and why?

Burnley aside, because barring a miracle even with additions it will always be very tough. Who are the sides we will be competing with at the bottom?

I predict the bottom 7 will be us and:

Watford - their form in 2016 was poor. just five wins and only above Villa and West Brom in the form table. Not made any signings of note. Second season up which is often a bigger test. No real sustained history at this level. New manager who doesnt know the league and possibly the language and culture!

Sunderland - perennial strugglers. Late business in the market after struggling last year. Lost a good manager. The players they have bought have no pedigree in the league. They signed a defender from chelsea who played 1 minute all season for double what chelsea paid! Start away to City and finish away to Chelsea which puts pressure on.

Hull - no manager, no team, tough start.

Palace - Lost a key player in Bolasie, struggling to land targets, had a poor 2016.

Bournemouth - did well last year. But spent big this year on unproven players. They are still little Bournemouth and that mentality might creep in. Second season syndrome a possibility.

Leicester - Bit of a surprise one. But the year before last they were very poor and team spirit got them through. Ranieri got them playing unbelievably last year. But they are no longer an unknown quantity, they have lost a very good player in Kante, they have the pressure and travel of the champions league to contend with and some of their players despite their achievements last year (which were outstanding of course) are still limited joruneymen. (Morgan, Ulloa, Albrighton, king). They have a small squad and Ranieri is already playing their chances down saying the aim is 40 points.

Will be interesting to see how saturdays opponents fare with their new manager but should have enough quality to stay up. Think Boro are very similar in that they have invested fairly well compared to other teams around us providing they can all gel and I think these two along with Southampton who have lost a very good manager and some equally good players may struggle under the new manage will make up the bottom ten

David Jones

Blackburn Rovers.

I think Boro could struggle. Made a lot of changes to their squad and have a manager that buckled under the lesser pressure of the Championship.

Pulis is about all West Brom have got; they have no momentum.

Losing Ashley Williams is a massive blow for Swansea.

The Burnley bank manager will struggle carrying all the cash to the vault, which has been disguised as Boohoo warehouse on Heasandford Industrial Estate.

Depends how you define struggle.

In terms of a mini league bottom group, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see:

Hull, Burnley, Boro, Swansea, Watford and Bournemouth

I'm going to stick my neck out with this team, who i think will struggle

Everton

I actually feel Swansea will be in big trouble. Losing Ayew and especially Williams is huge for them, and the manager is still a bit of an unknown there.

A win tomorrow to hopefully set us up, and at the same time put them on a downer could be a big victory even at this stage.

West Brom. Hopefully.

My outside bet for relegation...West Ham.

I remember what happened to Southampton when they left The Dell. It's going to be like playing 38 away games until they get used to playing there...

A bottom three of any of Hull, Swansea, West Brom and Watford,

With Bournemouth, Boro, Palace and Southampton looking over their shoulders.

We'll be top six.

hendricks,stephens and pele

Teams that don't bond.

Teams with supporters who only see failure ahead. Dare to dream, dare to be brave!

Any change to this after deadline day business and start to season?

Surprised to see stoke start slowly and Hull so well but still think that Hull will go down and Stoke be more than fine.

Watford dont seem to have done much good business nor West Brom.

West Brom, Palace, Watford, Bournemouth.

Sunderland are going to struggle to stay up .
If Defoe gets injured for any length of time, they must be strong candidates for finishing bottom.

Hull will be in the bottom three -too much uncertainty and unrest at Boardroom level ,,which will eventually manifest itself on the pitch.

Both team have signed fringe players from United, which adds to numbers but not the quality of the squad to make an impact this season .Keane/Weir at Hull -would we want them ?
McNair ,Love at Sunderland -ditto .

Hull have purchased fairly wisely.

ablueclaret wrote:Hull have purchased fairly wisely.

So you are looking forward to getting on the turf and shouting for the lads in the next game against Hull.?

Oh hang on

cricketfieldclarets wrote:and why?

Burnley aside, because barring a miracle even with additions it will always be very tough. Who are the sides we will be competing with at the bottom?

I predict the bottom 7 will be us and:

Watford - their form in 2016 was poor. just five wins and only above Villa and West Brom in the form table. Not made any signings of note. Second season up which is often a bigger test. No real sustained history at this level. New manager who doesnt know the league and possibly the language and culture!

Sunderland - perennial strugglers. Late business in the market after struggling last year. Lost a good manager. The players they have bought have no pedigree in the league. They signed a defender from chelsea who played 1 minute all season for double what chelsea paid! Start away to City and finish away to Chelsea which puts pressure on.

Hull - no manager, no team, tough start.

Palace - Lost a key player in Bolasie, struggling to land targets, had a poor 2016.

Bournemouth - did well last year. But spent big this year on unproven players. They are still little Bournemouth and that mentality might creep in. Second season syndrome a possibility.

Leicester - Bit of a surprise one. But the year before last they were very poor and team spirit got them through. Ranieri got them playing unbelievably last year. But they are no longer an unknown quantity, they have lost a very good player in Kante, they have the pressure and travel of the champions league to contend with and some of their players despite their achievements last year (which were outstanding of course) are still limited joruneymen. (Morgan, Ulloa, Albrighton, king). They have a small squad and Ranieri is already playing their chances down saying the aim is 40 points.

Will be interesting to see how saturdays opponents fare with their new manager but should have enough quality to stay up. Think Boro are very similar in that they have invested fairly well compared to other teams around us providing they can all gel and I think these two along with Southampton who have lost a very good manager and some equally good players may struggle under the new manage will make up the bottom ten

As it stands over half way through we are above every single one of these as predicted - PLUS West Ham. Meaning the only prediction that was wrong is that we would be in bottom 10 (bar a miracle).

If only I put a bet on it!!!!

Hoping it stays this way.

ablueclaret wrote:Hull have purchased fairly wisely.

There's something about Hull at the moment, the new managers at Swansea/Hull have changed them. I believe one of them will get out of it.

Swansea are on a purple patch with Clement. Siggurdson and Llorente are good and Narsingh is a decent signing. Fabianksi is one of the best keepers too. But just dont see Clement being good enough when the going gets tough.

On the other hand its the opposite with Hull. Not enough good players but a very good manager.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Swansea are on a purple patch with Clement. Siggurdson and Llorente are good and Narsingh is a decent signing. Fabianksi is one of the best keepers too. But just dont see Clement being good enough when the going gets tough.

On the other hand its the opposite with Hull. Not enough good players but a very good manager.

Yeah that manager for Hull is impressive, I wouldn't bet against them getting out of it. Team spirit goes a long way these days.

Or perhaps both might escape. There are at least 6 teams still in the mix.

I think Sunderland are the only dead certs so far. If they'd secured Ulloa and played Defoe like Gray and Big Sam they'd have had a chance.
I also think Bournemouth are in trouble and I think EH is facing a real test with Wilshere going off the boil and Ake not coming back from Chelski. I saw a look of real anxiety on the young man's face yesterday.
Hull are still in a honeymoon period and I don't think they have the players to survive but they have an outside chance with a young determined manager. He dug in over Robertson when the board were happy to sell.

At this moment in time its a bottom six fight for survival. They all need 3-5 wins to make up the gap and the teams above to lose. Realistically the teams from Bournemouth up should continue to pick up points, 15 draws would do nicely. Hull and Swansea might get the wins but they need the teams above to stand still.
Look back at our first promotion under Dyche, he did his usual one game at a time mantra but afterwards admitted that just looking at the stats, Derby needed to go on a long winning streak which was highly unlikely. Not impossible but unlikely.

Brighton, Newcastle and Leeds or Reading will struggle. We'll cement a mid table position with a view to pushing for a European place in our 3rd season. We will be considerably richer than our neighbours.

Ightenclaret wrote:I think Sunderland are the only dead certs so far. If they'd secured Ulloa and played Defoe like Gray and Big Sam they'd have had a chance.
I also think Bournemouth are in trouble and I think EH is facing a real test with Wilshere going off the boil and Ake not coming back from Chelski. I saw a look of real anxiety on the young man's face yesterday.
Hull are still in a honeymoon period and I don't think they have the players to survive but they have an outside chance with a young determined manager. He dug in over Robertson when the board were happy to sell.

Agree on Bournemouth.

Bournemouth should be OK barring a Blackpool type capitulation. I really think Leicester and Sunderland are in big trouble going off their showing against us.

Hull's manager will need to be bluddy good to knit together 8 new peripatetic freeloaders with a struggling team that just sold 2 of their best players and disaffected a third by not allowing him to join one of the top ten clubs in the country.

Vino blanco wrote:Blackburn Rovers.

Great call

ablueclaret wrote:Hull have purchased fairly wisely.