SaintTex

12th/13th sounds about right. I would argue that Hughes took Stoke teams with less talent to Top 10 finishes, but then again the league is not the same as it was 5 years ago. The short of it is : We have a competent manager and an average squad. Is Hughes a 9 points better manager than Pelligrino? I'd argue, he is. Instead of 36, we get 45.

This. I have seen enough of Sims to think he could make an PL impact if he was given regular playing time. To me, it's his time in the PL now or forever be on loan for the next 3 years. re: Sam Gallagher

At the end of the match, they showed briefly Lukaku giving Yoshida a very long hug on the pitch and Lukaku appeared to be giving him words of praise/encouragement. Obviously some respect there. Yoshida has only gotten better in the past few years, and has cut down on the mental lapses he displayed 3, 4 years ago. So, that is what the people tend to fixate on here. I can't think of one howler he committed last year.

nice get this business done early, so he can get integrated into and comfortable with the the club by the first match in August.

If Shaqiri goes to Liverpool his usual minutes will be cut in half. watch him bloat up on the bench.

This so much. I am nourished by Scouser tears.

have. to. keep. If you have a manager who puts him in positions/schemes that play to his strengths, good things will happen. I think Mark Hughes recognizes that. I hope he does anyway.

league, cup and playoff stats for Club Brugge 1,227 minutes | 25 appearances (12 starts, 13 sub) | goals 1 | assists 2 was hoping he would have had more of an impact.

West Brom stayed up on 36 points just a few years ago. funnily enough, Gabbi's goal didn't keep us up. If we had drawn 0-0 with Swansea on Tuesday, and the results had been same this Sunday, we would have stayed up with 34 points.

How may points lost in stoppage time this year? Off the top of my head I can think of 6 points City (a) 1 point Watford 2 points Everton 2 points City (h) 1 point I am sure I am not remembering others.

What's nice is that our fate is really in our hands. win or draw against Everton, a win against Swansea was going to have to occur to feel safe. I saw these weekend results with Brighton and West Brom. I don't buy that Huddersfield is going to stay on 35 points.

We've had good managers, too, who have challenged for European places. And guess what? Just like the players, the left for more money and prestige. the system is set up so clubs like us cannot have nice things for very long, even when we put all in the effort to find them. is Burnley the new Southampton? how long will it last? how long can it last before the system spits them up and chews them out? Would it shock anyone to see Burley in a relegation scrap two years from now? Nope. Now, you cant say the same for the a certain 6 clubs that don't have to be named on here. Its not even remotely possible. what it boils down to is the remaining 14 clubs in the League are interchangable, might as well be nameless, placeholders for the folly of the top 6. We are cat toys.

As long as three of those points come from beating Swansea. Oh and Swansea must lose to Bournemouth next week. Hud or Swansea getting any points in the next 2 games put us in a world of hurt.

indicators? indicators from 2017, 16, 15, and 14 say we should be 7th place right now.

if these 3 results happen we secure 17th place before the last Sunday match and our City game won't matter Southampton Draws at Everton Swansea loses against Bournemouth Southampton Wins at Swansea

i know it's painfully obvious, but reading this thread just confirms it. 35 matches into the season, no one, not Pelligrino, not Hughes or Les or Ralph, not Joe Fan, nor SaintTex, etc. can say with any certainty who our best 11 are.

I will continue to hope and say it is not over, as long as we stay ahead of Stoke and find ourselves 3 points or less from Swansea on May 8th. Swansea remaining (likely?) City L Chelsea L Bournemouth D Southampton (08-05-2018) Stoke If the next 3 Swansea matches go the way as above, they would have 34 points..we would need 2 points in our next 2 matches to be within 3 points of Swansea for the game. This assumes Stoke stays behind us. OK, there is your optimism. Want to see pessimism? See below. -- I can hardly allow myself to to think of this awful scenario..... We scratch and claw our way to find ourselves in 17th place after beating Swansea on the penultimate weekend. Then, on the final weekend we lose to ManCity and the Stoke/Swansea winner drops us to 18th.

Actually, currently we are 15th best in FOR GOALS and 13th best in AWAY goals.

I dont agree that City is a write off. They will have won the title, are out of the CL and the World Cup looming. Those players are going to want their break. Most players will have checked out. In an interview Sunday even DeBruyne mused the intensity would switch off, said he doubted there would be a huge push to get to 100 points. a highly motivated Saints team against an uninterested City team is likely.

Did you hear that we signed VVD to a 6 year contract 2 years ago?

i am going to force myself to be optimistic, but let's say we beat Swansea Swansea has 33 points with 4 games left: City L Chelsea L Bournemouth D Stoke W finishes with 37 points Saints have 31 points with 4 games left: Leicester L Bournemouth W Everton W City D finishes with 38 points (or even lose to City and win on possible goal differential at 37 points) --- the other optimistic scenario is Huddlesfield loses their remaining 4 matches (City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Everton) & ends with 35 points we end up Leicester L Swansea W Bournemouth W Everton D City L and Saints end up with 35 points and win on goal differential. again, these are purely optimistic, but not entirely implausible scenarios. of course this is also all predicated on Stoke continuing to lose.

Let's not forget Lovren. For all the stick he gets, he is better than the 5 CBs we currently have.

hey, look at me, look at me!!! really, everyone look at me!! bugger, even in this terrible run, it's all about you. You couldn't care less about this club.

no kidding.. 1 goal in the last 5 league games. and this was supposed to be our easy run.

Was just about to post this after reading through the thread. I personally miss Pelle more than anyone that has left in the last 5 years. The sheer joy he had when he would score, his apparent love for the team and his teammates. i think our struggles can be tied to him leaving more than any other player that has left. Yeah, he was likely on the downside of his career when he left, but there still two really good more years there.