Jobyfox

Dolphin off, Mav on

I love it when this happens

Well then he should be abused for having this notion!

Immediately before the last international break we lost 1-0 to Hull. So that means absolutely nothing at all

Well, why would we think you are lying?

To be honest I couldn’t care less as long as we get promoted

When I see this thread get promoted I always open it with buttock cheeks clenched hoping that Ricky and JJ are still ok

Yep - that kind of misses the point really. In 1993 we were playing in the 2nd tier, in front 15000 crowds and a single League Cup win was our only significant honour. Since then we’ve won 2 League Cups, 1 PL title, 1 FA Cup, played in the Champions League, built a new stadium, doubled the average attendance, got billionaire foreign owners and massively increased our profile across the World. Our profile and prominence has dramatically increased, but it was a gradual process over time. We didn’t achieve it all in the summer of 1993.

I still can’t believe I’m writing it, but I’d bring Vestergaard straight back in. Coady only got in through a suspension, but I also agree with an earlier post about injuries. Coady has only just returned to the side so two games in a short space of time might be an unnecessary risk. It’s a nice problem to have though

I’m inclined to agree. It’s not as if Everton made us play Danny Ward in goal for the majority of the season

I prefer to have a little bit of humility as we’re currently competing at the same level. Being “bigger” didn’t help us evade relegation and won’t guarantee that we finish above the Championship stalwarts It’s not that long ago that we were competing in a dilapidated old stadium (as much as I loved Filbo) and Preston looked far more likely to trouble the Premier League than we did. It’s only really the last 30 years that we’ve established ourselves as very definitively “bigger” than clubs like Preston. That’s why relegation hurt so much more than it might have done under previous regimes and at previous stages in our evolution.

No idea - I’d not spotted that

10 games is always the first benchmark from which I would assess the team. 9/10 - Hull loss apart it’s been the perfect start. We have to always context it with the drop in standard, but I’m amazed with the renaissance of players like Vestergaard and Ndidi. Filling the gaps in the squad (wingers) and building a balanced team has also been a remarkable achievement. I do also like the tough decision making. Poor players (eg Ward) gone from the squad, players that wanted out playing no part and not allowing complacency to set in. The next benchmark for me will be midway. At that point we’ll have played everybody once and we’ll really start to understand whether any other club (or clubs) is going to provide a serious threat

That’s the spirit. Why don’t we denigrate the whole of Staffordshire while we’re at it!

No, but it’s only a matter of time …

Well six months ago I’d have said: “no, he’s absolutely shite” Now I’d say: “no, he might well be the new messiah”

I just popped over to their forum and there are a number of posts calling us “arrogant” for predicting that this game will be easy and how we’re going to smash them. I quickly scrolled through this thread and hardly anybody is predicting that. I think the overriding prediction is that this will be a hard fought, narrow, win. It’s probably only that given that we’ve won 8/9. There is nothing so sensitive as football fans

It would be nice to see Ipswich promoted this season. Just not at our expense

No doubt if we do manage to go straight back up people will come out with trite cliches like "blessing in disguise" or "tactical retreat". As tactics go it's a bit like blowing your house up with dynamite because it's time for a new kitchen. We could, quite possibly, go straight back up, but there is still a significant possibility that we won't. Relegation is something that can cost millions, send clubs out of business or drive them into irrelevance for years. I will never be happy with such a needless and avoidable relegation. With the right strategies in place the rebuild could have happened in the Premier League. There was never any need to risk everything and it took a great deal of mismanagement at all levels to get us here.

Hate to be the spelling police, but that would be: Mr. Cholmondley-Warner You’re welcome

No

I kind of feel that’s the deal for most sides in the Championship. Sides will close us down and press or play with a low block, but these are difficult things to have the energy or mental discipline to do over 90 minutes. It feels like if we stay in games we’ll have the quality to finish teams off when their intensity inevitably drops. Other teams (eg Southampton & Leeds) don’t appear (so far) to have the capability, defensively, to achieve this. The big difference with the Premier League is those teams have more quality to hurt us during their periods of ascendence

Yes. There are a lot of people on this forum who deride previous opinions with the benefit of hindsight. £15m would have been a great offer for WD considering his form for last season. Admittedly he’d shown good potential before that, although that was almost exclusively as a CDM. It’s a bit like Vestergaard. On previous evidence he’s a player that we’d all have shifted out. If people had an opinion that he’s a keeper based on his output in previous seasons I’d probably question what they were smoking. We’re all experts in hindsight

No I think he said Coady