly skeptical they have any to invest even if they wanted to. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. But it will result in us not stabilising in the championship. what is of greater concern is the total lack of footballing acumen - whoever sanctioned the sale of Pinnock needs shooting. To think we could replace a solid and tested defence with untried kids is totally reckless and feckless!
Good post and based on our lack of transfer activity I believe the board have settled for relegation. If we look at the games to come then there are some huge matches. I've picked several key must win matches out below. Saturday 1st February: Charlton (A). Tuesday 11th February: Birmingham (H). Saturday 22nd February: Middlesbrough (H). Saturday 4th April: Stoke (A). Friday 10th April: Luton (A). Monday 13th April: Wigan (H). I didn't realise we have consecutive games against Stoke, Luton and Wigan but depending on how results go up to those April games we could be on the verge of relegation if not already relegated. In addition we also have home matches against Millwall and Blackburn in March which are clearly going to be must win to keep us in touch. I think it's going to be too much for this squad to achieve but it would be a bloody miracle if Struber pulled it off!
In addition, let's say we are relegated, then we have a £6m shortfall to plug. I would expect Woodrow, Mowatt, Chaplin and Brown to all be sold. You take those players out of our team then apart from Odour and maybe Halme there is no quality at all. I hope the board don't expect L1 to be a walk in the park because IMO we would be mid table at best. At what point do the owners question or give up on the plan and cut their losses? A mid table L1 side would not be bringing anything like the transfer money they expect.
Our only hope is for 3 other sides to be worse than us. And stoke truly were awful last night so if they could carry on like that it would be great. Stuber needs to lift them again (imo blaming the players publicly wasnt a great move on his part) and win today no matter what.
It’s 2016/17 all over again. The spine of the team (and several other integral body parts) gets sold off, and a hastily-assembled assortment of promising young players look totally out of their depth. Yes, the championship quality players will leave when we’re relegated. But I still think we’d have a very strong squad for league one. The return of our loan players (deja vu) might be enough.
Doesn't look like we are, we only need to get more points that 3 teams so it is still achievable. I just don't think we will do it.
We haven't been so far and we've let a few go on loan and suspended another. Unless Sollbauer, notwithstanding first impressions, is the new Beckenbauer and this youth from St Mirren is the new Messi we are screwed. Can Derby still be deducted 100 points or is that case closed now?
It’s 3 from 4 & it’s only 3 from 4 if we beat Charlton today. If we draw we’re more than likely going down but if we lose it’s over. It’s us, Charlton, Wigan & Luton. Forget Stoke & Huddersfield, they’ve got more quality & more depth & their form under O’Neill / Cowleys means there’s no way we’re gaining the extra 7 & 8 points over them that we’d need to leapfrog them. That might seem negative but how on earth can we gain 9 extra points than Charlton over the rest of the season from a possible 48 if we lose today. Even if we took half that, 24 points which is very optimistic you’d be banking on Charlton getting no more than 15 points in the same period. I’m sure they could manage 3 wins, 6 draws & 7 defeats or 4 wins, 3 draws & 9 defeats. This is the most important game of the season. Lose & it is over.
