Dragon_man

They seemed pretty relaxed that we'll be top end of the bottom 6 rather than the in the bottom 3. Not sure I'm that optimistic, but its not an unreasonable assumption. It could easily go either way. Bus model unchanged. Buy young, sell on, stay up (I'll TM that as a slogan in the morning). For fans .. suck it up buttercups.

If I was JWP I'd have my transfer request on the desk in the morning. I can't see what he's hanging around for. Would get more money, be in a top 10 team with some ambition and the chance to develop further as a player by being alongside some real talent under a better manager. It's clear our only ambition is staying up. That's fine for 19 year olds looking to make a name for themselves and 33 year olds collecting a fat salary in their sunset years .... but for someone in the prime? If he hangs around much longer he'll miss his payday move and the chance of silverware.

1 water fountain for 3,000 fans in 30C heat. Very poor. Couldn't get near the bar to buy a bottle of water/beer at HT and at 2.45pm by the time got to the front of the queue that crappy new beer machine they have failed. Not sure why everyone raves about the ground. It looks good, but as a fan experience I thought it was poor.

If you were Che, you'd want to be gone now. If you can't displace AA on the opening day of the season you may as well go to a new club.

Should have got all the striker movements sorted before the beginning of the season. In an area we were poor in last season, we've lost two (Broja, Long), put one on the sidelines (Adams) and played the worst (Armstrong). Appalling. As August rolls on, we'll get desperate. Poor results and everyone will think twice about joining us. It'll be the usual unproven 19 year olds that join. Granted Broja's goals helped us stay up last season but I wouldn't roll that dice again and have confidence of staying up.

What you are trying to say, I believe very badly, is that the league table is meaningless. That I can agree with. However ... there is an official league table and even if some teams have not kicked a ball at that point in time, they have a place and some are/were above us.

Worryingly most of the teams I thought would be in the bottom 6 relegation battle with us do look to have improved in the closed season. I didn't expect to beat Spurs, but the manner of the defeat was alarming .... i,e no progression from last year. More worryingly ... once we started that losing last season we found no way out it. Couldn't stop the rot by simply battening down the hatches and grinding out draws. That says something about mentality. Unfortunately that seems the same. Where's the mindset change going to come from? it won't be from RH and JWP isn't a leader IMO either.

As we walked out alongside some spurs fans they were pissed off that their team gave up in the second half. They thought GD could be important at the end of the season and that they should have hammered us.

Long on the scoresheet in the 2-1 win

SR have balls of steel, I'll give them that. Wouldn't be trusting my £90m investment with RH. It's as much their balls up now, they had their chance having seen what happened last season. Plus a new manager now comes with all sorts of issues, new staff, will want new players, new tactics etc. Its a clusterf@&k. They had their chance in mid May.

Back at Waterloo ... anyone want Leicester and Wolves tickets ... This is going to be a tough season. Ni lessons learned. I'm surprised at SR's faith in RH. It could cost them very dearly. JWP and KWP will be wondering whether a relegation battle season ahead is better than being in a tip 10 team on more money. Defeat next Saturday and I expect their resolve to be tested.

Really? Take a poor team from last year, add some unproven (at this level) young talent and you think that can magic up to a top 12 position? It could of course, and we all hope it will, however most rational people would say expectation is bottom 6.

Thanks ... I take my earlier comment back!

Thanks. Guess there's hope! Shame the comms dept don't keep supporters updated.

Did I hear we are getting nice new big shiny ones this summer? Anyone know anything?

This is so spot on. For a variety of reasons, many of which you've outlined, I think next season is going to be very very difficult. Have our new owners got their heads around it? I'm not sure they have. It won't be long before premiership clubs cannot be run as a viable businesses. They will be be playthings for large SWFs, individuals and other undesirables. A proxy competitive war between the uber wealthy. Eg PSG. Dragan's £90m 'investment' could so easily turn into a loss. We should really praying for a buy-out!

That the thing. Errrrm shouldn't you be paying me to advertise you?

Never seen that offered. I would buy one if it didn't have the sponsor on it ... especially not a gambling one.

.... and why are there so many spare seats in sold out games? I get it that some season ticket holders can't be bothered, some people fall ill, some have emergencies etc but when I go to away games and see the likes of Liverpool at home, on TV, there isn't a spare seat to be seen. On Tuesday, there were tons of spare seats.

All too often. Up until the Villa game we looked like staying up was a cert. Then the usual early summer holiday. Its not good enough really and Ralph is partly to blame for that demise. It's certainly relegation form and crap for fans. I predict the same for next year, though feel less confident than a year ago.

I think the leak today says that Sport Republic's goal is to spend as little as possible this summer and stay in the premiership next year. While I am no fan of that plan (I'd like to se some real ambition), Ralph is probably the best manager for it. Changing to the other mentioned managers means cost ... payout for Ralph, bonus for the new manager, some squad disruption and comes with a high degree of risk. For better or worse, Ralph looks the safest, cheapest bet to stay in the premiership next year if we aren't raising our ambition.

Chris can't do maths ....

Think you have a valid point

About £2m per place I believe ... and yes that should be a motivating factor. I think the priority is £29-£30m gain on a few players.

Yet a few months ago everyone on here was lauding the CEO interview on the BBC when he explicitly said its not about where we finish in the table. Can't have it all ways. If you like the CEO's approach, cant complain about being 15th. Its clearly not a measure for the owners. Their measure is more about has enough talent developed to get a profit on sales. Not sure about that at the moment. There are a few KWP, Salisu, Moi and perhaps JWP. But someway to go before bumper pay days on them. We're safe, so I don't think results are of much concern to the club now.