Relegation run in 22/23 ** Now a Wolves free zone**

[Alan]

I can't imagine that the players aren't very aware of our situation.

 

[C.L.D]

It will be lucky, if you voluntarily appoint and retain a complete fucking moron - when it's patently obvious that he is ridiculously out of his depth - then you deserve to get relegated.

I know you mean Lage but my first reaction was "which fucking moron?". If it happens it really has been years in the making, and from the position the club was in, baffling.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I would reject the idea that we could ever be "established" and de facto immune from relegation. We're not in that bracket of clubs and never will be in my lifetime.

But we did have a very definite position of strength that wouldn't have been that hard to at least maintain, even if the next step is quite the leap. Instead we chucked it in the bin.

 

[jd1981]

Other than sky super 6 no club is immune from relegation nor are they established. You’re either a newbie or have been there a long time.
I’d argue you’re more at risk after you’ve been in the league a few seasons as complacency sets in ie Jeff and the boys.
If we survive this season I’m certain we will play at least one season of championship football before the 2030’s.

 

[Tony Towner]

Sky 6 and Everton

 

[jd1981]

Sky 6 and Everton

I think Everton gave up that privilege once they treated the transfer market like a few episodes of supermarket sweep

 

[Wilf Wolf]

You can probably add Newcastle now.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yes and no, I mean they could end up like England's Malaga if Saudi Arabia either decide it isn't worth it any more or they get stopped from funding clubs on a state level (yeah, I know).

There isn't much to underpin it, whereas the likes of United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and I'd say City are now in the "too big to fail" bracket.

Spurs aren't there as such but they've only ever come close to going down (and it wasn't that close) once in about 40 years.

 

[WsWolf]

Going 3 at the back against Newcastle wasn't the players fault.

Staying with 3 DM's when we are crying out for striker support isn't the players fault either.

Playing with 10 men, undeservedly so, and coming back to beat Soton is showing plenty of bottle. Beating Spurs and Liverpool showed real mental strength.

It's there in these players.

I'm going back well further than this season to form my opinion.

 

[Johnny75]

I'm going back well further than this season to form my opinion.

So Neves, Moutinho, Raul and Kilman?

Seems like bollocks to shift the goalposts to me.

 

[WsWolf]

So Neves, Moutinho, Raul and Kilman?

Seems like bollocks to shift the goalposts to me.

That's spine of the team?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Apart from all the big games we've won, we haven't won any.

 

[Johnny75]

That's spine of the team?

You're watching the wrong players if you think Neves, Moutinho and Raul have no bottle or are mentally weak.

 

[1986]

I've never got the impression that we've done that in any game.

We essentially aren't that good; we don't score many and we give away too many soft goals. This means we lose games that we shouldn't. This is the legacy of April 2021 (or you could argue August 2020) to November 2022.

Yes - definitely , we're not half as good a team as some people think we are right now .
However , that does not mean that we are almost certain to be relegated . Digging out results between now and the back end of the season should not be beyond our reach , and that's precisely the trait that we now need to find for the remaining games , starting tomorrow .
10 more points should do it , that's 10 out of a possible 30......if you look at it like that , then surely we can dig that out .

 

[Jinky]

Not for me.

If we do go down then I'm not having any hard luck sob stories, just no. It'll be on merit and because of decisions the club took over a three year period.

If we stay up then we've done it having needlessly dug ourselves a ridiculous hole, so the players and staff will deserve credit and we need to learn from what went wrong.

Late to the party here but, although I agree with a lot of what you've put above, there is absolutely an argument to say refereeing decisions have directly impacted our results, and therefore our points total. I know they effect every club, but we'll be towards the top of the "shit decision" table, if there were such a thing - and for a club like us, every point makes a difference.

As I say, I do agree that, ultimately, if we go down - it will be our own fault. Keeping Lage in charge was an absolutely mental decision. But it's difficult to argue against the fact we've been robbed of points this season and that could genuinely be the difference between us going down or staying up.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm not really sure we are. Newcastle is a howler to beat all howlers and a likely 3 point swing. Forest and Liverpool were both cup games. After that though we've been given a couple of handball penalties at the NB end that the fans didn't appeal for, Hwang could have walked at Villa, Dawson against Leeds, Raul got away with a massive push in the back against Newcastle. We've had a fair amount go our way. I'm with Deutsch if we were to go down it's because of internal factors

 

[sycophantia]

There's no doubt we've had a few howlers go against us which could affect where we finish but as TT says we've had plenty go the other way.

 

[Derby Wolf]

I think I'm (probably) the most anti-VAR poster on here but I'm also in the camp that if we're relegated its of our own doing rather than Webb and his band of merry cunts at Stockley Park.

We've assembled at immense cost a collection of forwards who don't score goals, the consequence of that is when we do score it becomes absolutely paramount they havent got a beard hair offside or the ball didnt graze their forearm because those players cannot be trusted to go again and score again.

When each of your forwards only take one big chance in three (generous) it makes the odds of VAR having a detrimental effect on results/points greater without it being the route caus of poor results/points return.

 

[AndyWolves]

It's all so tight in the relegation spots that any poor refereeing calls have big implications. (IIRC Villa would have gone down if the Sheff united goal had been given).

It doesn't mean that we can only blame the officials when results don't go our way, far from it in fact, but these decisions have material impacts.

And I agree that the reason poor decisions have material impacts is because we aren't good enough for them not to.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It's all so tight in the relegation spots that any poor refereeing calls have big implications. (IIRC Villa would have gone down if the Sheff united goal had been given).

Sort of, although it wasn't the last kick of the game or anything (in fact was before half time) so there's no way of knowing how the result would have panned out, or how Villa would have approached subsequent fixtures knowing they were a point lighter.

And it meant Bournemouth went down so all's well with the world.