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Having waited 15 long and often agonising years to see our team return to the top flight, I have been so disappointed and often embarrassed by the way the club has performed since that sunny day in May 2011 when our promotion was confirmed.
When compared with the other clubs promoted over the past two years, there is so little to be proud of. Swansea have been simply superb (especially this season), Norwich have been solid (if very annoying!), Southampton have done themselves proud, West Ham have been boring but professional and Reading are on the up with a squad which on paper is very weak.
As for our club, we have become a laughing stock with our lack of planning and our habit of throwing money at the problem. In fairness I am fully behind most of the changes Redknapp has made but those changes only show up what has gone wrong before. Sadly, unless miracles do happen, it's too little too late as far as this season is concerned.
If we do manage to stay up I suspect we'll just face the same problems again - you just need to look at the squad we have and imagine it without the loan signings (Fabio and Townsend), the senior players who may not last another full season in the Prem (Hill and Derry - I still love them though!), the players who haven't cut the mustard (Cisse, Bosingwa, SWP, etc) and the players who may just want to move on (Remy, Cesar and Taarabt).
The teams above have all come up with settled squads that have then been improved with a few astute signings. Our game plan has been to bring in 4 or 5 new players each window and hope that everything falls into place. Well it hasn't and it's back to the drawing board.
I really do want us to stay up as the thought of another stint in the Championship is worrying and very depressing - and we've all seen the lowly positions of the three clubs relegated last season. However, 6 or 7 wins after 2 wins from 25 games looks unlikely (!!!) and my opinion is that relegation and a re-build shouldn't be the end of the world; in fact it may just be the best thing for the club in the long term as, whatever the riches on the table from Sky, a club like ours simply can't afford to continue to be run as it has over the past two seasons.
Come On You R'ssss!!!!
When compared with the other clubs promoted over the past two years, there is so little to be proud of. Swansea have been simply superb (especially this season), Norwich have been solid (if very annoying!), Southampton have done themselves proud, West Ham have been boring but professional and Reading are on the up with a squad which on paper is very weak.
As for our club, we have become a laughing stock with our lack of planning and our habit of throwing money at the problem. In fairness I am fully behind most of the changes Redknapp has made but those changes only show up what has gone wrong before. Sadly, unless miracles do happen, it's too little too late as far as this season is concerned.
If we do manage to stay up I suspect we'll just face the same problems again - you just need to look at the squad we have and imagine it without the loan signings (Fabio and Townsend), the senior players who may not last another full season in the Prem (Hill and Derry - I still love them though!), the players who haven't cut the mustard (Cisse, Bosingwa, SWP, etc) and the players who may just want to move on (Remy, Cesar and Taarabt).
The teams above have all come up with settled squads that have then been improved with a few astute signings. Our game plan has been to bring in 4 or 5 new players each window and hope that everything falls into place. Well it hasn't and it's back to the drawing board.
I really do want us to stay up as the thought of another stint in the Championship is worrying and very depressing - and we've all seen the lowly positions of the three clubs relegated last season. However, 6 or 7 wins after 2 wins from 25 games looks unlikely (!!!) and my opinion is that relegation and a re-build shouldn't be the end of the world; in fact it may just be the best thing for the club in the long term as, whatever the riches on the table from Sky, a club like ours simply can't afford to continue to be run as it has over the past two seasons.
Come On You R'ssss!!!!
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