449 thoughts on “Game on! Norwich City v Newcatle United

  1. Southampton can be beaten. They lost 2-0 to Bournemouth recently. All we have to do is play as well as Bournemouth in that match. Simple.

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  2. So Gino refuses to say if he has a clause in his contact if toon go down,so I guess he has then

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  3. Mirror are reporting that Rafa has told the players he will be going with experience to keep us up. Apparently Mitro, Aarons, Lascelles and Perez are players who will be overlooked…

    Surely Mitro is a certain starter after scoring 3 in the last two?

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  4. Stuart79:
    Mirror are reporting that Rafa has told the players he will be going with experience to keep us up.Apparently Mitro, Aarons, Lascelles and Perez are players who will be overlooked…

    Surely Mitro is a certain starter after scoring 3 in the last two?

    Stu, I thought he had more sense than that, Mitro has to start and DeJong and I would say Lascelles too for that matter.

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  5. Matters not anyway, there may be 21 points to play for but it may as well be none for the way we have performed all season.

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  6. kimtoon:
    Matters not anyway, there may be 21 points to play for but it may as well be none for the way we have performed all season.

    KIM Ime not expecting a Leicester type take off mate Ime afraid

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  7. Anyone seen the upturn in form Rotherham have had recently? Bleeding Leicester like!

    Hope for us all…

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  8. Stuart. Re Rotherham revival. That’s why I recently said we should have gone for Warnock as a short term fix. Whatever you think of Warnock he is a bit of a Houdini.

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  9. gotta love Rafa’s positivity.
    does that make him as deluded as the rest of us?
    It’s still mathematically possible lol and would surely be the greatest escape of all time.
    Trouble is we need other teams around and above us to be dropping and that’s just not happening this season.
    I’ve said all along we are going down and I simply can’t see Rafa doing anything about it.
    Nothing has changed in any of the performances to give us a scrap of hope to cling on to.
    I also fail to see how this squad of no hopers could ever get us up again the following season.
    Time to get used to life in the lower leagues me thinks.
    Maybe in time we will find some players who WANT to play and fight for the shirt and restore some pride back into the club.
    The club is a disgrace and has been ever since fatty took over. Rotten from top to bottom.
    🙁

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  10. ‘please stick with us’???? wtf does he think the fans have been doing ALL season like ?
    This smacks of the club panicking that the fans are going to turn on them.
    ‘sack the board’ ‘get out of our club’ ‘we’re **** and we’re sick of it’ etc.
    particularly if we get another hiding on saturday.
    here’s an idea mitro, stfu and get on with it. The fans turn up week in week out, unlike 90% of the players. Try having a go at them instead.

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  11. @Kim we should never of sold Abeid.

    there was no need. he was a mixture of Shelvey (good passer) and Anita (defensive mid)
    we sold him for no reason when he could of played in Shelvey’s role

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  12. we are relying on other teams to mess up. timings all wrong. we’ve been **** for ages with no sign of recovery while Norwich and S’land have been consolidating.

    Our form suggests a hiding on Sat.
    Rafa is starting to sound deluded. He should also be questioning his team selection v Norwich.

    Tiote, Taylor, Gini and Sissoko have no place in our team.

    Looking at the team that started v norwich, how many can you say care? a couple?

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  13. I see we have released our accounts for last year. Made a profit of £32m and had a whopping £48.2m in the bank!!!

    Unfortunately we acted like misers for 4 years in order to get in this position which hit us hard!

    Oh to have had somebody on charge who really knew how to spend money on players and not waste it all!

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  14. Listened to some of the Championship commentaries last night. Tough division. This team would never get out of it. Lat time we had a strong physical team with loads of fight. Nolan, Barton, Enrique, Jonas, Raylor, Smith, Carroll even Shola and Harper. Totally dominated and bullied teams most games and bullied was the key word.

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  15. So Rafa has more or else told Tiote he’s not good enough so I would think he won’t get another game,imo he hasn’t been good enough for two seasons and should have been sold on,we had a chance to move him on this year but sackless SM blocked it

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  16. Hope he’s had words with the talentless Cisse too. 4 years of pure rubbish masquerading as a footballer. Worst player we’ve ever had!

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  17. Thanks Georgio 🙄 I totally agree. Been calling him a lemon for years now.
    Absolutely effing hopeless.
    He could score freak worldy goals from nothing, but was absolutely awful at scoring simple goals and tap ins. And ever since that first half season when he scored 14 goals or whatever it was, he has been unbelievably SHYTE. Not to dissimilar to the rest of the squad.

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  18. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the game on Saturday but Rafa says if we perform like we did in the 2nd half we can beat a lot of teams in the PL. Is that true? Did we play well in the 2nd half, or is he talking the usual rubbish to give the players confidence?

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  19. We need a mass clearout at the end of the season, but I’m not really sure how and if that is possible. The club needs rebuilding from top to bottom, but I have zero faith it will happen.

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  20. Stuart – I think what he really means is if we play as badly as we did in the 1st half, then we have no chance of staying up. 😉
    as for beating a lot of teams ❓ 😆 😆 😆 😳

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  21. Rafa’s problem is that he has a depleted squad to play with and those that he has are no where near good enough to do the job required. The team practically picks itself every week.
    He is rapidly learning how totally and utterly shyte most of the squad is.
    I would be surprised if we win another match this season if I’m honest.
    No fight
    no talent
    no skill
    no desire
    no common sense
    no unity
    no leaders
    no team spirit
    no hope
    nothing
    just a complete and utter shambles in every department

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  22. Stuart hope you enjoy the game at Southampton on Saturday. The last time I watched at game there it was a 2-2 draw when we mathematically lost our champions league place. I hope you bring better luck than me.

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  23. STUART the only thing I would say about second half is a Norwich player handled the ball not once but twice on the way to scoring their winner,it should not have stood,people say things don’t go for you when your down there it did for them “twice”

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  24. theres no way we’ll come back up next season, far too much work to be done behind the scenes first, never-mind rebuilding the squad.

    If I had the chance to come back up straight away with Fatty or 3-4 years and a new owner, I’d choose the latter.

    Mike will not change. there is no hope for us under him

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  25. v Norwich, we looked good in the 2nd half due to similar circumstance v Scum. They sat back a little.
    Mitro made a big difference 2nd half, unfortunately, again, so did our defence.

    3 pts lost due to Mitro not starting. I said if Mitro and Cisse start, we cold win. I still believe that would of happened.

    who mentioned S Bruce.. I could see that happening under Mike

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  26. would a point be any good though Stuart ❓
    its wins we need, probably 4 from 7.

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  27. It’s hard to forecast anything on results as its no longer in our hands,we could win four games and still be miles away

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  28. Under the circumstances a point might not be enough but I am looking at it that a point away from home and wins against Swansea, Palace and Villa will give us 10 points and 35 points in total without getting anything from Man city and Spurs at home or Liverpool away.

    However currently I would take it going to the last game of the season and us needing to beat Spurs to guarantee us stay to up. Unfortunately I think the last game of the season will just be a couldron of hate with a poisionous atmosphere where the players and the board get both barrels from the supporters. 😡

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  29. Ice, Agree and about that handball too mate, he was playing basketball with it in the build up. It’s infuriating when linesman and refs miss stuff like that in such an important game. Imagine we dropped by 1 point difference. Massive 3 points for Norwich that was but on our second half performance we deserved a point at least. He should not of dropped Mitro imo, he terrified their back line when he came on.

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  30. Stuart79:
    Under the circumstances a point might not be enough but I am looking at it that a point away from home and wins against Swansea, Palace and Villa will give us 10 points and 35 points in total without getting anything from Man city and Spurs at home or Liverpool away.

    However currently I would take it going to the last game of the season and us needing to beat Spurs to guarantee us stay to up.Unfortunately I think the last game of the season will just be a couldron of hate with a poisionous atmosphere where the players and the board get both barrels from the supporters.

    And they’d have no reason to complain if it was, the fans have been very badly let down this season. Forget the coaches, it’s the players need held account here. The fact we have a world class coach who is still struggling to get a consistent tune out of this lot speaks volumes and it’s exactly what I was saying all season long.

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  31. To be fair, Kim, I really don’t think any coach has enough time in 10 games. I am pretty sure we wouldn’t have been relegated if Rafa had all season with the players.

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  32. Looking at the financial results it looks like Charnley did his job. I know this is controversial but I think it is Carr’s power grab that put us where we are. I have said it before but it bears repeating. McClaren was Carr’s man and they put Carver in place as a seat warmer hoping they would get him in the summer. Then they released the full bank account in the summer to Carr and what did he do with it – buy players he liked regardless of position and form. Thauvin was the big mistake as we could got BOTH a left back AND a central defender for that price. The others I think will come good, even Gini because I think he is only lacking confidence, not talent.

    Charnley’s big mistake was taking too long to sack McClaren, but that meant a departure from Carr and I doubt old Lee had faith in his own football knowledge to make a clean break. Thus the January window with 2 players McClaren wanted and Saivet from Mondial who Carr had done business with a plenty. Doumbia must have been a call from an Agent and a last free roll of the dice.

    The problem Charnley had was that Ashley had put his faith in Carr and there were no other football people to turn to as MCClaren had accepted he was only head coach and therefore all recruitment decisions were Carr’s.

    Fast forward and we are very likely relegated and the financial position they painstakingly built will go up in smoke. Unlike some, I think we will get decent money for our summer buys if they choose to leave. Krul and Sissoko will bring in some cash as well and Tiote and Cisse are out of the door, relegation or not.

    So with the parachute payment and some wheeling and dealing we should be OK for a push for a fast return. Fail and we are fcked.

    The main problem will be that we do not have a Manager or a Scout/DoF and possibly not an MD if Ashley wants to clear the decks.

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  33. £80m blown on a squad where 50% of the players don’t give a stuff where we end up. 👿

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  34. Stuart79:
    To be fair, Kim, I really don’t think any coach has enough time in 10 games.I am pretty sure we wouldn’t have been relegated if Rafa had all season with the players.

    Stu, if we’d had Rafa from the start we’d have different players imo, he would never of sanctioned a fair few of our current squad.

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  35. Eric, I agree about Charnley and Carr. Charnley delivered good financial results which was probably his remit. Carr sqandered the cash!

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  36. That’s true, Kim. We would have had at least one centre half and a left back. But even if Rafa had come in in January we would have been ok I reckon.

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  37. Think about it, if we have no management team then who will be buying and selling in the summer. Plus there are the Euros. We are in a very difficult position here if we get relegated.

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  38. Stu, Yeah cause he would of had cash to spend and he would of shipped out the ***** too I reckon. Could you in a million years see Rafa extend Colo’s contract or be happy to go with Saylor if better were available ?

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  39. No, Kim I couldn’t. It was weak McClaren that agreed to do it and then said it was the clubs best bit of business of the summer!!!! 😯

    Eric – We will be in a right mess because of the club can’t achieve the simple ambition of staying up with £100m spent over two season what chance when we are struggling for money in the Championship? Not to mention who the hell they could appoint to manage the team! Doesn’t bare thinking about.

    The only way this will work is if there is a complete clean sweep of all the board. If Ashley is going to stay he needs to put in place a board who are experienced at running a football club and allow them to do their job.

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  40. I get more wound up by the sheer bloody incompetence from our recruitment team than I do about the fact we’ll likely drop. I’m praying Rafa can instil some grit and fight into this squad as there are still 21 points up for grabs and if Leicester could do it last season then we **** well should go for it. 442 and go for the throat, **** or bust time.

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  41. If I was Ashley I would go down to the training ground, get all the players in and say to them this “If any of you think you can or will just walk away from this mess is we go down, you’re heaviliy mistaken! Don’t be expecting your agents to be finding you other clubs, becasue I won’t sell anyone who I or the manager doesn’t want to go. You got us into this mess so you will get us out of this mess. I don’t need to sell, I am a rich man and an extra few million to the club from me won’t matter to me. Now get your fingers out and prove you are PL players!”

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  42. KIM agree mate,I’ve said before we cannot defend so go for the KK way and attack for the ninty mins and hope we score more than them got nowt to lose now

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  43. The problem with Carr and McClaren is that they did not see that the defense was lacking in quality and experience.

    They knew that Taylor, Dummett and Haidara had and have long term injury problems and there were questions about their quality anyway.

    MBabu has played 2 games is it and has long term injuries.

    Coloccini has been our most inconsistent player.

    Lascelles had just come up from the Championship and had shown some nerves and some dodgy decision making (although he has looked better as he got more playing time).

    MBemba is young and new to the PL.

    SO WE GET 3 MIDFIEDERS!!!! They are probably good midfielders but how MUCH of a step up from what we had when other positions needed prioritising.

    It is easy to complain after the horse has bolted but that is not the case here. This is what fans were saying at the time even though they were excited about Shevley and Townsend.

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  44. I am sure we will be relegated. Howevwr Im surw we will come straight back up, with a hungrier and harder working squad. We will get loads of cash from the sale of Sissy, Tiote, Cisse, Gini, Anita, Janmaat and several fringe players and that cash will buy us plenty of up and coming, talented UK based players as qell as a couple of battle hardened Championship players. Mix that with our own prospects such as Aarons, Mbabu, Lascelles, Armstrong and a core of Elliott or Krul, Darlow, Mbemba, Dummett, Colback, Townsend, De Jong, Mitro and Perez and we will cruise it no problem and be well equipped to prosper upon our return. A clear out of dead wood and mercenariea is long overdue and relegation is the best way to achieve it _ otherwise the rot will continue next season. The most important thing for next season though is saying bye bye to Carr, ensuring we have a quality managet and giving the manager the power on transfers.

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  45. Also, Rafa has to tell Shelvey that he is not the quarterback. His first priority is to put his foot on the ball and look for a simple short and medium range pass. Limit the Hollywood passes to 2 or 3 a game and support the atatck when we are on top but stay home when we are under pressure. I think he has a lot of skill but can improve on his positioning and decision making. Having Mitro as an outlet helps and that was Rafa’s fault last game.

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  46. Sham: all good points. Also, with all the money sloshing around the PL and the Chinese Super League I think we will get our money back on the players we bought (minus Thauvin) if we want it. They have shown enough in spells to tempt other teams. Maybe we could even get 10 mil from Sissoko if he has a good Euro?

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  47. ERIC don’t think we are stuck with Colo thank god,SM only gave him a years contract which is up in June this yr

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  48. Ice, I just looked it up on NUFC.com and they are usually very accurate on contracts. We extended Colo through June 2017, so he has another year GUARANTEED. We are stuck with him mate, unless Pardew can bale us out (assuming Pards still hs a job).

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  49. Also, looks like there is an option on Colo for another year after that. Not sure if it can be triggered by the club or the player though. Just goes to show they thought he had 2 or 3 years left in him.

    Seems like really stupid business to me. Think about it, Colo is about the same age as Mr. Liverpool (Gerrard) and Mr. Chelsea (Terry) and they saw the writing on the wall/the players want one last pay day. This Colo contract was a colossal mistake, especially since it prevented us from getting someone else in.

    I know everybody knows this already, I just wanted to be sure of the details and how stupid they really were when Pards wanted him and we could have offloaded the remaining year on his contract (this year). But instead we extended it. FFS who OK’d that?

    Gerrard and Terry were reds and blues legends and we treat an Argy wantaway better.

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  50. You can see their reasoning, that they wanted Colo to mentor Lascelles and MBemba. What they failed to see that everybody else did was the waning of Coloccini’s skills and especially pace. That’s what did for Terry and Gerrard and Colo is roughly the same age. BTW Gerrard has been a total bust at LA because he was past it when they got him.

    Colo was good when we finished 5th and was even included in the PL team of the season. We all know he has been inconsistent, mistake prone and often **** ever since.

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  51. Eric – Shelvey’s a really good player WHEN he has time and space. If he hasn’t, he’s caught on the ball, slow to react and too hurried to make a good pass. He always looks harrassed to me.

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  52. For those expecting big money transfers for our players here is a bit of a reality check:
    The following players all go into the last year of their contract on 1July 2016 and become free agents on 1 July 2017
    Tim Krul *, salary £35k per week
    Cisse, salary £70k per week
    Riviere , salary £30k perweek
    Gouffran £45k per week
    Anita £50k per week
    Tiote £50k per week
    Colocinni **£65k per week
    * probably still on injury list when the transfer window closes.
    ** has a year option until 2018.
    So lets be realistic and see how much other clubs are willing to pay for players in their last year and especially when they have to offer comparable salaries.
    Apart from Krul I would like to see the back of all of them but I will be very surprised if we manage to get rid of any of them in the Summer.

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  53. Sidekick: I don’t think anybody is expecting a ton of money for the one’s you name. My guess is Krul 8 mil. We were supposedly offered 4 mil for Tiote and I expect we could get the same for Cisse. The Chinese Super League paid 25 mil for Ramirez from Chelsea.

    Riviere still has 3 years left on his contract and I think Anita might be OK.

    Getting most of that salary off the books will be the main aim when we are relegated and I think that will happen as well as some whose contracts are up – Taylor, Obertan, Marveaux.

    If want to sell to make money then it is Janmaat and Sissoko as well as the last 2 windows’ transfers where we will make it.

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  54. Could we get most of our money back on this year’s spend? Probably, if we wanted to sell them all. I am assuming that we paid over the odds for a few but they still have value. My guesses:

    Shelvey 8 mil
    Townsend 8 mil
    Saivet 2 mil (only cost 2 mil)
    MBemba 6 mil
    Wijnaldum 10 mil
    Mitro 10 mil
    Thauvin 3 mil

    (there is debate as to how much Thauvin actually cost. 10 mil is the Chron estimate but I doubt Marseilles would have taken Cabella without us taking Thauvin).

    Only guesses mind, but if we sold ALL of them we would lose about 23 mil.

    Chelsea lost that much on Fernado Torres alone.

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  55. Sidekick I reckon we can expect 10 for Sissy, 14 for Gini, 6 for Janmaat, probably 10 to 12 for Tiote, Cisse, Anita, Rivi, Gouffy and Sammi, Haidara. Cabella 6 and Thauvin 8.
    Thats about 55 mil realistically without selling Krul. We would need a lb, rb, cb, 2 wingers and a striker. 6 signings with that 50 mil is very achievable.

    We would be fine.

    Squad;
    Krul/Elliott, Darlow, Woodman.
    Dummett, LB.
    Lascelles, CB.
    Mbemba, Colo.
    Mbabu, RB.
    Townsend, winger.
    Shelvey, De Jong.
    Colback, Saivet.
    Aarons, winger.
    Mitro, Toney.
    Perez, Armstrong, new striker?

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  56. Eric ,If we sell Krul ( injured and in last year of contract ) we will be lucky to get £4m.
    Also, selling Krul would necessitate us buying 2 new keepers as Woodman will likely leave this Summer – dont think he has signed the new contract he was offered , and Elliott will miss most of next season through the injury he picked up.

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  57. We are looking at a world where Benoit Afobe cost 12 mil, Everton turned down 40 mil for John Stones and West Brom turned down 20 mil + (from Spurs not us) for Berahino.

    It is insane so we could get our money back. The problem is that if we get promoted we would be subject to the same inflated prices to buy the same types of players we already have. That is why we should try to keep some to get us immediately promoted. Probably, Shelvey, Saivet, Townsend, MBemba and Mitro should all stay.

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  58. I think it depends on if Krul proves his fitness to start the season what we would get for him. I bet Palace would pay 8 mil. The ones that would definitely want away we could get good money for – Sissoko, Gini, Tiote, Cisse and Janmaat.

    What we are left with is a relatively young squad who could deal with a year in The Championship without it harming their careers too much. Even Shelvey and Townsend are still young.

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  59. If we don’t get automatic 1st year promotion we are fcked though. So it would be another big gamble for the Fat Man with who knows as Manager, backroom staff, U21 Manager, Scouts, DoF?

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  60. Well I think we will get as much as 14mil Siko

    ERIC well I got the June bit right but 2017 what a bloody mug SM is just rags reported a yrs contract at the time

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  61. Eric ,our young squad would struggle to get promotion and I agree with Gashley that it would take 3 or 4 seasons for them to get us promotion.
    Second tier football does not bother me too much as I was a regular at Sjp from the mid 50’s so I have watched second division football for 16 of those seasons. Thats like 1 in 4 games! Another few seasons down there will not bother me too much.

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  62. I doubt we would struggle in The Championship Sidekick if we kept a core of players. We actually have quite a bit of experience in relatively young players and a few veterans like Anita, Dummett, Elliot and de Jong would be retained (Anita and de Jong because there is probably not a market for them on their wages).

    Darlow and Lascelles have Championship experience.

    Townsend and Shelvey are still young but have been around forever.

    MBemba, Mitro, Perez, Saivet and Aarons would be stars in The Championship. Maybe even Riviere if we play him as a winger.

    We would need to add some physical presence but we need to do that if we stay in the PL.

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