If....

[1973Blade]

If we had gone up in May and if we'd have invested money in the squad this may have been the season where survival could have been achievable. Brentford, Wolves, West Ham and possibly Everton all look weaker than they were last season. Anyway, back to reality.....

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I don't think we would have recruited anywhere near well enough based on this summer's shit show.

 

[1973Blade]

I don't think we would have recruited anywhere near well enough based on this summer's shit show.

Yes there is that I guess

 

[FMBlade1]

I doubt we would have signed Xhaka, and I also wonder whether we would have got more than 11 points considering what we have witnessed since then.

 

[blAdes96]

It does beg the question, what was "Plan A" as Bettis & board put it - for summer transfers, if we had won playoff final?

 

[Jon Bon II]

Who loves ya, baby?

 

[loyalblade95]

If we had gone up in May and if we'd have invested money in the squad this may have been the season where survival could have been achievable. Brentford, Wolves, West Ham and possibly Everton all look weaker than they were last season. Anyway, back to reality.....

Everton should be fine this season, personally I think they'll get mid table.

West Ham are in trouble though, especially if they keep Potter who looks like he's running out of ideas.

Brentford might be in trouble as well, they seem to be in a similar situation to us, lost a key player (Mbuemo) and so far haven't replaced him, plus this is Andrews' first managerial job in a tough league.

 

[Harry's Game]

The biggest “IF” since Commissioner Gordon accidentally projected a Rudyard Kipling poem into the Gotham City night sky instead of the Bat Signal..

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Based on how our younger players (Burrows, Peck, Cooper, Brooks) have stared this season, I'm not sure we'd have been ready to punch through the 20 point barrier....

 

[Youngand70]

The club structure and strategy are no where near suitable for the Premier League even if we did get promoted.

 

[mattbianco1]

If we had gone up in May and if we'd have invested money in the squad this may have been the season where survival could have been achievable. Brentford, Wolves, West Ham and possibly Everton all look weaker than they were last season. Anyway, back to reality.....

Even before the PL started I said Sunderland would stay up.
They have a nice style and some real pace in their game.

Leeds will always score, it's if the can keep the GA column down.

Burnley.
Probably them with Brentford +1 for relegation

 

[SufcBilly]

Great poem

 

[Dkc]

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

The club structure and strategy are no where near suitable for the Premier League even if we did get promoted.

Abso-fookin-lutely.

Until we get a DoF, we've no business in the PL and if we do fluke a promotion we'll be there to boost the goal difference of the top 8 and nothing more!

 

[dexter101]

Love that after 1 round of PL games and almost 2 weeks left of the transfer window people are making snap decisions... good that at least it isn't just about our side

 

[Newbury Blade]

Everton should be fine this season, personally I think they'll get mid table.

West Ham are in trouble though, especially if they keep Potter who looks like he's running out of ideas.

Brentford might be in trouble as well, they seem to be in a similar situation to us, lost a key player (Mbuemo) and so far haven't replaced him, plus this is Andrews' first managerial job in a tough league.

In fact they’ve lost 3 key players.

 

[CPB]

I think it would still have been a really tough ask. Even if we dropped £125m on transfers.

Sunderland have spent so much more than I expected them too. And some of it quite astutely. Leeds and Burnley were much better than Sunderland but haven't spent as much.

We wouldn't have spent anything like Sunderland but perhaps had we gone up. There may have been investors wanting to ride a PL train and put in maybe?
So the budget may have been healthy.

Again if nothing else you improve the squad ready for a championship return. Yo, yo clubs can work and then stay in the top flight. But eventually they need to make sure the squad is steadily improving overall. Not sure we've managed that at all.
Feels like we improve certain area's of the team and then other area's become weaker. There will always be these fluctuations I guess. You never just keep getting better otherwise we'd be challenging for championsleague by now.

But this is what makes clubs like Bournemouth, Fulham, Palace (Years ago), Leeds, Burnley all kinda work with their yo, yo-ing. Of course their recruitment infrastructure is beyond ours too.