| Are we good enough to finish top 2? 13:17 - Feb 17 with 5325 views | Chrisd |
Forget who we have in our squad, do we feel confident that we can genuinely finish in the automatic places? I like to think we can, but I’m also not wholly convinced by us either. In one way, I think great we aren’t playing well and getting results, that’s something to be encouraged about there’s more to come. Then, there are times we make it bloody hard work, look pedestrian in the way we play, we can be excruciatingly painful to watch at times. I appreciate that the club is under enormous pressure to get promoted due to the potential funds we will miss out on if we fail to get back to the EPL and everyone must be feeling that from the management down to the players. It must have an impact? I feel I’m quite 50/50 about our chances. Thoughts? |  |
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 09:36 - Feb 18 with 575 views | _CliveBaker_ |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 20:17 - Feb 17 by WinchBlue |
“Forget who we have in our squad, do we feel confident that we can genuinely finish in the automatic places?”
No idea, but I’m utterly engaged and enjoying every minute. Final 1/3 coming up!!! |
I think this is what people need to remember. The journey is better than the destination, last season was absolutely dog poo as a supporter. Now we’re in a league where anyone can beat anyone else, we’re a decent run of form away from being top, games in hand, in the ‘business end’ of the season. I think people just need to enjoy it and worry less about where we end up. It’s not the time for tension, just have some fun and make a bit of atmosphere. |  | | |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 10:03 - Feb 18 with 521 views | IPS_wich |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 09:36 - Feb 18 by _CliveBaker_ |
I think this is what people need to remember. The journey is better than the destination, last season was absolutely dog poo as a supporter. Now we’re in a league where anyone can beat anyone else, we’re a decent run of form away from being top, games in hand, in the ‘business end’ of the season. I think people just need to enjoy it and worry less about where we end up. It’s not the time for tension, just have some fun and make a bit of atmosphere. |
Absolutely this. If you sit back and read the comments on here and social media, then it's no wonder our fans now have the reputation with other sets of fans in this division about being entitled moaners.
- Our fans complain about being cr@p and that we're not going to be promoted. Other fans look at us, fourth in the table, two points off top if we win our games in hand, top of the form table since October - and wish they were as cr@p as us.
- Our fans complain about how poor our team is. Other fans look at us and see a squad that's had almost two hundred million spent on it and can only wonder what that must be like.
- Our fans complain about boring pedestrian football. Other fans see us second top of the goal scoring charts and with the least goals conceded and wish their football was so boring.
- Our fans complain about our rubbish away form. Other fans see we've won as many away as we've lost and have a positive goal difference in our away games and wonder what we're moaning about.
- Our fans complain that we haven't found a way to counter a low block. Other fans are grateful they play a low block as it gives them a chance of nicking a result here and there.
We've had three seasons in the last 20 years where we've been higher than fourth in the Championship in mid Feb. If you're miserable with this season then god knows how you got out of bed just 4-5 seasons ago. | | | |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 11:00 - Feb 18 with 480 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 09:25 - Feb 18 by SWLondonBlue93 |
I've no idea why but some people have started pushing a narrative that 23/24 was more of a fluke than an incredible achievement, which I find baffling.
The current team is more defensively sound, sure, but I'm yet to be convinced that they are any better prepared for the PL than last time, I just don't see how this team scores enough goals to survive. But if go up we would add plenty of players over the summer anyway, so it's a moot point. [Post edited 18 Feb 9:27]
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You can't underestimate the spirit and bottle that team had. It held off three seriously strong sides that had just been relegated from the PL and accumulated 96 points. A total that gets you promoted in any season. It's mental to me people would argue anything other than it was a phenomenal achievement by a very special team.
This current team is undoubtedly better individually (by quite a distance) but still has to prove that it has the intangibles the 23/24 team had. As I posted earlier in the thread, it needs to earn its corn over the next 16 games. [Post edited 18 Feb 11:01]
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| I'll get pelters for this on 12:15 - Feb 18 with 440 views | Dyland |
"Then, there are times we make it bloody hard work, look pedestrian in the way we play, we can be excruciatingly painful to watch at times."
Top two hinges on two things.
A) avoiding a calamitous injury list.
B) our fans getting behind the team, rather than moaning and groaning and abusing players at every mistake or slowing down play in a thick/entitled/coked-up/clueless/pathetic/impatient/toddleresque (delete as appropriate) manner.
Yeh, I'm being serious. It may well be us fans' fault. I honestly believe that.
Obviously I may be wrong. I often am :) |  |
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:00 - Feb 18 with 388 views | Vic |
I think we're good enough. I'm just not sure that we will though.
Joe's stats make compelling reading, but with our away form still so sketchy I can't quite bring myself to have any level of expectation yet. |  |
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:12 - Feb 18 with 374 views | Vic |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 16:19 - Feb 17 by Wright1 |
There's a lot of this sentiment around and i'm not sure I fully agree with it.
Yes on the surface this is an expensively assembled squad for the level... but Coventry and Borough will have spent more in the seasons prior to our promotion to the PL and over a prolonged period of time to build up Championship squads. In 23/24 and 22/23 our net spend was about £6m. So we were playing catch up big time.
Of course we invested heavily last season but come this summer we lost our 2 best attackers and 2 of our biggest outlays from the previous summer in Delap and Hutchinson. We also lost key players on free transfers (a PL right back in Tuanzebe, our captain in Morsy and a reliable CB in Burgess). After all of that Transfermarkt still has us making a £30m net profit in the summer. |
My AI bot says that both Boro & Coventry have spent about £55m on players since the 2020/21 season.
That' a lot, lot less than us - but because we were playing catch up I think we've been the victiom of a0 buying more players at a time when transfer fees have gone up considerably & b) paid over the odds on several players because we needed to get bodies in through the door. | |
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:31 - Feb 18 with 362 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:12 - Feb 18 by Vic |
My AI bot says that both Boro & Coventry have spent about £55m on players since the 2020/21 season.
That' a lot, lot less than us - but because we were playing catch up I think we've been the victiom of a0 buying more players at a time when transfer fees have gone up considerably & b) paid over the odds on several players because we needed to get bodies in through the door. |
Although there is some value in looking at what was paid for players, imo the metric is too narrow. It doesn't as you say account for parachute clubs often having to pay a premium to get some players, and neither does it look at how players' value increases (or decreases) as they develop.
I'd suggest that a better metric is the estimated value of the squad. This is clearly less definitive, since transfer fees are generally easier to gauge / estimate accurately than current player valuation. However, given the same methods are used to estimate all teams, although the exact figure may be out, the relative value between clubs is likely to be in the right ballpark.
The estimated squad values as of now are :
Ipswich Town - £172M
Coventry City - £143M
Southampton FC - £137M
Leicester City - £124M
Sheffield United - £114M
Norwich City - £99M
Birmingham City - £92M
Middlesbrough FC - £92M
So yes, we're top of that list, but I suspect some of the others will surprise many people. [Post edited 18 Feb 13:38]
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:43 - Feb 18 with 348 views | Tambu |
I would think that if Jaden and Jack continue to be able to save us, yes. If we are looking for goals from elsewhere, No. |  | | |
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:47 - Feb 18 with 344 views | billlm |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:00 - Feb 18 by Vic |
I think we're good enough. I'm just not sure that we will though.
Joe's stats make compelling reading, but with our away form still so sketchy I can't quite bring myself to have any level of expectation yet. |
His stats especially compared to Coventry isn't particularly compelling,
Can't look back while writing but if we were 0.03 better than them were not going to overtake by may, [Post edited 18 Feb 13:48]
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| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 14:16 - Feb 18 with 324 views | Bluesky |
Good enough to go up. Definitely not good enough to stay there. |  | | |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 14:34 - Feb 18 with 307 views | Wright1 |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 13:12 - Feb 18 by Vic |
My AI bot says that both Boro & Coventry have spent about £55m on players since the 2020/21 season.
That' a lot, lot less than us - but because we were playing catch up I think we've been the victiom of a0 buying more players at a time when transfer fees have gone up considerably & b) paid over the odds on several players because we needed to get bodies in through the door. |
Transfermarkt has Coventry down as spending just under €75m on players in the last 3 years. Like us they have had some significant sales to help offset it, but still. | | | |
| POTS thus far ba on 15:54 - Feb 18 with 279 views | Dyland |
| Are we good enough to finish top 2? on 10:03 - Feb 18 by IPS_wich |
Absolutely this. If you sit back and read the comments on here and social media, then it's no wonder our fans now have the reputation with other sets of fans in this division about being entitled moaners.
- Our fans complain about being cr@p and that we're not going to be promoted. Other fans look at us, fourth in the table, two points off top if we win our games in hand, top of the form table since October - and wish they were as cr@p as us.
- Our fans complain about how poor our team is. Other fans look at us and see a squad that's had almost two hundred million spent on it and can only wonder what that must be like.
- Our fans complain about boring pedestrian football. Other fans see us second top of the goal scoring charts and with the least goals conceded and wish their football was so boring.
- Our fans complain about our rubbish away form. Other fans see we've won as many away as we've lost and have a positive goal difference in our away games and wonder what we're moaning about.
- Our fans complain that we haven't found a way to counter a low block. Other fans are grateful they play a low block as it gives them a chance of nicking a result here and there.
We've had three seasons in the last 20 years where we've been higher than fourth in the Championship in mid Feb. If you're miserable with this season then god knows how you got out of bed just 4-5 seasons ago. |
nfft | |
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| I'll get pelters for this on 16:07 - Feb 18 with 255 views | Herbivore |
| I'll get pelters for this on 12:15 - Feb 18 by Dyland |
"Then, there are times we make it bloody hard work, look pedestrian in the way we play, we can be excruciatingly painful to watch at times."
Top two hinges on two things.
A) avoiding a calamitous injury list.
B) our fans getting behind the team, rather than moaning and groaning and abusing players at every mistake or slowing down play in a thick/entitled/coked-up/clueless/pathetic/impatient/toddleresque (delete as appropriate) manner.
Yeh, I'm being serious. It may well be us fans' fault. I honestly believe that.
Obviously I may be wrong. I often am :) |
The atmosphere at PR has been absolute dogshit for most of the season. So many fans not there to get behind the team. Absolute weapons the lot of them. |  |
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