Some will argue our season finished on Christmas day when we reached the lofty heights in a fake forth place.
Since Christmas we have only been able to muster eight points in 84 days and form has fallen to one that mirrors relegation struggling Leicester and QPR.
We have nine games remaining to savage something from this season but a dream of a place in Europe is long gone. As the saying goes there are no easy games in the Premier League.
We face Sunderland with a new manager one place above relegation this Saturday. We also play Sunderland’s fellow relegation strugglers Burnley, Leicester City, Aston Villa and QPR in the next few weeks. These teams are desperate to stay in the Premier League to guarantee the minimum revenue £60 million and these will not be easy games, they will not roll over.
It seems unlikely we can do the double over Man City with the home win against them earlier this season a distance memory.
That just leaves Everton, Stoke and Newcastle, teams unlikely to roll over to give us easy wins.
So we almost mathematically safe on 39 points but each league position will earn us another £1.2m. We finished 13th last season earning is £10.8m in merit payments while a current 10th place will earn £13.2m.
I believe we have lost any momentum and the manager and the players have little to play for. I see us scoring no more than nine points averaging Sam Allardyce’s famous one point per game.
Wins maybe against Burnley and QPR, draws possible against Sunderland, Villa and Leicester and possible losses against Manchester City, Everton, Stoke and Newcastle
With 27 points on offer between now and the end of the season how many points do you think we can add to our 39 point tally so far? Fill in our poll https://www.claretandhugh.info/poll-how-many-points-can-irons-win/
Stranger things have happened. But not, I think, this time.
Yes, I believe BFS will persist with the likes of O’Brien, Nolan and Jarvis so he can finish as high as possible in the table in the hope he keeps his job. I think this will be what happens. However the fans want to see the youngsters now – Poyet holding in midfield, Burke and Oxford given a chance in defence. Kouyate back in midfield. Will we see it no – this is the one reason why we should put him on gardening leave now until the end of the season – it is the logical and correct decision but again the owners loyalty to someone who has continued to make poor decisions is incredible.
Spot on John,I think they don’t want to pay Allardyce compensation for early termination.He’s overpaid by miles as it is.Yes I’m all for giving the youth a go before they become disillusioned and leave.
Hugh, you are right, the momentum is over. Now I honestly think we can lose against anyone; it will not happen, but the future isn’t positive.
How was it a fake fourth place at christmas.If the table showed us in fourth then we were in fourth.Or was it a fake table as well.Maybe Del Boy & Uncle Albert were selling fake tables outside the ground 😉
ahahahah…
We played with real faith in our ability and the formation,then the BFS show staring KN and AC hit the eastend,
We were worth are 4th place on merit,
If a new manager took over now we would grow again the same as WBA and Palace which would prove the majority right.
BFS OUT
The saddest thing is, that everyone of those games would be winnable if we could recover the form we showed up until Christmas.
And, as the saying goes, a manager can claim the glory when things are going well, then he has to bear the blame when they are not
Yeah but he vanishes when things are tricky,he sends out his fall guy MacDonald.But if we hammer Sunderland saturday he will be there again doing interviews puffing his chest out like a turkey with constipation 😉
The fat man should leave asap, get a new manager in so he can have a look at the current squad before the summer transfer season starts. Its also a good time to start playing the young talent and put out to pasture the players who will not be with us next season cuz we will not go down and we should start thinking about next season NOW
I think we will get 12 points and finish on 51 but you never know if we beat Sunderland and have a bit of luck we could get up to 55. Bearing in mind how many injuries we have I would say if we beat Sunderland then after that SA should use the games to start blooding the young players not as substitutes but wherever possible from the start. Reece Burke, Reece Oxford, Diego Poyet etc to name a few,