spudgfsh

There is only one team that can keep Norwich in the premier league and that would be Norwich. we have a run of games coming up where we should be picking up enough points to stay up. with Fulham and Cardiff both looking increasingly doomed we only have to stay above one other team and we are better than more than one other team in this league.

if you look at the fixtures for tomorrow you have Spuds v Cardiff, Swansea v Palarse and Villa v us If I was to predict those results it''d be wins for swansea and spuds and a draw between us and villa. that''d leave the bottom of the league as follows 10 Swansea 28 31 11 West Ham 28 31 12 Hull City 28 30 13 Stoke 28 30 14 Aston Villa 28 29 15 Norwich 28 29 16 C Palace 27 26 17 West Brom 27 25 18 Sunderland 26 24 19 Cardiff 28 22 20 Fulham 28 21 and it starts to look like a five team relegation battle. Yes there are a few ifs but west brom''s game in hand is sunderland and sunderlands other game in hand is man city. not that long ago the bottom 11 teams were separated by 6 points...

that reads like the twitter rumour repackaged as fact. it''s on the internet it must be true!

However McNally thought it would go or whatever he thought he was saying the media are certainly treating the interview as an ultimatum.

it''s a mess at fulham, thank god that we''ve kept with CH eh? Can anyone name a premier league team who''ve sacked two managers in a season and stayed up?

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WRT Notts county, they were relegated from the top division (with colin in charge) the season before the premier league started. WRT the original question I think Adams has to be the top candidate for caretaker

It''s still difficult to predict... I''ll give you two seasons to compare to this season. 3rd bottom number of points after 5, 10, 15 etc games 2009: 4, 8, 15, 20, 23, 29, 31, 34, 35 2011: 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 32, 35, 39, 40 2014: 4, 8, 13, 17, 23 average (1996-2013): 3.3, 7.2, 12.3, 17.5, 21.7, 27.2, 32.2, 36, 38.5 http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2008-2009/table/2009-02-18 http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2010-2011/table/2011-02-02

It''s a good read, but I have a couple of questions... 1) At what point does CH position become untenable? I''ve thought that defeat to Wet Sham would cost him his job or possibly a heavy defeat tomorrow... 2) Did you think about comparing the types of games left for each team? Home/Away Top/Bottom etc?

All is clearly not well in the city camp but down that''s a bit negative (even for here). After a nervous win at home to Hull and a point gained from a wasteful Newcastle we make a poor Cardiff look good. Not the first time this season we''ve done that by the way, it''s becoming something of a trait. Luck is one thing but when you can muster 58 shots against a team in 180 minutes and only manage one goal there''s something not right. Especially when that team has the second worst goals against tally of the league. So here''s a potential scenario, assuming Chris Hughton keeps his job another week. We play as poorly against Man City as we did on Tuesday against Newcastle and get mullered 6-0 (or more). Hughton keeps his job "Because it''s Man City". That makes the West Ham game the latest "must win". We lose and he''s sacked. It''s also the last chance we have to change the manager before the important run of seven games from Villa to Fulham where we need to pick up 15 or more points.

it''s looking like it could be 5 or 6... Hull is certainly a must win for hughton to keep his job...

There are a few teams that can go down this season. Hull: home games mainly against the top 9, away games against the bottom six Swansea: still in the ropey league Then there are the teams currently in the bottom five Palace: no home games left against the other bottom 5 but 4 away games Sunderland: bottom at christmas, yesterday was their first win against a bottom half team Cardiff: still in a mess following the sacking of malky and lost to a poor WHU team Wet Sham: injuries abound and overpriced carroll their only hope for goals fulham: the only team to have conceded more goals than us this season. you can make arguments for all of the teams in the bottom 11 (there''s only 6 points between them all)

[quote user="iron_stan"]im guessing theres 15-20 mill to play withi wouldnt let him spend ithe knows a player when he sees one, he just cant get them to play[/quote] That''s a conflicting opinion. He can spot a player but you still wouldn''t let him spend it? I certainly would as he, as you put it, knows a player when he sees one

[quote user="Yellow Wall"]Do we actually have wingers who cross? Usually they come inside and shoot or put a ball in with the ''wrong'' foot. Oh! Sorry. We actually did get a cross in yesterday ..... from Josh Murphy ..... a left footed cross from the left wing .... I''m sure you can remember it ... we scored.[/quote] Most of the time the wingers are on the wrong sides to effectively provide decent crosses

he also has spent a fair time out injured

I doubt it''d be us. If I were to guess it''d be the wigan game

I would, but I don''t see us beating fulham in the return fixture

Barclay seats 48/49 the 3rd: whats wrong with radio Norfolk? I can''t get it all the way over here...

[quote user="lappinitup"]MURPHY SCORES!!! [:D] [:D] [:D]For Sheffield Utd! [:D][/quote] Where''s the slap button when you need one...

[quote user="JF"]Was peed off with Sky Sports News earlier. Talking about Cardiff''s next run of fixtures they mention their fixture against ''relegation rivals Norwich'' followed by a match against Swansea. So Swansea who are a whole 1 point ahead are not considered relegation rivals but we are. Bloody media![/quote] Swansea will not be ''relegation rivals'' until they are a lot closer to the bottom of the table than they are now. The other thing to remember is that Swansea/Cardiff is the other kind of rivalry that the media like to harp on about and it doesn''t matter whether they are relegation rivals or not at the moment.

At the moment it''s a massive battle against relegation. Take a look at some of the fixtures remaining from some of the teams and you can argue that there is still some teams in unrealistic positions. Hull have to play every team above them at home except Man U who they play away and liverpool who they''ve played twice. They also have to go to every team in the bottom six. Sunderland have to travel to 7 of the top 8 (they have Everton at home) but have visits from 6 of the 8 teams above them. As it happens I expect Sunderland repeat what QPR did last season only to be a bit closer to safety. Other teams have a less surprising position Crystal Palace have got all of their points from 7 games with 9 of their 17 points coming from the home wins against Cardiff, WHU and Sunderland. Whereas we still have a mix of games home and away, top and bottom. Our problem will be the run-in.

[quote user="ricardo"]37 minimum 42 maximum Some clubs will do well to get 30 let alone 36.[/quote] over the last 18 seasons the average number of points the team in 18th position had at the end of the season is 36. (it''s 38.5 for 17th). This season started off about average (points total wise) and I don''t expect this to change.

If you look at it from a purely PPG point of view it is interesting. Of course it depends on the number of points required to stay up. At 30 or 31 points per game Sunderland (0.74) and West Ham (0.79) already need more points per game in the second half of the season than they managed in the first. At 33 to 35 both Fulham (0.84) and Palace (0.84) start to need to get more PPG than they did in the first half of the season. At 37 both Cardiff (0.95) and West Brom (0.95) need more PPG than the first half of the season Norwich don''t come into that factor until 38 points. when you consider that in 12 out of the last 18 seasons (67%) 36 points (with a good enough goal difference) was enough to stay up, 36 points is only 4 wins and 5 draws away. whereas the bottom four clubs need 20 points or more (5 wins 5 draws) and that''s just to get to 36 points.

I really don''t think sunderland can do what west brom did in 2005 (1). Cardiff are a mess (2) palace have never survived in the premier league and I''m not expecting them to start any time soon (3)

[quote user="ricardo"]At the AGM McNally said all contracts have a clause for wage reduction should we be relegated. Hopefully our club have financial plans in place should the unthinkable happen.[/quote] We are certainly run in a more sustainable manner than a large number of clubs. Of course it is only sustainable based on the premier league money but we have the ability to adapt to the circumstances ahead (whatever they may be) because of the lack of debt.