Taxi for Hollowman.

[surrifox]

one of the players (Dobbie?) is supposed to have said after learning he wasn't in the match day squad "you'll be gone from here long before I will" -

[suffolk fox]

Last season most managers would have got Palace up as a result of Freedman's groundwork (I'll never understand why he left them).

 

I can't see Hollowhead being out of a job long, which is a shame, because I'd like to see him disappear from football.

This is bollox. Freedman is proving this season he is not a good manager.

Palace are mossing Zaha this season and we should take note, this couldnhappen to us. A lot of palace fans are not happy with the premiership and wish they had never gone up. They actually miss the Championship and as they put it the proper football played. Overspend at your peril to try and stay in the premiership panic buy, all of which Palace have done. They could be the next club to go into administration because of it.

[Dan]

I've actually never seen anything like this. I have never seen a side regress as a team yet still go up.

 

They're weaker than they were a year back IMO.

[Ric Flair]

I've actually never seen anything like this. I have never seen a side regress as a team yet still go up.

 

They're weaker than they were a year back IMO.

 

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

[iamafox]

You can't really say that Ollie got Palace promoted when it was Freedman's squad to begin with.

[Dan]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

 

Really don't think 15 signings would've done us any good, it can certainly backfire like it has at Palace.

 

Ultimately though I think to Palace last August, they were bottom after 3 games, made a load of signings and started flying up the table.

 

It would've been too early to go up for us and I think in the long-term it's sort of seen as a dodged bullet.

 

Then again I wouldn't have been surprised if we'd gone and spent in a similar manner to Cardiff. Not an influx of signings, but 3/4 quality additions.

[surrifox]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

I think that the same could be said of Hull (and they may well still crash and burn) but they are making a decent fist of it so far and they started by strengthening their defence and making themselves hard to beat. Palace are trying to play football but with the likes of Damien Delaney and McCarthy (think he's still there)in defence the odds are going to be against them every time.

Any new manager will no doubt want to bring in his players which will cost even more money

[Guest MattP]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

We have got young players who might evelop though.

4-5 players and I think we will be ok. If Hull can make a go of it we can.

We certainly wouldn't get tonked 4-1 at home by Fulham.

[Stadt]

We have got young players who might evelop though.

4-5 players and I think we will be ok. If Hull can make a go of it we can.

We certainly wouldn't get tonked 4-1 at home by Fulham.

Tbf to Palace, those two goals don't happen very often!

[MrSpaM]

We certainly wouldn't get tonked 4-1 at home by Fulham.

 

Guess we'll see next week...

[MPH]

This is bollox. Freedman is proving this season he is not a good manager.

Palace are mossing Zaha this season and we should take note, this couldnhappen to us. A lot of palace fans are not happy with the premiership and wish they had never gone up. They actually miss the Championship and as they put it the proper football played. Overspend at your peril to try and stay in the premiership panic buy, all of which Palace have done. They could be the next club to go into administration because of it.

nah mate, they have only,for wages, spent within what parachute payments will cover. That's precisely why the chairman is already talking about coming back stronger next season...

[MPH]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

if there is anyone I trust to ship out expensive stars on big wages who dont want to be here, then it would be pearson....

edit: just to clarify im talking about should the first campaign in the prem go belly up...

[Fox92]

Of course we arn't good enough for the Premier League. There's a reason why our players play for a second tier team. But as I've said all along, you don't need great stars to get promoted; just look at Norwich, Blackpool and Reading as examples. I've always felt the squad just needs to be hardworking and have a bit of ability. 

 

Apart from the likes of Newcastle and West Ham in recent years, I don't think any of the clubs that got promoted are identified as 'good enough' for the Premier League. Does that really matter? Well, did anyone think the likes of Lambert and Holt would be such as force in the Premier League? I don't think so.

[MC Prussian]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

Debatable.

 

Personally, I see it as a big risk when stepping up to the highest level of football to disrupt the existing chemistry within a team by sacking a large part of the squad that allowed the club to gain promotion, only to replace them with "more able" talent that doesn't know the club very well, doesn't know the manager at all and still needs time to adjust to the new surroundings.

 

I don't think there's a lot of examples of promoted clubs who were really successful avoiding the drop back down to the previous division, using a "hire & fire" mentality.

It's all in the mix.

[MPH]

If we did get promoted, I would say kasper, Wes, Konch, King and knocky ( who I think would relish the challenge) would be able to cope in the prem.

drinky james and delaet would be possibles... they could go either way as they are ones who are developing.

If wasilewski has a good season with us there is no reason why he couldnt manage a season in the prem too.. but id want to see more sharpness and fitness from him..

My big concern of course would be strikers.. not one of our strikers gives me any confidence about being a Premier League a standard striker... not even any 'maybes' among them...

[Kitchandro]

Haha we nearly did last season as well but Palace pipped us to it. That's why it scares me what would have happened to us if we'd got there. We are nowhere near good enough for the PL, I think there's probably 3 players in our squad capable of playing at a higher level so we'd have to infiltrate our squad with 15+ signings and hope for the best.

 

15 players?

 

I never thought Southampton had a great squad when they went up. It's not all about how good the players are. 15 signings would be absolutely suicidal. I'm sure we'd have to strengthen in most areas but we can't panic and have no faith in the squad that got us up.

[_Fatboyslow_]

From the stuff shown on TV this week , both before and after the Fulham game I got the distinct impression that Hollowhead had lost it and after the game when he starts saying that the new signings are wrong and he should have stuck with the squad and sprit that took them up you know it's over.

It's also interesting to see posters saying that if we go up that we should only make a few select signings, which I fully support and would not be to bothered if we came back down as I would accept this as part of a longer term Plan

[Ric Flair]

15 players?

 

I never thought Southampton had a great squad when they went up. It's not all about how good the players are. 15 signings would be absolutely suicidal. I'm sure we'd have to strengthen in most areas but we can't panic and have no faith in the squad that got us up.

 

That's what we'd likely need to compete and stay up.

 

No disrespect but even the likes of Wes Morgan would struggle in the PL and Dyer, Vardy and Drinkwater would be crucified. I genuinely believe only Kasper, King, Knockaert and Moore could improve to be good enough, with perhaps James, De Laet and Wood as they have age on their side. Morgan isn't pacey enough and at his age at a first attempt in the modern game would struggle, Nugent seems to be regressing from the first spell he had there with Pompey and Burnley and lower league muck like Vardy, Dyer, Bakayogo and Taylor-Fletcher have no hope in the coming years. So yes, we'd need 15+ new players for a competitive squad of 22+ lads at that level.

[Leicesterpool]

This is similar to when Billy Davies took Derby up, though Davies admitted early on he thought he'd struggle. 

 

On Olly getting us relegated i would say it would be unfair to put all the blame on his front door, Manadric got us relegated.

[davieG]

This is similar to when Billy Davies took Derby up, though Davies admitted early on he thought he'd struggle. 

 

On Olly getting us relegated i would say it would be unfair to put all the blame on his front door, Manadric got us relegated.

No he didn't, he provided Holloway with significant funding which should have been sufficient for him to prevent us going from 17th in November to relegation. 

Holloway has also admitted he was useless and used his time out of football after us to change his whole approach to the game.

 

Granted Mandaric didn't provide decent foundations but he did provide enough tools to have avoided relegation including over £2mill for transfers and the loaning of 7 players adding 12 players altogether.

[Corky]

This is similar to when Billy Davies took Derby up, though Davies admitted early on he thought he'd struggle. 

 

On Olly getting us relegated i would say it would be unfair to put all the blame on his front door, Manadric got us relegated.

 

No one has put all the blame on him, but he's certainly a part of us going down.

 

I can still remember the dreadful home games against Plymouth, Preston, Hull, Colchester and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as the non performances at Hull, QPR, Coventry and Southampton.

[Guest MattP]

They both contributed to our relegation along with numerous players who couldn't be bothered.

 

Mandaric for getting virtually every managerial decision wrong apart from Pearson in his time here and Holloway for his bizarre tactical decisions and inept signings in his short tenure.

 

Why do football fans always want to lay the blame 100% at a single persons door?

[_Fatboyslow_]

Who cares if he was the worst or not?

He was shit with us, and painstakingly negative shit with it. Took over in 17th and left in Division 3.

Yeah, others were to blame too but he had enough time and resources to avoid finishing below 21st (which was the only task he had). He's done well for himself since but was just appalling at Leicester.

Spot on, and he is on record as saying that he leant from his time with us and changed his approach. Small fish that needs a smaller pond.

A question ? If he is so good why didn't a lower prem club cone in for him?

[OriginalRobboFOX]

I was genuinely optimistic when he joined us but that optimism didn't last long. Playing Harry Worley in centre mid in that must win game was the end for me.....

[Guest]

love it when assholes get payback.