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Dippers predictions


GarrettIvo
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http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=315516.0

 

Only tangentially Saints related, as a few of them pegged us for relegation.

But Christ on a cracker this is funny stuff. Now.

Tipping Lovren as the best summer signing is probably the best bit.

 

Embarrassing.

 

To be fair, I am sure we can find embossing threads on this forum from last summer. The difference is that ours were all overly pessimistic rather than overly optimistic.

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It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

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It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

 

I think once we starting to sign a few players it was less of a risk, but when we sold Chambers there was definitely a sense of "who next?" and wondering what the intentions from the board were. As you say, hindsight is a wonderful thing and we now know there was a plan for reinvestment and to continue taking the club forward but it wasn't clear at that stage. I was generally ok with most of the sales - could see that the players wanted to leave, we got good money and saw most of them as replaceable, but I admit I started to worry when we spent £12m on Shane Long... It wasn't until we picked up a few others I started to feel like we weren't just hoping to survive.

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It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

 

I said something pretty similar during last summers "meltdown" but it was drowned out by the doom and gloom around here. Mind you I also thought Swansea were ****ed with Monk in charge so what do I know :D

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It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

 

On July 28th 2014 we had lost the manager who had brought a very specific style that had pushed us out of the relegation discussion, had lost first choice players in Shaw, Lallana, Lovren, Lambert, plus an occasional starter and future prospect in Chambers. Basically half a team.

 

We'd brought in relative unknowns in Pelle and Tadic who might not have been good enough, and a manager with enough failures on his managing CV to worry people and no knowledge of the English game. The previous season's top scorer Rodriguez was out for at least a few more months, and we'd looked pretty mediocre in the last few months of the previous season anyway.

 

The club externally seemed to be in turmoil, there was every reason to think Schneiderlin could also leave or might be sidelined all season for disciplinary reasons, it was before we signed Bertrand, Forster, Alderweireld, Gardos, Mane, or Long, and it could have gone very wrong with only a few mistakes. I guess the best way to look at it is "where would we have finished with a team of

 

Boruc; Clyne, Yoshida, Fonte, Targett; Wanyama, Davis; Ward-Prowse, Ramirez, Tadic; Pelle - and a bunch of kids on the bench". For 38 matches. That's at best a mid-table/bottom-half side even if they don't have any suspensions or injuries, and it has no depth.

Edited by The9
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It's a good read, but if you go back to our pre-season threads I'm sure they'd be a bit of a laugh as well! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

But one thing I will say, is that I never quite understood why people tipped us for relegation. I mean, just look at who was in the league with us.....Sunderland, Villa, Burnley, WBA, Hull, QPR. What made us so bad? and so much worse than that rabble? We lost 4 or 5 players, but replaced them all. Whilst still keeping hold of Morgan, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne - those 4 right there were never going to be in a relegation battle. It was just the easy pundit line to use, people who don't really know a great deal but jump on the band wagon (Hi Savage.)

 

Easy to see with hindsight but even you nearly lost it, along with most of us, after the Chambers sale. As things have turned out, £11m up front was a 'gift' as Ronald suggested and even if Chambers goes on to be a top CB, he wasn't playing there for us at the time which can be pointed out when someone moans later. The quality of some of the new signings and Ronald and Les's calmness helped too.

 

In 2004/5 though, we didn't have the worst squad either - Antti, Le Saux, Claus, Crouch, Beattie and Phillips - and should have at least stayed up even with the dross Rupert bought in that summer. Unfortunately, the club was in such turmoil behind the scenes and so political at the start of that season that the drop was inevitable, especially when you change the manager after 2 games (and a home win) and replace him with the tea boy. So I guess people were speculating post-Cortese that something similar was happening at the club. In reality, I'd argue we are in a better position because as fantastic as NC was, we are less reliant on one public figure and the myth of KL as a reluctant owner of the club has been debunked.

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Easy to see with hindsight but even you nearly lost it, along with most of us, after the Chambers sale. As things have turned out, £11m up front was a 'gift' as Ronald suggested and even if Chambers goes on to be a top CB, he wasn't playing there for us at the time which can be pointed out when someone moans later. The quality of some of the new signings and Ronald and Les's calmness helped too.

 

In 2004/5 though, we didn't have the worst squad either - Antti, Le Saux, Claus, Crouch, Beattie and Phillips - and should have at least stayed up even with the dross Rupert bought in that summer. Unfortunately, the club was in such turmoil behind the scenes and so political at the start of that season that the drop was inevitable, especially when you change the manager after 2 games (and a home win) and replace him with the tea boy. So I guess people were speculating post-Cortese that something similar was happening at the club. In reality, I'd argue we are in a better position because as fantastic as NC was, we are less reliant on one public figure and the myth of KL as a reluctant owner of the club has been debunked.

 

Such a good comparison, I think people forget how much quality we still had at the club when we were relegated! The best thing the club did this season that really sets it apart from that one was go out and get RK that was the moment for me that sent a clear message that the club wasn't about to implode. Like it or not he is a big name with a pretty decent record it was like chucking the sea anchor out suddenly everything was back in order even if it did take a while for the sea to calm! Compare that to the absolute mess we got into under Rupert and you can see the difference, stability and confidence comes right from the top and at the minute Saints seem blessed with the right people in the right places.

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stability and confidence comes right from the top and at the minute Saints seem blessed with the right people in the right places.

 

Which is very much something that wasn't clear at the end of July last year.

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