After City Addicks I felt quite confident for the coming season, but then I see all the activity in the Championship and the clubs coming down and my natural pessimism, I am not confoident of our chances of improving our position inot the paly offs, anyone else feel that way?
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I can't think of any clubs mug enough to take on those two, leaving our preparations falling short by the day.
Then we don't have the cash to do anything.
LOL so true.
I really don't know. We badly need a midfield (Holland and Shelvey are both at the extremes of the age range for all their qualities) but we have toddy back and Gray and Varney could work.
Youga and Moo2 promise excitement going forward and heart attacks defending.
I am wildly optimistic about Basey making a real impact perhaps with him behind Youga.
Part of me thinks shorn of expectations, with a smaller, hopefully tighter squad and a large dose of reality from last year plus not being seen as the big scalps anymore we may be more of a team.
Another part fears that we'll play like we did in the run in!
Come on Len, I know you are an old codger ; - ) but there will be time for a few more turns of the wheel of fortune before you shuffle off your mortal coil. At least I sincerley hope so and that we both see the side back in the top flight.
We've gone up three times in your life time already and maybe only one of those was expected so don't give up just yet.
I said that after Lennies team were relegated, well cose to that it was somethiong like, the only successful promotion campaign I'll ever see is from the 3rd tier to the 2nd tier.
I am confident we will win the league this year. We did so much better against the better sides last season, and remember that this year there are a lot more of these bigger teams for us to play well against.
I sit there and we are 3-0 up with three minutes to go, I think "we might get a draw out of this one..."
Life is more or less a self-fulfilling prophecy - if you give yourself no chance and give up, you get nothing.
On the other hand, many teams have come back from 2-0 down to get a result, so if you believe you've got a chance - then however unlikely, that chance is always still there.
It's up to you to go for it.
And even if you don't get that result, you know in your heart that you' gave it your best shot - and you end the game with your tails up and raring to go in the next.
Life... don't talk to me about life... (said Marvin style).
up the addicks
I haven't lost hope however, and I hope they can pull in a couple of decent signings out of the bag, and offload some of the waste of spaces. That being said it will be an interesting season either way.
i'll be happy if we finish above palace and can repeat our double over them , as long as we stay up!!
1. Many of our team had difficult/complicated seasons last year
Tody - was injured for most of it
Varney - had a very slow start due to pre-season injury
Moo2 - injured then lost his place to loan players
Magic - in and out with injuries
Sam - Good start then injuries hampered his season
2. New/Almost New Players to Club or Squad
Hudson - Looks a solid purchase
Gray - came with some "personal issues" which hampered his start at the club
Youga - was playing somewhere else for half of it then played only a few games before being injured again
Dickson - playing somewhere else for half the season, then injured
Shelvey - one for the future but could feature increasingly
Waggy - difficult to tell from his limited appearances but again one for the future
Fleetwood - promise but maybe one for the future
3. Learning from Mistakes
Pards has admitted that he made mistakes last season. He thought he knew what it takes to succeed in this Division but now admits that things had changed since he managed there. The very fact that he has acknowledged this is positive in my view
4. Reality Check for Players
Pards bigged up the squad last season giving them a mistaken belief that they were strong enough to go up. When things started to go awry, that created doubts which weren't overcome. I don't think the team talks and and press conferences will be that gung ho this year. I think our best chance of getting up is with the "dogs of war" mentality. I think the pre pre-season fitness regimes imposed this summer is part of developing that kind of an ethos around the place. I think the players will be tougher mentally for the failures of last season.
Some players are likely to go, amongst them Magic, Thomas plus of course Bent and Faye, but that should bring in some extra to strengthen, hopefully in midfield.
So all in all I'm optimistic although its going to be tough.
To have a good season, we need a number of positive "if's" to come off, they include:
* Possibly the most attacking full back pairing in the division playing to their potential
* Hudson proving a solid signing.
* Weaver repeating a good season
* Gray showing his Burley form
* Varney building on the promise he has shown
* Any wide midfielder re-finding form, or Sam pushing on
* Zhi rested and refreshed
* Shelvey building on his fantastic start
* An overall change in our mentality that we are not above this level
Number of if's there, and if the bulk turn positive, there is no doubt we will be at a par to anything Hull or Bristol City did last season.
Speaking to a Palace supporting client yesterday he said he liked Hudson on the basis that he clears the ball. Not pretty but doesn't overplay it in the box. Good leader as well.
I am optimistic from afar, but if we don't beat Swansea by 3 clear goals with 10 men on the opening day.
Pards out!
Yours, preparing for a fall into his half full glass!!
Bibs
Looking at it this way, in defence we have in Weaver a good keeper, Prem quality and hopefully this year we'll have a bit more luck with injuries which meant that we were playing a different back four virtually every game. Have a consistent back four + Weaver will be the key. If we can reduce the numbers of goals conceded, and stupid goals at that, then we are a solid step towards making a serious challenge for promotion. Youga and Moo2 will only get better and both should benefit from last year. Hudson in/McCarthy out is a positive step and in Hudson I think we might have the defensive leader we lacked last year.
Midfield...Jerome Thomas didn't impress and we either need to move him or he has to knuckle down and deliver. On the right we have a couple of options but in centre midfield we still have Holland/Shelvey/Semedo. The latter two are young and need time, especially Shelvey, but I'll be feeling a lot more confident if we can get a strong ball winning midfielder in and sort out Thomas.
Up front if Gray and Varney can forge a partnership and with Toddy/McLeod/Iwelumo/Dickson and Fleetwood in reserve then we have a team that will be as good as any in the league.