CB Fry

Well, they won L1 and we didn't, so it's a fair point. Also don't think Norwich had the funds to spend £2m and a four year contract on a striker to use for only six months and never play again. After our respective first seasons back in the Prem things diverge but fortunately no one in m-board history has ever claimed Norwich have had a comparable Prem record to us, so that's all right then.

I think we know what the clubs true aims are already. And they don't involve spun king dopey money around chasing top four. Top four, if we achieve it, will be done our way. We won't be spending much in January, whether we're third, fourth, eighth or fourteenth. And I, for one, am more than happy with that.

It's not an opinion stated as fact. It's just an opinion. "Give opinions supported by evidence", laughable. It's Match of the Day not a paper in the bloody Lancet.

It is our best chance of success. People saying "wait for the FA Cup" are ridiculous as we can be in the semis of this before we kick a ball in the FA Cup, that's two legs away from Wembley. I will be gutted if we go out, but I doubt RK will treat the cups with the contempt that Argentine did. We'll be giving it a go.

What? I'm not certain we'll lose and haven't said we will lose. What are you on about?

9 points from 10 is "the level of results needed for 5th/6th"? Crystal Palace and Leicester fans will be delighted - they've got 9 from 9 so will be planning next year's Europa League away days already. NickG, your "stats and logic" truly are beyond me.

Will depend on how we lose and the team put out. And, as has been explained, this is a completely different set of circumstances to the Sunderland FA Cup game. I know it won't impact your usual "everyone is a hypocrite" schtick so not sure why I or anyone else is bothering in pointing out the differences. Enjoy spending the next 48 hours making the same point over and over again.

Yeah, your "stats and logic" are beyond me. This coming from the man who spent all of last season desperately trying to make out he didn't say something even when people requoted the exact quote back to him. What do you think our "realistic aim" is this season? Tell me what it is today and don't worry you can pretend you never said it tomorrow.

It's perfectly possible, 6th certainly although it gets exponentially more difficult to move up to 5th and then 4th. In the same way that it takes two teams to make an 8-0 scoreline - one to be great, the other to be appalling - we will likely need a meltdown or two elsewhere for us to sneak into fourth. Newcastle finishing fifth was helped in no small measure by the worst Chelsea league campaign in the Abramovic era. To finish sixth we just need a wobbly season from someone else and Spurs, Liverpool and Everton all look capable of obliging.

So, just so we're clear, you can start threads creating some convoluted "alternative" table with a fabricated "real" points total. That's fine for you to do that. But someone pointing out we haven't played many "big" teams, and when we have we've lost, is someone who doesn't understand how leagues work and has no perspective. Okay then.

This is based on what exactly? Please don't say Ruud Gullit saying we have some tough games coming up last night.

Because we could secure a spot in the semi finals of a major trophy before we kick a single ball in the FA Cup. And we might draw Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup third round.

I think he people that think that can be measured on the scale from pretty much no one all the way to no one.

The zero-sentiment business model got Premier League SFC to achieve commercial revenues lower than second tier Watford. That is a pretty special feat, granted.

Absolutely this. In most cases over the last decade or so the League Cup final has been decided by at least one top four contender team. So it shows a significant lack of understanding that winning the league cup is precisely what teams at that level tend to do. The league-only chaps really don't have a grasp on the notion of true ambition. Join us and let's go for a trophy.

Ham hand. All day long.

Since when does finishing seventh constitute "making history" anyway? Anyone going to rattle off those legendary seventh placed teams from down the ages?

If "we are all a bunch of tw ats" is what passes for an "accurate assessment" for you then I think you are easily satisfied. You might want to read VFTT's for a far more accurate assessment of what actually happened.

The pubs are open, then.

In summary you spent the summer grizzling like a toddler.

So basically, what you're saying is "please say we'll win Lawro. Please say we'll win. Please Lawro. Please just say we'll win. Please. Lawro, please."

Delighted to be utterly clueless.

No-one said it is contentious. Just pretty pointless. No one thinks we are "only there because of fixtures". No one at all. What is true is our fixtures have been pretty kind so far. We're third, it's brilliant. It's unlikely we will be third come May, not least because we have some tough fixtures coming up and we probably won't maintain this form (almost title winning form) all season. But it is currently looking very good for us to beat in points or position what we did last season. Happy days. That's a perfectly valid stance to take and it isn't down to you to decide that opinion can't be expressed on this thread.

Has it really though? It's not like we have ever been specialists at beating the big teams, either. We've been, at best, a mid table Prem team. Doing what mid table Prem teams do. Win some you expect to, lose some you expect to, and in the middle win and lose some you don't expect to. Not really rocket science. As it stands this season we have done very well, with a comparatively easy set of games. We're third. Let's enjoy it without beating ourselves up about making up completely fictional league tables. The discussion about the word "tie" is the best bit of this thread.