Snowball I really don't see us being even CLOSE to relegation.
We have got a fair few of the bottom sides to play in November-December-January
Bolton, Barnsley twice, Sunderland, Birmingham and Burton
with Burton again at the end of January
That is seven winnable games, plus a fair few mid-table opponents
like Ipswich, Brentford
This is the opposition (current position) from now to the end of January with the sequence below it
24th 23rd 22nd 22nd 21st
19th 19th 18th 16th 14th 13th 12th, 11th 9th
That is TWELVE/FOURTEEN eminently winnable games
with only three REALLY tough matches TOP 2nd 7th (Wolves, Cardiff, Derby)
I would expect Stam to be sacked if we lost the next two and I'd be disappointed
if we only got two draws, especially as we then have Derby and Wolves.
But if we can WD or DW our next two, after Derby-Wolves (LL?) we have
24th-16th-19th-23rd, a great chance of twelve points
and let's not forget we have a game in hand
13th
12th
9th
TOP
24th
16th
19th
23rd
2nd
11th
22nd
7th
19th
21st
14th
18th
22nd
The other teams from those "winnable" games will look at us and our league position and will see them as winnable games for themselves.
We may well have enough to avoid relegation but after last season weren't we expecting to do rather better than that and weren't the new signings bought to improve the team rather than make it worse?