Relegation accepted

[Milltown1882]

With the rumours of Everton getting 5 points back from the deduction that would drop Luton back into the bottom three and leave us 11 points adrift of 17th with 13 games to play.

Never seen such a feeble toothless attempt at staying in this division. Hard to tell between us and Sheff United who are the worst team this league has ever seen.

Bring on the Championship (hopefully with about 80% of this squad moved on)

[Vegas Claret]

jeez, I accepted it 7 months ago

[MACCA]

Were you not watching us in November and December?

I'd accepted it then.
No leaders, no fight, and by the looks of it no real plan.

But SD got a chance so get us back up first time , and after last season I think VK has credit in the bank and deserves a similar chance.

[AGENT_CLARET]

Relegation was accepted when Tella wasn't signed and our ridiculous transfer window ended, all down hill after that

[Vino blanco]

I said on here after Crystal Palace beat us at home (4th November) that we woud more than likely get relegated. Some said I was mad for saying it so early in the season.

[NewClaret]

Can’t believe these threads still exist.

It was done months ago.

[CaptJohn]

jeez, I accepted it 7 months ago

So did I.
I'll be in Vegas tomorrow night. Staying at the Marriott Grand Chateau just for a couple of nights. En-route to Scottsdale for some golf.
Do you know if there's any chance of getting tickets for the Adele concert on the 2nd March?

[Vegas Claret]

So did I.
I'll be in Vegas tomorrow night. Staying at the Marriott Grand Chateau just for a couple of nights. En-route to Scottsdale for some golf.
Do you know if there's any chance of getting tickets for the Adele concert on the 2nd March?

Honestly, I've no idea is the only answer I can give.

[kentonclaret]

I think we have to accept that there is every likelihood that Burnley will now finish bottom of the PL.
Both Sheffield United and Luton showing far much more fight and hunger to get points on the board.

[CaptJohn]

My wife tried on the Ticket Master site which was as bad as our team is at the moment. Utter shambles. Anyway we'll have a walk down the Strip on Monday and see if any are available from the secondary market.

[dougcollins]

So did I.
I'll be in Vegas tomorrow night. Staying at the Marriott Grand Chateau just for a couple of nights. En-route to Scottsdale for some golf.
Do you know if there's any chance of getting tickets for the Adele concert on the 2nd March?

I’d rather rewatch today’s game than go to an Adele concert.

Each to their own.

[Loyalclaret]

So did I.
I'll be in Vegas tomorrow night. Staying at the Marriott Grand Chateau just for a couple of nights. En-route to Scottsdale for some golf.

Also staying in this Matriot Grand Chateau for a week in June. Report back if it's ok, don't bother if it's not

[AmbleClaret]

I’d rather rewatch today’s game than go to an Adele concert.

Each to their own.

Bloody hell, she must have done something really bad to you in the past.

[MT03ALG]

40 points the aim

[boatshed bill]

Bloody hell, she must have done something really bad to you in the past.

At a guess... singing

[Burnley1989]

If only we’d played Muric and signed Tella.

I blame the Kosovo mafia & Alan Paces daughter

[boatshed bill]

Not yet!

[Bordeauxclaret]

40 points the aim

I’d be thrilled with 25.

[Woodleyclaret]

Not yet 7 games possible winnable

[Carlos the Great]

I wish commentators would stop saying . Burnley cruised the championship but just can’t seem to hack it in the premier league !! .. This is NOT the team that played last year .. this team won’t hack it in the championship

[tarkys_ears]

It was obvious from our cup games last season that we were gonna be entertained for 10 mins before a manager would put their game plan against us and decimate us within second

...Obvious

[Claretforever]

I can’t recall the exact date, but I accepted and have stated since that we’d be relegated since back in October. I’m amazed it’s take someone until February to accept it.

[Bin Ont Turf]

It was accepted after the Man Utd home game.

The worst Man Utd team I've ever seen and we should have trounced them.

Can't defend can't score, a story of a season.

[Lord_Bob]

Agree, we are down, so now let's start building for next season in the Championship. Nothing to lose, may as well, we have more than 11 points.

But what does that look like? All our problems it seems to me to stem from the F'd Up Summer recruitment and we are in danger of going down the same road again. So let's take a look at who will be here next season and can we put the core of a team together for the rest of this season to give ourselves a chance next season so that we don't have to recruit 16 players this Summer.

GK - Traff / Muric - only one will be here next year, but we have a back up. Pick one (and I know which one VK will pick).

RB - Assignon will not be here. Vitiniho or maybe Roberts back (doubtful). Stick with Assignon on the off chance he will sign on. Needs recruitment.

RCB - plenty of choice, O'Shea (will he be here?) Beyer, Ekdal, AAD.

LCG - Esteve / Delcroix

LB - Charlie (a priority Summer signing needed)

Centre Midfield - (Lord help me!) JBG gone - a season too far, sorry. Brownhill, would not renew, not PL standard and that should be the focus. Berge keep him if we can (doubtful), Cullen, good championship but need to look for better for PL. Masengo, who knows, but give him a chance. Ramsey, I think there's a player there and a season in the championship would help, but who knows the impact of the injury? Cork - one of my all time favs, love to see him as a coach.

Wide Midfield - Odobert, Koliosho, Benson, Zaroury - love to keep 'em all and tear up the Championship and think they can all play in the PL. Brun Larsen, maybe not. Tresor, don't know.

Forwards - Fofana, gone but let's at least compete for the rest of the season. Foster, must keep. Andouni, sigh. J Rod, gone.

I'm sure I've missed someone, but based on the above, why not play this team the rest of the way to help build a core for next year back ups in brackets:

Trafford (Muric)

Assignon O'Shea Esteve Taylor
(Vitiniho). (Beyer) (Delcroix). (A.N. Other)


Benson Berge Masengo Odobert
(JBG) (Cullen) (Ramsey / Tresor) (Brun Larsen)

Fofana Foster
(J Rod) (Andouni)

Probably lose more than win, but we are doing that anyway and the goal is not to avoid relegation, but to make sure we come straight back up.

The thing that sticks out looking at that is how weak our CM is, we have no back up LB and short on strikers - all things we knew last summer. But out of that starting line up, we would only lose Assignon, O'Shea (maybe), Berge (maybe) and Fofana, something to build around with hopefully Zaroury and Koliosho coming back as well.

Thoughts?

[leelad]

All sounds good in principle. I'd need to remind myself of who is in our squad at the moment. It's so bloated and unbalanced. What stands out for me is the no. of players who played yesterday (either in the starting 11 or from the subs bench) that regularly played last season. How are we as a club going to convince players like Benson, zaroury, twine, muric, Cullen, Beyer, ekdal who did great for us in the championship to do it for us all over again next season in the championship?

[evensteadiereddie]

I think we should be planning for the Championship now.
If VK were suddenly to change to a tight, defensive tack, not letting much in and trying to nick the odd win, it wouldn't be enough to save us anyway.
Play the ones he is planning to use next season, have faith in them but, please, please, look at bringing in one or two midfielders with a bit of bite about them.
We've got plenty of attacking class, we'll also need a scrapper or two.

[Pearcey]

I think we should be planning for the Championship now.
If VK were suddenly to change to a tight, defensive tack, not letting much in and trying to nick the odd win, it wouldn't be enough to save us anyway.
Play the ones he is planning to use next season, have faith in them but, please, please, look at bringing in one or two midfielders with a bit of bite about them.
We've got plenty of attacking class, we'll also need a scrapper or two.

Agree with this. Cullen proved excellent last season so would like to see him back in for Brownhill now as I think Brownhill will be off in the summer. Need to keep our championship stars happy.

[Colburn_Claret]

Chelsea at home for me.
A team under pressure, lacking confidence. We took the game to them, took a deserved lead. Then stopped bloody playing. If we'd have pushed on for a 2nd goal they could have tipped over, instead we bottled it and sat back.
Season over.

[BabylonClaret]

Not yet 7 games possible winnable

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

This team will be lucky to break 20. We don't create chances, we can't keep a clean sheet. Football isn't played on paper. We couldn't even beat Luton.

We are down and out

[gawthorpe_view]

Bloody hell, she must have done something really bad to you in the past.

If she did, she's almost certainly written a song about it.

[IanMcL]

We have a few good moments, as individuals show their talent.

Sadly, the team is clueless on the pitch and they are broken spirits.

A combination of naive manager and chairman..

[ElectroClaret]

Not yet 7 games possible winnable

This is tooth-fairy level delusion.

[warksclaret]

You would have thought Luton would have been the stand out side to go down with a very low points total. However their ability to take a risk on a few experienced players, their fight and spirit, and the leadership and motivation of their very talented young manager all exceed the bringing in of so called "stars for the future". As someone posted on here they have spent just £23m and taken some really big scalps and gone close to beating some of the top 5 or 6 clubs. It can be done, and we should technically have survived by some distance based on last year, but we were probably down at Christmas as al the stats showed. A disgraceful season

[kentonclaret]

You would have thought Luton would have been the stand out side to go down with a very low points total. However their ability to take a risk on a few experienced players, their fight and spirit, and the leadership and motivation of their very talented young manager all exceed the bringing in of so called "stars for the future". As someone posted on here they have spent just £23m and taken some really big scalps and gone close to beating some of the top 5 or 6 clubs. It can be done, and we should technically have survived by some distance based on last year, but we were probably down at Christmas as al the stats showed. A disgraceful season

Before a ball was kicked Luton were priced up at 3/10 to be relegated whilst Burnley were priced up at 11/1 to finish rock bottom. The latter now looking increasingly more likely in a straight shoot out between us and Sheffield United.
Prices quoted are taken from William Hill.

[Enola Gay]

West Ham's winner at home was when the last, lingering notion that we could avoid relegation evaporated.

You just don't lose games like that and stay up.

[KlyBfc]

We’ve been done for months. I got called out (by cockney claret I think) for having a go after a defeat (Chelsea I think) because of how pitiful we were and how we rolled over when the going got tough and that has not changed.

We are one of if not the most pathetic side the premier league has seen in terms of fight, desire and personality.

[BabylonClaret]

We’ve been done for months. I got called out (by cockney claret I think) for having a go after a defeat (Chelsea I think) because of how pitiful we were and how we rolled over when the going got tough and that has not changed.

We are one of if not the most pathetic side the premier league has seen in terms of fight, desire and personality.

After Chelsea we were chatting and I said 1 of 2 things was going to happen. Either we clicked in the next 5 or 6 games and started to do well and finch fairly comfortable; or we finish bottom getting done most weeks.

After West Ham the latter was always looking the most likely option - despite a couple of spirited performances at Arsenal, Fulham and Villa we've essentially regressed again and can't even win our 'winnable must wins'

Shittest side we've ever had in the top flight - that's a really poor legacy.

[aclaretinstevenage]

I’d rather rewatch today’s game than go to an Adele concert.

Each to their own.

Don't seem to have a "like" button just now, so logged in to like this!!