Relegation

[NathStPaul]

Relating to one of his earlier points, why the hell wouldn't you want your owner to be silent? I want our owners to be quiet, fund the club and let good football people make the decisions. I don't want them meddling in team affairs or making grand statements in the press on a weekly basis.

People only want to hear from the owner when things are going wrong - which financially, within the current rules, they undoubtedly are but I never get what they expect the owner to say?

Where we are financially is totally predictable. Been on the cards for some time. The club has become little more than a billionaires plaything. For the current owner it's more about keeping face with the other Chinese owners. Who can achieve top flight football first.

What drugs are you on?

[Lower West]

People only want to hear from the owner when things are going wrong - which financially, within the current rules, they undoubtedly are but I never get what they expect the owner to say?

Where we are financially is totally predictable. Been on the cards for some time. The club has become little more than a billionaires plaything. For the current owner it's more about keeping face with the other Chinese owners. Who can achieve top flight football first.

What drugs are you on?

Football is a business now at the higher levels. The gulf is widening up across all the divisions.

[Stranded]

Relating to one of his earlier points, why the hell wouldn't you want your owner to be silent? I want our owners to be quiet, fund the club and let good football people make the decisions. I don't want them meddling in team affairs or making grand statements in the press on a weekly basis.

People only want to hear from the owner when things are going wrong - which financially, within the current rules, they undoubtedly are but I never get what they expect the owner to say?

Where we are financially is totally predictable. Been on the cards for some time. The club has become little more than a billionaires plaything. For the current owner it's more about keeping face with the other Chinese owners. Who can achieve top flight football first.

OK. But you say you want to hear from the owners. What do you actually want to hear?

[NathStPaul]

People only want to hear from the owner when things are going wrong - which financially, within the current rules, they undoubtedly are but I never get what they expect the owner to say?

Where we are financially is totally predictable. Been on the cards for some time. The club has become little more than a billionaires plaything. For the current owner it's more about keeping face with the other Chinese owners. Who can achieve top flight football first.

OK. But you say you want to hear from the owners. What do you actually want to hear?

How many other clubs are owned by Chinese people out of interest? Any idea?

[Nameless]

5 English clubs have Chinese owners. Us, Wolves, Baggies, Birmingham and Barnsley (one person in a multinational consortium it seems).

[Hendo]

5 English clubs have Chinese owners. Us, Wolves, Baggies, Birmingham and Barnsley (one person in a multinational consortium it seems).

Our owner > Birmingham's batshit crazy owner.

[Snowflake Royal]

5 English clubs have Chinese owners. Us, Wolves, Baggies, Birmingham and Barnsley (one person in a multinational consortium it seems).

Our owner > Birmingham's batshit crazy owner.

That's a low bar he's stepping over.

Think we have a very high variance in where we could finish. I could see us struggling with signings, having a couple of key players under perform / suffer injuries and to be honest I wouldnt be hugely surprised if we were relegated. On the other hand, a couple of good signings and a couple of Joao, Ejaria and Swift step up and put in a quality season staying fit and we could be looking at comfortable top 10 again.

It's really about avoiding any bad runs and staying fit.

No idea which way it will go. Hopefully the latter, because it really will be financial Armageddon if we go down at this point.

[Royal_jimmy]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

[NathStPaul]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

This was said quite a lot before the start of last season and then we won something like 8 on the bounce. Let's see what happens once the season starts, too early to make any judgement yet.

Agree its been a far from ideal pre season.

[Hendo]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

The Brighton win the other day didn’t happen then?

[Hound]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

The Brighton win the other day didn’t happen then?

Or beating Lincoln

The West Ham game we had about 5 out, 2 trialists starting who didn’t sign and played most of the second half with a u18 side

So was 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats from preseason

[Stranded]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

The Brighton win the other day didn’t happen then?

Or beating Lincoln

The West Ham game we had about 5 out, 2 trialists starting who didn’t sign and played most of the second half with a u18 side

So was 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats from preseason

Exactly. Results wise, it was ok and last 3 were W1 D1 L1 with the win against a PL side. We just need bodies.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Ya man Alan Nixon says we can sign players on max £8.5k a week

[From Despair To Where?]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

We lost our last 2 PSFs to Farnborough and Spurs in 2005/06.

What player is going to go full out in a pre season a week before kickoff? Nicky Forster did it 20 years ago and missed most of the season.

[Pepe the Horseman]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

We lost our last 2 PSFs to Farnborough and Spurs in 2005/06.

What player is going to go full out in a pre season a week before kickoff? Nicky Forster did it 20 years ago and missed most of the season.

Christ, that makes me feel old.

[windermereROYAL]

Can anyone give a run down on cover we have in each position?, I know we are frighteningly light up front.

[Snowflake Royal]

GK
Cabral, Southwood, Boyce-Clarke, Andresson - out on loan

RB
Yiadom, Holmes, Araruna (injured)

LB
Bristow, McIntyre, Samuels

CB
Morrison, Holmes
Moore, McIntyre, Dorsett

CM
Rinomhota, Tetek
Laurent, Swift, Araruna (injured)

AM
Swift, Ejaria

LW
Ejaria

RW
Meite (injured)

ST
Joao, Puscas, McNulty, Meite (injured)
Melvin-Lambert - out on loan
Then I believe we have a couple more youth players, but I'm less sure where they play...

Azeez, Camara, Assorio(sp?), etc

It's mainly on the wings we have a problem, though obviously a bit weak at LB, AM and ST and lacking a touch of depth at CM


Bold - covering multiple positions
Italics - injured or out on loan

Updated

[Once upon a time .]

Thanks very much Snowflake Royal for the list of players . Can I suggest to anyone reading this list that they take off the rose coloured glasses (or at least the blue and white hooped glasses ) , and look at each name again and assess whether they would hold a place in a top six team , a mid table team , or struggling lower table team . Also notice that some players Swift , Ejaria , are listed in more than one position which makes the team look stronger . Then knock off the other number of players who will become injured , which is certain to happen . Now how do you foresee our season ?

[Zip]

Thanks very much Snowflake Royal for the list of players . Can I suggest to anyone reading this list that they take off the rose coloured glasses (or at least the blue and white hooped glasses ) , and look at each name again and assess whether they would hold a place in a top six team , a mid table team , or struggling lower table team . Also notice that some players Swift , Ejaria , are listed in more than one position which makes the team look stronger . Then knock off the other number of players who will become injured , which is certain to happen . Now how do you foresee our season ?

Two points

We will bring in players over the next month
One or two Academy boys will hopefully step up

I do think it’s going to be a tough season ahead though and would be happy if we manage to avoid a relegation scrap.

[Notts Royal]

I know pre-season doesn't guarantee success for the season if you win them or failure if you lose your games but 2 defeats and a draw vs a lower league side in the last 3 friendlies won't give us good momentum to start the season.

Stoke will beat us comfortably next week. I just don't see where the goals and wins are going to come from in this squad.

How did Stoke get on during pre-season then? What if they carried on their poor end to last season too?