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

[b3h]

If I had to choose I would go West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth. Or if we're choosing anyone, Liverpool and Villa. Not that fussed though as long as not us!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Maybe I'm just old and cantankerous (well, I know I am but I digress) but I don't see the point of it all - it's so bloody childish.

They started it.

 

[pr0sl0]

Stolen from reddit, but this is the table post-WC. Genuinely taken aback to realise that we've been in European form, considering the wobbles and sloppily dropped points.

 

[Langers]

It's almost as if we haven't been quite as bad as some people have made out

 

[jd1981]

Its 24 from 16 games

 

[Sniffer]

Stolen from reddit, but this is the table post-WC. Genuinely taken aback to realise that we've been in European form, considering the wobbles and sloppily dropped points.

There's another defeat to go on the table as Loppers has lost to Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Leeds, Bournemouth and Newcastle. The point is correct that our form has been very good considering our record when he took over and the changes made since.

 

[Tony Towner]

Not that it changes the point, but the Newcastle figure is wrong, they have 3 points more

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

Let's be honest, we haven't been 'great' during this period but have picked up some very handy/needed wins whilst also failing in some of the more obvious 'winnable' games. What is does show is an extremely erratic division this year and one in which any semblance of a decent, consistent run would have resulted in Europe. Had we appointed a proper manager last summer* and the league had played out this way, I think the European spots would have been a formality and CL possible.
There are some really, really poor sides in the top half this season.
* I appreciate that it wouldn't have been Lopetegui, but there were other options.

 

[jd1981]

It's almost as if we haven't been quite as bad as some people have made out

Last 2 games we’ve been brilliant but prior to that we were on a run of poor performances

 

[Tony Towner]

Last 2 games we’ve been brilliant but prior to that we were on a run of poor performances

No point trying to contextualise when Langers is having one of his smug moments

 

[jd1981]

No point trying to contextualise when Langers is having one of his smug moments

Yep and concerns were justified we were hovering dangerously close to the bottom 3 too.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

* I appreciate that it wouldn't have been Lopetegui, but there were other options.

No reason why it couldn't have been. It looked likely even at the end of the season that Lopetegui's time at Sevilla was coming to an end. Sure, we'd have had to pay for him, but go and get him and don't bother signing Guedes. And you'll still have plenty of change left over.

 

[Langers]

Last 2 games we’ve been brilliant but prior to that we were on a run of poor performances

Undoubtedly - we were rubbish, but I maintain that the poor run in question pales compared to those Leicester, Forest, Southampton have been on. They have all been consistently worse than we have, hence why they're in a worse predicament to us at the moment.

I also watched Leeds fall apart v Palace and West Ham surrender meekly at home to Newcastle very recently. Both were really weak performances which would absolutely alarm fans of both clubs.

We still have plenty to do to secure safety, and I would like us to be a lot more consistent next season but from where we were when Lopetegui arrived, we've done very well.

No point trying to contextualise when Langers is having one of his smug moments

Bit of an unnecessary comment but you do you

 

[Tredman]

Paging Alanis

 

[HanDoJin]

Weird table above as it's based on an uneven number of games played across the 20 teams. But the point is pretty clear -we're averaging 1.5 ppg post-World Cup and it would take a catastrophic collapse on our part, and an unprecedented uptick in form for those below, for us to finish 18th or worse.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Weird table above as it's based on an uneven number of games played across the 20 teams. But the point is pretty clear -we're averaging 1.5 ppg post-World Cup and it would take a catastrophic collapse on our part, and an unprecedented uptick in form for those below, for us to finish 18th or worse.

This is our 9th season in the Premier League in total...

In 2011/12 we had separate runs of 5 straight defeats and 7 straight defeats. Objectively we were the worst team in the division that season and the latter run came under the charge of Terry Connor, who we all know was never a manager at any level.

Otherwise we have never lost more than 4 in a row, not under Dave Jones, not under Bruno Lage, not under Steve Davis.

It's not going to happen.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

That’s a bit off Tony. Why do you do it?

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

No reason why it couldn't have been. It looked likely even at the end of the season that Lopetegui's time at Sevilla was coming to an end. Sure, we'd have had to pay for him, but go and get him and don't bother signing Guedes. And you'll still have plenty of change left over.

We'll never know of course but ultimately we only made the move after he was sacked (although it was suggested prior) and only actually got him after a break/change in his fathers circumstances. None of which actually changes my initial point that any degree of form/consistency this season could have resulted in a Top 6 finish, given the other teams occupying those positions and the disastrous seasons [by their standards] Liverpool and Chelsea have had.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Any degree of being proactive and we'd have been fine. Europe would have been a possibility, although you do question us in terms of goalscoring, even now. Villa have a good chance of making Europe under their own new manager who is far more appropriate for their aspirations, Brighton also, but they score way more than us, that's the big difference.

Having ownership who'd taken their eye off the ball and apparently seemed to just look at the league table and say "that's fine then, nothing to worry about" was marked out as being very dangerous a year ago and so it proved. Fortunately they did notice that we were 20th and did something about it. We should never have put ourselves in that position and hopefully we never do again. In our position in the natural(ish) hierarchy we're always at the mercy of a bad season but don't ensure you'll have one by making obviously crap decisions.

 

[Kenny]

We'll never know of course but ultimately we only made the move after he was sacked (although it was suggested prior) and only actually got him after a break/change in his fathers circumstances. None of which actually changes my initial point that any degree of form/consistency this season could have resulted in a Top 6 finish, given the other teams occupying those positions and the disastrous seasons [by their standards] Liverpool and Chelsea have had.

Another way to look at it is we needed what happened to change the direction the club (Jeff) was heading in. With Nuno, clearly there was a thought of this is piss easy, safe in the PL now and we started to piss around before Nuno left. Let Jorge put the next man in place etc and hit cruise control. They didn't spot the issues the previous 12 months were creating, mainly as we sat in the top half and one point we had a race for Europe thread on here.
Everything was mixed up at the club over the summer. We seemed to be waiting for Neves to be sold before buying players and then all of a sudden he wasn't off and we went on a spending spree. Jorge finally got Guedes at the club, Jeff was doing Jeff things and Scott getting bored of being a nodding dog started to push his side across.
Then the disaster of the season started.

If Jeff had decided to get shot of Lage in May, 0% confidence he would have gone for Lop and we would have got someone else from the Mendes camp and that could be anyone really but we stepped down from Nuno to Bruno so...

We got lucky I think with Beale being "loyal". Not in a he would have been a Nathan Jones Mk2 but because the set up would have been the same behind scenes. Getting Lop completely changed the structure of everything. All of a sudden we have a head coach calling the shots, Jeff has stepped back, Hobbs got promoted in what looked like a bit of a hollow role but turns out he is bloody good at what he does and has started to rebuild the relationship between the fans on non footballing side.

We are about to get away with a fuck up that was in the making for at least 18 months and I think that has hit home in the world of Jeff Shi