Dragon_man

I said 'stay up' not finish 8th.

Our first 5 games would indicate that we'll stay up without further additions.

Just spoke to the ticket office. A load were sent out late last week and recent purchases are being sent out tomorrow. If they don't arrive by Friday, then you should ring the ticket office and then a duplicate ticket will be available for collection at the wolves ticket office.

ROFL ... Leicester were pants. For once we lucked out and got a fixture against them while they are in turmoil. I believe any Prem side would have beaten them on Saturday. It's good that we did (eventually), but its no barometer of a game. Looks like Utd have found a team and rhythm that works. Unfortunately they will be going into Saturday grinning. Brentford got them at the right time last week and capitalised on it. For me, Wolves away, Brentford home and Villa away are the key indicators.

I thought the same as the OP. Nothing is decided in August of course but I have been impressed by the quality of football by teams I expected to be in the bottom third come end of season. Just look at yesterday, Leeds, Newcastle and Brighton looked good. Chelsea, Man Utd and the likes will come good and get into the top 6 or so. It does feel different to me this year, there's no early signs of 3 whipping boys and quality does seem a step up. The only only team I feel that is in real dire straits is Leicester. Very poor against us, just no spark and plenty of player issues. If their top three go, they won't get quality replacements in in time and the rest of the squad looks uninspiring. Everton aren't far behind in terms of problems. Fulham, Forest and Bournemouth have looked OK and very capable of mixing it with the established PL teams.

Just got back, great away day experience. New signings looked the part. Djenepo is reborn. Mo and AA continue to be ineffective and aren't rising the challenge. Che put it it about a bit and got his rewards. Leicester fans deserted on 85mins after the second goal. Can't understand that ... should have supported their team to go for an equaliser. They've got issues there! Well deserved win, though much steerner tests will come. I think any team would have taken Leicester today.

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.