by Alan Partridge » 02 Oct 2008 10:31
by LUX » 02 Oct 2008 11:07
by Archie's penalty » 02 Oct 2008 12:26
Alan Partridge However, I have been quite honestly stunned at how poor this division really is, we were superb in the year we went up but the teams we faced at the time (1 or 2 exceptions) seemed to me to be of a higher standard than the division we face now.
by Alan Partridge » 02 Oct 2008 12:34
Archie's penaltyAlan Partridge However, I have been quite honestly stunned at how poor this division really is, we were superb in the year we went up but the teams we faced at the time (1 or 2 exceptions) seemed to me to be of a higher standard than the division we face now.
Very good post AP.
Regarding this bit of it. Don't you think this is because 1) we as supporters have been used to seeing much better teams week in, week out in the prem, 2) A lot of the Reading players have got better after playing for two years in the prem and for them it's nice to have games against worse players, 3) teams are giving us much more respect this year. They are saying you should beat us - and we are doing just that. In the 2005/6 teams (at least at the beginning of the season) were giving us no respect at all.
Just my thoughts. Wonder what you think...
by Archie's penalty » 02 Oct 2008 12:39
Alan PartridgeArchie's penaltyAlan Partridge However, I have been quite honestly stunned at how poor this division really is, we were superb in the year we went up but the teams we faced at the time (1 or 2 exceptions) seemed to me to be of a higher standard than the division we face now.
Very good post AP.
Regarding this bit of it. Don't you think this is because 1) we as supporters have been used to seeing much better teams week in, week out in the prem, 2) A lot of the Reading players have got better after playing for two years in the prem and for them it's nice to have games against worse players, 3) teams are giving us much more respect this year. They are saying you should beat us - and we are doing just that. In the 2005/6 teams (at least at the beginning of the season) were giving us no respect at all.
Just my thoughts. Wonder what you think...
Quite possibly a combination of all 3. Maybe I am expecting too much from the opposition, but sheffield wednesday and swansea disappointed me in how poor they were and I'd heard a bit about them and let's be fair Reading completely tore both apart, brilliant of course but all too easy.
If some of these teams have genuine ambitions of getting to the Premiership, I'd have thought Sheffield Wednesday for 1 would have then I expected a lot more from them, if that had been Arsenal playing them on that night God knows what the score could have been.
by CMRoyal » 02 Oct 2008 12:49
Alan Partridge However, I have been quite honestly stunned at how poor this division really is,
by Archie's penalty » 02 Oct 2008 12:53
CMRoyal I'm convinced the standard has dropped significantly.
by CMRoyal » 02 Oct 2008 12:59
Archie's penaltyCMRoyal I'm convinced the standard has dropped significantly.
Or the prem has got significantly better perhaps?
by LUX » 02 Oct 2008 13:02
by Maguire » 02 Oct 2008 13:04
CMRoyalAlan Partridge However, I have been quite honestly stunned at how poor this division really is,
Me too, and at first I thought it was just my memory playing tricks on me. Pre-season, I was convinced we would face a battle to make the playoffs, and even in my darker moments thought that anywhere in the top half of the table would be OK. But - notwithstanding how SC has once again proved the doubters like me wrong by building yet another decent team quietly and at little cost - when the solidly mid-table Plymouth visited, I was stunned at the sudden drop in standard. And the Palace, Wednesday and Swansea games have almost been surreal in the ease in which the boys have rolled these teams over (they nearly cocked up against Palace, but once they got into second gear it was a foregone conclusion). So, here we are awaiting the visit of another supposedly impressive and promotion-chasing club, and if Saturday's game is yet another near walkover, I'll be seriously expecting us to be clear of the rest of the league come the Doyle/Hunt departures in January, and well over the horizon soon after that if they do by some miracle stay. I seriously doubt that makes us as well-equipped for the Prem as we were in 2006, though. I'm convinced the standard has dropped significantly.
by Hampshire Royal » 02 Oct 2008 13:09
by CMRoyal » 02 Oct 2008 13:14
Maguire I agree with lots of that (and almost all of AP's mega-post) right up until the bravado about being clear at the top of the league. Please be more cautious
by Archie's penalty » 02 Oct 2008 13:23
by Alan Partridge » 02 Oct 2008 13:25
Hampshire Royal Interesting post, AP. I'm not sure you're right about this season's CCC being stunningly poor compared to the CCC in 05/06. It's my opinion that each division is essentially the same standard each season.
In my opinion, we were so much better than Swansea, Wednesday and Wolves that we made them look poor. We didn't just beat them, we slaughtered them!! The reputation Swansea have of being a good team is held my most serious commentators on the game; Wednesday are just behind us in the league; and Wolves are reckoned to be among the best in the division and will, in my opinion, be right up there in the mix in May.
The early disappointing results (in my opinion) came while the team was adjusting to each other and learning how to play together We have replaced our departing 'stars' with more than adequate players and the youth that have come into the team seem to be proving themselves to be up to the mark. In Kebe we seem to have solved our RM problem (better, surely, to let him develop in the CCC than the Prem), with the emergence of Karacan and the re-emergence of Gunnar we look to have a pretty good CM. SHunt, of course, is just SHunt and looks to have put the second half of last season behind him. Who's to say that, if Doyle and SHunt leave in January we won't replace them just as well as we seem to have replaced Kitson, Sonko and Shorey?
You're absolutely right, of course, that no team is promoted or relegated yet, and any team in the league (including us) can go either way. As a natural optimist I, of course, think that we will be at the top of the league in May.
by Stranded » 02 Oct 2008 13:34
LUX well how do you explain Stoke, Hull and even WBA's results, Archie? I know there is a very, very long way to go, but Hull have won at Arsenal (and two other games), Stoke have drawn at Liverpool and WBA are doing OK.
Compare with Derby last season (Hull already have their full season total) and Watford the year before. Even we in our first season never got a sniff at Anfield and The Emirates.
So is the Premiership getting weaker?????
by Mad Dog's Ghost » 02 Oct 2008 13:35
by The 17 Bus » 02 Oct 2008 16:09
by Lower West » 03 Oct 2008 18:33
In fact the only half decent team I've seen were Forest and they are bottom now!!!
by Royal Rother » 04 Oct 2008 17:45
by cmonurz » 04 Oct 2008 18:17
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