S-Clarke

They're warming up for the predictable Adkins out threads in October and September, because I can promise you certain people will find it hard to adjust after winning every week, they won't realise that it's because we're up against world class players. The journey we've been on is amazing, but I HOPE people have some perspective at the start of next season and understand exactly where we've come from.

Link?

To be honest, it's an horrific start if we were looking to get points on the board early - but the way people are now saying we're struggle is odd, seeing as we were always going to have to play these teams at some point. To be honest, I'd rather we get those away games at City, Man Ure and Arsenal out of the way in the first month. Just imagine if our fixture list was turned upside down and our-run in is what our start is. I would be much more nervous about that.

Probably similar to what we paid for Rodriguez to be honest, there was a large sum of money set aside to get a ''big name'' striker - it's been set aside for the last 12 months it seems.

Can you turn those wages down though? Isn't it some sort of automatic clause that gets activated once the target is achieved? It's similar I guess to a player playing 10 games..and then gets an automatic renewall. It was probably all written into his contract when he signed in L1 and at that point, we probably though he'd be a first choice for us in time - and i imagine he fancied his chance too, but he's been a huge flop - let's be honest. I'm glad he didn't cost too much.

Babel clearly has talent if used in the right way, and played regularly - whcih he never really was at Liverpool, was always a bit-part player and could never get any consistency. I always thought that he'd do well at a smaller/middle premier league club where he would be a ''big fish''. Interesting if it happens.

I doubt it's as easy as that. We either want too much $$$ for a transfer fee, and that's putting clubs off, or we're unwilling to pay enough towards his weekly wage so a small club can take him on loan. Either way, it sounds as if we're being a tad awkward and standing our ground from a financial position.

I imagine this is because his wage has bumped up a significant amount due to our promotion, and this has made his wage demands out of reach for the clubs who were interested - and I imagine (from the tone of that) we're not willing to subsidize enough % to allow a club to take him.

Things are light years ahead since the last time we were in there. If we got promoted and kept every the same (i.e training ground etc) We'd be light years behind most clubs in teh PL, all we're doing is bringing things up to what is now the standard. Lots has changed in 7 years.

Couple of weeks I think.

More fool QPR imo. We need pace in our team, the last thing we need to do as add aging/slow premier league players just because they have 'experience' in the PL.

What a weird forum this has turned into today. It's like some of the posters didn't realise we have to play Man Utd, City, Chelsa etc - and today has confirmed that we do have to play them!!!!! Therefore, we are going to struggle.......well I never.! The last 3 years have been great, but next year will be totally different. We will not win much, we will get beaten heavily on occasions and we will go on long-runs without a win. That's the nature of it. Even Swansea and Norwich who had decent seasons last year had spells like above, so I'll be interested to see how certain people react to us not winning every week. Adkins ''Out of his depth'' by September? Wouldn't put it passed some.

They won't be cheap.

As it stands, we'll give our all, but we'll come up short against the top 6-8 teams in this league. The real matches are those against the teams around us (wigan/wba/reading/stoke) - those are the games that will decide how we do next year, so don't read anything into the Man Utd/Arsenal or Man City games.

Wouldn't it be typical for us to go and beat City, and suprise the footballing world, and then lose at home to Wigan the following weekend!

That is an horrific start, but how nice is to to see us against those teams again? TBH Promoted teams could do with picking up points early....we haven't got much chance of that. We could be rooted to the bottom after the few few weeks going by that opening set!

They won't go straight back down, they'll be comfortable mid-table. I don't think they'll ever be in any real trouble. They've agreed terms with Mohamed Diame who will be an excellent addition for them.

Hammond and Kelvin will remain the 2 main captains, pretty much guaranteed. You'll then see Fonte get the armband on the pitch in the games Hammond doesn't play, and he will play a hell of a lot more than people are speculating.

I remember saying the same about the Championship last year, and on paper it should have been stronger than it was. There are so many managerial changes this year, and not everyone will be a success. You've also got Stoke who I believe will be sucked into the mire this year as they have spent the last 18 months treading water and not really going anywhere, which is pretty dangerous. Villa did the same in previous seasons and were dragged right into it last year for that very reason. Wigan, who knows? They should have been relegated last year, and the year before, but for some reason they come alive at the end of the season and players find an extra %. Pretty similar to us in the 90's.

This thread is about Barnard, not Tadanari Lee.

2 blokes who returned their season tickets, minutes after buying them, because they found out they had to pay to park. Then they went to the echo to blab and try to sound like superfans, when in all honesty they look like complete and utter pillocks.

Brainless comment. When exactly did he have the opportunity to prove he was a decent championship striker? Exactly. If fit and given a run in the team he will score goals in the Championship, not a doubt about it.

Pretty certain it was said in jest...

Don't think anyone said Cork was awful? 99% said he was an excellent signing and a 'coup.'

I think Morgan will represent France at some point. He might not seem to do much in some peoples eyes, but in my opinion, this is more of a failure in how english fans perceive how football should be played. If a player doesn't collect the ball and burst forward, or launch it quickly into the box, score lots of goals etc then they're ineffective. Morgan is exactly the type of player that would slot in the spanish team (similar type of player to busquets in many ways), simply because he sets the tempo, looks after the ball and doesn't give it away. You can't really moan about players like that!