Relegation 22/23: If not Saints then who?

[Dusic]

Seems a good time to assess the relegation battle seeing as we are firmly involved.

I would probably break it down as follows:

Very unlikely to be relegated:

Brighton, Leicester, Palace, Villa, West Ham

Potentially involved but would need a big drop off:

Brentford, Fulham

In trouble, likely candidates:

Wolves, Saints, Forest, Everton, Leeds, Bournemouth

Of those in the latter category, I would say we have as good a squad as anyone there so there is still a good opportunity to finish above 3 of them. So frustrsting that we lost to Wolves as we should have at least drawn that. The games against all of these teams are going to be massive.

If we want any chance of dragging either/both of Fulham and Brentford in we will need to get at least 4 points from our 2 fixtures with them both, as they are 7 ahead of us with a substantially better GD which is a lot to turn around especially as they look competent and both have a good striker.

Whilst we can clearly help ourselves, its definitely at a stage where we need to hope other results help us and should hope those other 5 drop as many points as possible.

Also, not sure 35 will be enough this season, will need to get onto at least 1 point per game I think to be more certain.

Its very tough to have any real confidence in picking three of those who will likely finish below us.

So much rests on any boost we get from Jones just after the restart, but equally hoping Lopetegui/Bielsa (?)/Lampard replacement(?) don't achieve the same or more, and the same goes for the transfer market where at least Everton and Wolves will also be looking for forward players, Bournemouth will have a new owner, Forest sign anyone who moves and Leeds haven't seen shy of spending.

Will be a tense 2nd half of the season right til the end in theory - but equally could be almost decided (either way) by the start of March, such is the importance of smashing that run from Boxing Day until Leeds on 25th where we play all of the others around us.

[Dman]

Forest, Bournemouth, Leeds and Us will Be the bottom 4 come may, I suspect. 
 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

4 minutes ago, Dman said:

Forest, Bournemouth, Leeds and Us will Be the bottom 4 come may, I suspect. 
 

I fully expect us to be in the bottom three come the end of the season along with Forest and Bournemouth 

[Saint Fan CaM]

Good summary. I think most would agree this is the season where we’re in a precarious situation. The unknowns of injuries, a World Cup break, change of Manager, a critical transfer window and not too many clubs being out and out dreadful. Some of those things could be big positives for us IF it all goes according to plan.

For me there are three absolute essentials we need to nail to have a chance of avoiding the drop…

1. Getting Tino and KWP back into contention and on top form. A big ask before our crucial run of games early in the new year.

2. An outstanding transfer window where we upgrade our attacking options significantly. Probably the most important improvement - if you don’t score goals you don’t win games of football. It will be the toughest as many other teams will be looking to upgrade too and we’re not a good option right now sitting in the relegation zone.

3. That Jones can get this squad of players to (a) be more dynamic and free flowing in attack, (b) be more aggressive in the press, which also means more stamina. Time will tell, but time is of the essence when realistically there’s little margin for error now.

If you’re a betting man would you put money on Saints getting things sorted? It’s not something you’d risk your house on that’s for sure!

Edited 14 November, 2022 by Saint Fan CaM

[Charlie Wayman]

10 minutes ago, Dman said:

Forest, Bournemouth, Leeds and Us will Be the bottom 4 come may, I suspect. 
 

I see what you did there but which one will stay up 😉😉?

It is turning into a very challenging season for at least a dozen clubs not because they are so obviously as poor as Norwich were last year but because every club has upped its game with better players and the standard of the Division has improved as a whole. It's a case of keeping up rather than falling behind for those who want to survive.

Although 'tis said that there is always one club that drops like a stone later in the season, can't see that happening myself this time around. It will be a dog fight until the final whistle on the final day of the season. Guaranteed almost that 40 points will be needed to survive. 

Wolves, Forest and Bournemouth will drop but Saints will be in the mix on the final day

Edited 14 November, 2022 by Charlie Wayman

[Chris cooper]

If we don’t bounce straight after wc and we are still in bottom 3 at the end of feb..then it’s saints,cherries and forest.

 

[Miltonaggro]

16 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Seems a good time to assess the relegation battle seeing as we are firmly involved.

I would probably break it down as follows:

Very unlikely to be relegated:

Brighton, Leicester, Palace, Villa, West Ham

Potentially involved but would need a big drop off:

Brentford, Fulham

In trouble, likely candidates:

Wolves, Saints, Forest, Everton, Leeds, Bournemouth

Of those in the latter category, I would say we have as good a squad as anyone there so there is still a good opportunity to finish above 3 of them. So frustrsting that we lost to Wolves as we should have at least drawn that. The games against all of these teams are going to be massive.

If we want any chance of dragging either/both of Fulham and Brentford in we will need to get at least 4 points from our 2 fixtures with them both, as they are 7 ahead of us with a substantially better GD which is a lot to turn around especially as they look competent and both have a good striker.

Whilst we can clearly help ourselves, its definitely at a stage where we need to hope other results help us and should hope those other 5 drop as many points as possible.

Also, not sure 35 will be enough this season, will need to get onto at least 1 point per game I think to be more certain.

Its very tough to have any real confidence in picking three of those who will likely finish below us.

So much rests on any boost we get from Jones just after the restart, but equally hoping Lopetegui/Bielsa (?)/Lampard replacement(?) don't achieve the same or more, and the same goes for the transfer market where at least Everton and Wolves will also be looking for forward players, Bournemouth will have a new owner, Forest sign anyone who moves and Leeds haven't seen shy of spending.

Will be a tense 2nd half of the season right til the end in theory - but equally could be almost decided (either way) by the start of March, such is the importance of smashing that run from Boxing Day until Leeds on 25th where we play all of the others around us.

Good post and you are right to end on the critical run of games when we resume in December.  Nathan Jones so far seems earnest, honest, and hard working, attributes that will get the Saints fan base on board but above anything else the current players have to fully buy in and commit too.  He is spot on about the lack of aggression in this side, the inability to battle and become hard to beat.  If Jones achieves that with half of them he gives us a decent chance.  The other factor is clearly the incoming players in January and Sports Republic need to quite literally take one for the team here given their vanity in the summer, we will need both capability and character and they will have to pull rabbits out of the hat.  So, engagement of the current first team, bang on January recruitment and a morale boosting run through late December into January - piece of piss!  

[saintant]

Nathan Jones has his work cut out because currently we are easily one of the worst three teams in the mix. It's not helped by the likes of Fulham and Brentford performing far better than most would have expected and even Bmuff are picking up fairly regular wins. The wins are vital as every 3 point haul is like gold dust. We haven't put together a decent run where we pick up wins for a long time and Jones will certainly need to rectify this if we are to stand any chance of avoiding the drop. I fear for us unless he can perform major miracles plus we must add a goal scorer and creative midfielder in early January. I like what I'm hearing from our new manager but he has a huge task ahead of him. If he fails but shows he knows what he's doing then he'll be a decent guy to have at the helm to mount a challenge to get back up.

[BallBoy]

The other thing we need is wholehearted support from the crowd. Those of us of a certain age will remember the nail biting relegation battles we endured. Younger supporters have only known the relative success of promotions and Premier league football. I hope we are all up for it. We have no entitlement.

[JRM]

5 minutes ago, BallBoy said:

The other thing we need is wholehearted support from the crowd. Those of us of a certain age will remember the nail biting relegation battles we endured. Younger supporters have only known the relative success of promotions and Premier league football. I hope we are all up for it. We have no entitlement.

Agreed, we've had it occasionally, Chelsea at home this year was excellent i thought, but to often slip into a quiet moany fan base , need to be fully up for it in a battle. 

Hopefully get good crowds in for first few home games and get some momentum going. 

[saintant]

8 minutes ago, BallBoy said:

The other thing we need is wholehearted support from the crowd. Those of us of a certain age will remember the nail biting relegation battles we endured. Younger supporters have only known the relative success of promotions and Premier league football. I hope we are all up for it. We have no entitlement.

As at the majority of clubs in the land wholehearted support from the crowd is not something you can magic up. At most stadiums the fans feed off the team's performance so Nathan Jones needs to get this side firing and showing 100% commitment sooner rather than later. If he can manage to do that, the crowd will be vociferous and supportive, they will feed off the positivity. It's very hard for the average fan to ignite the team when they've been fed, in the main, such limp performances for so long.  Come Boxing Day, if the team cross that white line and show guts, effort and tenacity along with some decent football, the crowd will be right with them.

[Noodles34]

50 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

I see what you did there but which one will stay up 😉😉?

It is turning into a very challenging season for at least a dozen clubs not because they are so obviously as poor as Norwich were last year but because every club has upped its game with better players and the standard of the Division has improved as a whole. It's a case of keeping up rather than falling behind for those who want to survive.

Although 'tis said that there is always one club that drops like a stone later in the season, can't see that happening myself this time around. It will be a dog fight until the final whistle on the final day of the season. Guaranteed almost that 40 points will be needed to survive. 

Wolves, Forest and Bournemouth will drop but Saints will be in the mix on the final day

If Saints are in the mix on the final day then we're fucked as we have Liverpool at home. 

Edited 14 November, 2022 by Noodles34

[AlexLaw76]

My view is that we will go down.  3 issues that were never sorted in the summer.

 

Keeper = we signed a rookie.  Although talented, he is letting in way too many soft goals.  We should have signed someone with premier league qualities / credentials

Striker = goes without saying

Ralph = keeping Ralph beyond the summer was ridiculous and will likely be the biggest contribution to relegation.  The man was a busted flush for us and the start of the season was very strange and we never really recovered.

[badgerx16]

To get to 35 points we need to average a point a game, realistically we need to get a minimum of 28 points from 23 matches, so that probably means 7 wins + 7 draws. Not an unrealistic target, assuming we improve our striker options, but certainly squeaky bum time if we manage to survive on 40 points.

 

[badgerx16]

14 minutes ago, Noodles34 said:

If Saints are in the mix on the final day then we're fucked as we have Liverpool at home. 

If Saints are in the mix on the final day I don't think it would matter who we were playing.

[aintforever]

It does look like it's going to be a tough ask to stay up this season, not signing a decent striker has been the biggest issue and it's going to be even harder to attract one in January now.

I don't think hiring a manager who's a rookie at this level will help either, might have had a better chance keeping Ralph IMO. Keeping us up would be a hard job for a decent manager with experience let alone someone on a learning curve.

Edited 14 November, 2022 by aintforever

[cloggy saint]

I'm usually fairly optimistic about our chances and am by no means a bed-wetter, but I think we'll go down in 20th.

[ally_uk]

If we don't sign two decent calibre players capable of creating and scoring at this level then we are in the Championship. 

Dress it up all you want blame the system, blame Ralph or use any other excuse.... 

The Summer transfer window was the real issue yes I get it signing youth players is exciting 👏  

However we are in one of the most competitive, ruthless leagues

Lack of replacing Danny Ings stupid decision. 

Lack of replacing Romeu or even selling him in the first place another daft decision. 

Lack of creative player that can actually assist another overlooked wasted opportunity. 

I still think Ralph if backed properly initially would of had us higher up the table and he would still be here. 

The problem we have is Adams and Armstrong need 15 chances to score one goal....  This level you just can't afford not to take chances.

Walcot,  Adam Armstrong, Ely, Djenepo  are not up to it this level it's not rocket science we need to stop being clever and actually invest in the team with better calibre experienced players that can hit the ground running. 

 

Rant over 

 

 

Edited 14 November, 2022 by ally_uk
Adding more

[OldNick]

53 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

My view is that we will go down.  3 issues that were never sorted in the summer.

 

Keeper = we signed a rookie.  Although talented, he is letting in way too many soft goals.  We should have signed someone with premier league qualities / credentials

Striker = goes without saying

Ralph = keeping Ralph beyond the summer was ridiculous and will likely be the biggest contribution to relegation.  The man was a busted flush for us and the start of the season was very strange and we never really recovered.

McCarthy is that keeper. Sadly he like many others is vilified on here. He made many match winning saves in games in the past, also in games when our league position was in peril. 

[cloggy saint]

2 minutes ago, OldNick said:

McCarthy is that keeper. Sadly he like many others is vilified on here. He made many match winning saves in games in the past, also in games when our league position was in peril. 

The people throwing McCarthy under the bus know nothing about goalkeeping, banging on about goals conceded at the near post as if it's a thing. Yes, he makes mistakes, as do the world's best 'keepers.

[OldNick]

11 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

If we don't sign two decent calibre players capable of creating and scoring at this level then we are in the Championship. 

Dress it up all you want blame the system, blame Ralph or use any other excuse.... 

The Summer transfer window was the real issue yes I get it signing youth players is exciting 👏  

However we are in one of the most competitive, ruthless leagues

Lack of replacing Danny Ings stupid decision. 

Lack of replacing Romeu or even selling him in the first place another daft decision. 

Lack of creative player that can actually assist another overlooked wasted opportunity. 

I still think Ralph if backed properly initially would of had us higher up the table and he would still be here. 

The problem we have is Adams and Armstrong need 15 chances to score one goal....  This level you just can't afford not to take chances.

Walcot,  Adam Armstrong, Ely, Djenepo  are not up to it this level it's not rocket science we need to stop being clever and actually invest in the team with better calibre experienced players that can hit the ground running. 

 

Rant over 

 

 

Much of this is valid. Personally, I'm not that sad that Ralph has gone as he just seemed to make some odd decisions and must have perplexed the players. 

As was posted online last week, our model doesn't work in the Championship.

IMO SR have used our beloved club as an experiment, whilst I truly hope they somehow get us out with survival, can we forever rely on teams coming up that are worse than us? (this season it doesn't seemed to have happened.

[OldNick]

Just now, cloggy saint said:

The people throwing McCarthy under the bus know nothing about goalkeeping, banging on about goals conceded at the near post as if it's a thing. Yes, he makes mistakes, as do the world's best 'keepers.

Don't worry most on here couldn't catch a ball let alone try and stop one at the pace a modern footballer can hit a shot at. 

[Whitey Grandad]

Too soon to say. Win the next game and the situation changes. 

[Dragon_man]

I think WHU and Leicester have quality players who will turn it on when it gets to the wire.

Emery will drive Villa to mid table

Bielsa will have his work cut out at Bournemouth, but I see them scraping through.

Same for Forest. They will grind out what they need. They will 'click' in the new year and they have enough good players.

Leeds are gritty. I think they will be fortuntate,  but aided by a great fanbase and atmosphere at Elland Road, they will survive.

For the drop ...

Wolves. I don't think Lopetegui will be able to fix it 

Everton. They will hang on to Lampard for too long. The team is weak. Pickford won't save them, though he'll try to waste 90 minutes on his own for draws.

And unfortunately us. Too much to do, not enough time. Not creative enough in midfield and much discussed lack of goalscoring capability. Both could be addressed in January, but I can't see it.

 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

6 minutes ago, Dragon_man said:

I think WHU and Leicester have quality players who will turn it on when it gets to the wire.

Emery will drive Villa to mid table

Bielsa will have his work cut out at Bournemouth, but I see them scraping through.

Same for Forest. They will grind out what they need. They will 'click' in the new year and they have enough good players.

Leeds are gritty. I think they will be fortuntate,  but aided by a great fanbase and atmosphere at Elland Road, they will survive.

For the drop ...

Wolves. I don't think Lopetegui will be able to fix it 

Everton. They will hang on to Lampard for too long. The team is weak. Pickford won't save them, though he'll try to waste 90 minutes on his own for draws.

And unfortunately us. Too much to do, not enough time. Not creative enough in midfield and much discussed lack of goalscoring capability. Both could be addressed in January, but I can't see it.

 

No way do Everton and Wolves drop. Wolves are in a massively false position, they are going to be fine. Everton will just grind out results as they did last season. The most telling thing is that we have lost to both already this season. 

[Saint Matty 76]

Three of us, Everton, Bournemouth, Wolves, Forest, Fulham and Leeds.

We're all in here assuming the best of other teams, like I'm sure other fans are of us on their respective forums at the moment. 

Hard to be sure of too much until we progress through the January transfer window, where I imagine Everton and Wolves in particular will be pretty active. 

My current guess (and hope) is Wolves, Forest and Bournemouth.

[ecuk268]

At this stage of the season in 1998 we had 6 points.

Ended up 5 points clear of the bottom 3.

[Chewy]

Good summary, all pretty reasonable. As for which three … 

3 worst squads imho are AFCB, Forest and Leeds

3 worst managers are AFCB, Leeds and Everton

3 worst front lines are us, Wolves and Forest

3 worst defenses are Forest, Leeds and AFCB

Current bottom 3 (so most precarious) are us, wolves and Forest.

So by my reckoning Forest most likely, Everton least likely, and just about AFCB and Leeds going but us and Wolves will easily replace one of them if we don’t sort out a forward.

Of course we’ll sign ‘someone’, we just really need to get it right 

[InvictaSaint]

From my favourite (and statistically reliable) predictions website (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/). Even though we are currently 19th we only have a 33% chance of relegation.....

 

[Dman]

5 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I fully expect us to be in the bottom three come the end of the season along with Forest and Bournemouth 

Oh I fully agree. My list was in no particular order. If I was a betting man, I’d say us, forest and Bournemouth. But I think Leeds lack quality, just as much as we do. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

27 minutes ago, Dman said:

Oh I fully agree. My list was in no particular order. If I was a betting man, I’d say us, forest and Bournemouth. But I think Leeds lack quality, just as much as we do. 

I think if there is one team that could end up in the bottom three, from the rest it would be Leeds. They lack quality but crucially they score goals. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

5 hours ago, cloggy saint said:

The people throwing McCarthy under the bus know nothing about goalkeeping, banging on about goals conceded at the near post as if it's a thing. Yes, he makes mistakes, as do the world's best 'keepers.

Yep, like that one he managed to miss at his near post against Sheffield Wednesday. A L1 team, with L1 strikers. It’s a weakness that he’s just not been able to improve on, irrespective of the standard of the opposition.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yep, like that one he managed to miss at his near post against Sheffield Wednesday. A L1 team, with L1 strikers. It’s a weakness that he’s just not been able to improve on, irrespective of the standard of the opposition.

He crouches as they shoot. He seems to try to make himself as small as possible. 

[CB Fry]

What we've got ahead of us

> a couple of narrow defeats to clubs we should beat "well you can see what the manager is trying to do, if we play like we did in the first half we'll be fine. You can't judge the season just on that game" 

> some noble defeats to big clubs "we really gave them a game. "If we play like we did before their second goal went in we'll be fine"

> we will win a game or two - relegated clubs can win six or seven every year, so we will win some. "what a result. Now we've turned the corner. This is the kind of result you can judge the season on. Definitely. We are going to be fine now, we won."

> and some proper batterings

I just don't see there are three clubs worse than us. Wolves will not go down. Brentford are not having that Steve-Coppell-Reading/Burley-Ipswich-etc second season syndrome. Even Fulham have put lots of points on: halfway there in less than half a season. Everton, nope, never.

 

Rookie manager and rookie team. Thinking we are going to buy a game changing striker in January seems fanciful now. We blew that. The most critical thing is the players that aren't rookies aren't good enough to keep us up (Che, both Armstrongs, Moi). 

The tragedy is we have probably the best defence for years but a rookie keeper who never keeps clean sheets and an attack who never put us in games will make their contribution redundant.

Its Bournemouth, Forest, Leeds and us. We need Fulham to at least make it interesting. 

This is the season we go down.

Edited 15 November, 2022 by CB Fry

[HarvSFC]

The situation isn't peril. We're six points off 12th, so we're still very much in touching distance of mid-table and two wins could put us in some comfort. We just need to get those attackers in January as soon as possible so we don't lose any more games cheaply and missing good chances. Liverpool announced Van Dijk in December, that'll do.

Or, we could go on one of those unbeaten runs that many predicted Burnley to go on last season so they'd catch us.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

We are going down. Week after week I watch other teams like Brighton Fulham Brentford etc and the standard of football is   simply better than ours. We have too many substandard players like Diallo, Elynoussi Djenepo Arma etc who wouldn’t be getting games for these clubs. Who’s to blame? Everybody. Lack of investment in the Gao era that saw the likes of Ings sold to balance the books. Semmens for believing the Ralph hype. SR for not being bolder in getting rid of Ralph in the summer and then for not delivering a forward in the transfer window. 
To end on a note of optimism if (and it’s a big if) we can hold onto the youngsters we have a manager who knows the Championship well and we have a fair chance of bouncing straight back. Clubs our size can’t afford to make too many mistakes in the PL and we have made too many. 

[egg]

We've failed to get enough points on the board this season, and given Jones an awful lot to do. Sadly I can't now see another 3 teams finishing below us. As much as I'd like us to stay up, our journey back up last time was brilliant, and I'd fancy our chances of a quick bounce back if the inevitable happens. 

[Dusic]

16 minutes ago, egg said:

We've failed to get enough points on the board this season, and given Jones an awful lot to do. Sadly I can't now see another 3 teams finishing below us. As much as I'd like us to stay up, our journey back up last time was brilliant, and I'd fancy our chances of a quick bounce back if the inevitable happens. 

History shows that you pretty much get two seasons to come back up straight away before you start to struggle.

You could argue that our squad isnt really suited to the physical nature of the Championship and we have so many players that almost certainly would leave for PL sides (Salisu, ABK, KWP, JWP, Livramento, Lavia, Adams at the very least) that it would be a major job to get those players out, replace them, get over the disappointment/inquest of relegation and crack on with a promotion season.

Thats before we mention the potential impact on the academy, and some of our better prospects who will have stacks of PL interest and probably aren't whats needed to get promoted at this stage of their careers.

Also seems likely that the other two who go down would be either big clubs or clubs with very recent experience of promotion from the Championship.

Goes without saying but absolutely no guarentee we would get back anytime soon.

Hopefully the players don't have a defeatist attitude but as we have seen before a few know whatever happens they will be in the PL next season anyway.

[Bad Wolf]

Would anyone even be that bothered about going down? The Championship is a lot better than the PL in various ways.

[badgerx16]

22 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Would anyone even be that bothered about going down? The Championship is a lot better than the PL in various ways.

Less of a desperate scramble searching for semi-relianle streams every weekend you aren't going to the match.

[egg]

31 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Would anyone even be that bothered about going down? The Championship is a lot better than the PL in various ways.

I'd support us whatever league we're in, but I'd prefer it to be the PL. It's the knock on effect for relegation that often gets overlooked - job losses, attracting and keeping young talent, etc. 

[eurosaint]

12 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yep, like that one he managed to miss at his near post against Sheffield Wednesday. A L1 team, with L1 strikers. It’s a weakness that he’s just not been able to improve on, irrespective of the standard of the opposition.

You're right, that was a basic error by an experienced keeper !

So many on here have desperately short memories, McCarthy and Forster were both given good runs in the first team and yet never provided any confidence to our defence (they were also constantly slagged off by the intelligentsia on this very website) !

IMO Bazunu is already better (albeit young, improving and learning as he goes along). He is agile and good on his line, his kicking is light years better than his predecessors and although we have very few clean sheets we are not shipping shedloads as has happened in the past !

Of all the problems we have, he is certainly not the biggest one 😬 !

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, Bad Wolf said:

Would anyone even be that bothered about going down? The Championship is a lot better than the PL in various ways.

About half the fan base would quit and we'd be left with crowds of 15k. Imagine the appeal of Stoke City or Luton Town at SMS on a dark, dank, freezing Tuesday evening. 🤧🥶

No thank you,  🙏 we've been there done that. Most of us want to see Man C, Man U & Arsenal as our visitors on a fine sunny Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, it's all academic as Mr Jones will keep us up.

Edited 15 November, 2022 by Charlie Wayman

[Toussaint]

17 hours ago, ecuk268 said:

At this stage of the season in 1998 we had 6 points.

Ended up 5 points clear of the bottom 3.

Just looked at the squad for that season !!!

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, Bad Wolf said:

Would anyone even be that bothered about going down? The Championship is a lot better than the PL in various ways.

I'd now prefer it if the uber rich clubs effed off to their super league along with their fake fans.  The PL has become a bit pointless for those who aren't backed by gazillionaires or states.

[Hodgey]

I think the problem with relegation this year is that it sets us back hugely with our strategy. We’ll only make big money on young players if they are showing their capabilities in the Prem, plus if we go down the pressure to sell the family jewels cheap grows and the players will agitate for a move more than ever. Plus high potential young players won’t want to join. Plus we’ll be saddled with a fair few average championship players on Prem wages we’ll struggle to sell.

If we can stay up however, we may only need to sell a couple of young players for huge money, have the benefit of a years experience from the remaining high potential young players, and can reinvest and attract players who want a chance in the Prem.

This is why SR have made such a massive error, the risk was too high not securing a big money striker.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

22 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Just looked at the squad for that season !!!

Would take an attacking four of Le Tiss, Beattie, Pahars and Ostenstadt now

[sfc4prem]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

History shows that you pretty much get two seasons to come back up straight away before you start to struggle.

You could argue that our squad isnt really suited to the physical nature of the Championship and we have so many players that almost certainly would leave for PL sides (Salisu, ABK, KWP, JWP, Livramento, Lavia, Adams at the very least) that it would be a major job to get those players out, replace them, get over the disappointment/inquest of relegation and crack on with a promotion season.

Thats before we mention the potential impact on the academy, and some of our better prospects who will have stacks of PL interest and probably aren't whats needed to get promoted at this stage of their careers.

Also seems likely that the other two who go down would be either big clubs or clubs with very recent experience of promotion from the Championship.

Goes without saying but absolutely no guarentee we would get back anytime soon.

Hopefully the players don't have a defeatist attitude but as we have seen before a few know whatever happens they will be in the PL next season anyway.

I agree. Relegation would be disastrous for the club. Could easily see us in the Championship or League One for a good half a decade or more if we do bite the dust this time around.

[Highfield Saint]

The next 7 games will define the season

Brighton - home

Fulham - away

Forest - home

Everton - away

Villa - home

Brentford - away

Wolves - home

[Toussaint]

9 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Would take an attacking four of Le Tiss, Beattie, Pahars and Ostenstadt now

There weresome great players in  that squad. I really liked Marsden.