Ashby Saint Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 Can you name a relegated club that has suffered as sudden and striking collapse in the history of the premier league? I certainly can’t. That’s what we’re potentially dealing with. No wonder people are angry and in shock. Nowt to do with your good old days, Lord Duckhunter inspired b*****ks. Leeds, Blackpool, Blackburn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashby Saint Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 Can you name a relegated club that has suffered as sudden and striking collapse in the history of the premier league? I certainly can’t. That’s what we’re potentially dealing with. No wonder people are angry and in shock. Nowt to do with your good old days, Lord Duckhunter inspired b*****ks. Wigan, Bolton ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 Leeds, Blackpool, Blackburn Blackpool? They we’re promoted and went immediately back down. Bolton? They finished 16, 13, 14, 14 before they were relegated. Wigan finished 11, 16, 16, 15 before they went down. I’ll give you Blackburn, though one could argue it’s feet were built of clay - dependent as it was on a local businessman’s largesse and ageing big name players in a world of increasingly globalised money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 (edited) Leeds Leeds was a spectacular collapse so much so that doing a Leeds has entered the English language. Inevitably there was a massive fan backlash. Nobody was telling them to grow a pair. At the same time, the collapse was hardly surprising - it was always a matter of when, not if the club would return to earth after racking up unsustainable debts. Edited 17 January, 2018 by shurlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 (edited) Can you name a relegated club that has suffered as sudden and striking collapse in the history of the premier league? I certainly can’t. That’s what we’re potentially dealing with. No wonder people are angry and in shock. Nowt to do with your good old days, Lord Duckhunter inspired b*****ks. Is it that sudden or striking? The warning signs were there last season for all to see. Edited 17 January, 2018 by doddisalegend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 It's that sudden or striking? The warning signs were there last season for all to see. Without invoking the Lord D defence that we finished 8th and got to a cup final, I think most people felt relatively optimistic about the new season (look no further than the preseason predictions thread). We had just come out of our first summer without any major departures and had strengthened the squad. Most people felt we had underperformed under Puel and we’re exoecting a positive bump from the new manager (I don’t count you here as I know your thoughts on the squad vs. manager debate). I similarly thought our squad was weaker than generally claimed; nonetheless I never saw us being one point above the relegation places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalek2003 Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 Just shows outside the top 6, first target is safety. You can have a good season and squad, but you're only ever a few injuries, some poor form or a bad manager away from a relegation fight. Burnley would be in the relegation zone under a poor manager with that squad. We'd be doing well under a decent manager. Same for most the other non top 6 clubs. Same reason Everton panicked and sacked Koeman, and will now be safe but resigned to dire football. Yep, agreed. Being saying this for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashby Saint Posted 17 January, 2018 Share Posted 17 January, 2018 (edited) I do wonder if this is just a cycle that teams seem to go through. First you stabilise and then have some success with good organisation and hard work. Eventually you end up in the top half of the table and the expectations rise for European football. It starts with the Top 6 cherry picking your very best players. Outside of the Top 6 you can't really buy guaranteed Top 6 players no matter how good your scouting is (are you listening Les) and therefore most are gambles or take time to develop. These players give you flashes of brilliance, but lack consistency. A few serious missteps and the team has lost its balance and organisation so you fall back down to the bottom of the table. If you've got clever ownership you recognise this quickly and change the set-up (usually with a manager who specialises in escaping the drop) and get back to basics. You then start the cycle again. However, if your board is arrogant (like ours is) they believe they are too good to go down and the team is promptly relegated. Edited 17 January, 2018 by Ashby Saint Added bit about best players being cherry picked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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