Relegation battle

[Man Friday]

:lol: No worries as yet.

All I would say is that we have made 3 good signings this week; I'd like to think most STGs are satisfied with the level of reinvestment seen in the squad

You've got to be kidding. Get in £12m. Spend £3m. Do me a favour. Are you SJM in disguise?

2 players out, 4 in for the season (including Khumalo). Wages to consider. Then consider accuracy of figures with fees; they're all undisclosed. Add our £4m yearly deficit, spent on players' wages. It makes sound sense to me.

We also had 3 obvious areas to strengthen; LB, CB and ST. Done, with players you would expect to handle this level. Who would you have liked to come into these positions instead?

So, Mills and Long weren't on wages? No wonder they left.

[Man Friday]

Incredibly despite sitting 20th our next 3 games are against teams below us (the bottom 3!) & 2 at home, nothing less than 6 points I think from these will do.

These are the games we usually drop points on.

[rhroyal]

You've got to be kidding. Get in £12m. Spend £3m. Do me a favour. Are you SJM in disguise?

2 players out, 4 in for the season (including Khumalo). Wages to consider. Then consider accuracy of figures with fees; they're all undisclosed. Add our £4m yearly deficit, spent on players' wages. It makes sound sense to me.

We also had 3 obvious areas to strengthen; LB, CB and ST. Done, with players you would expect to handle this level. Who would you have liked to come into these positions instead?

So, Mills and Long weren't on wages? No wonder they left.

4 players' wages > 2 players' wages. I'd expect Khumalo + Gorkss to be similar to Long and Mills, with Le Fondre and J. Mills on top.

(P.s. Stupid posts like the above make me understand why people resort to insults and terms such as "mong" on here, but I'll resist for now.)

[RoyalBlue]

:lol: No worries as yet.

All I would say is that we have made 3 good signings this week; I'd like to think most STGs are satisfied with the level of reinvestment seen in the squad, with the players coming in looking the sort who could "hit the ground running".

So now, if we do have a bad season, can we please lay off JM and NH and recognize that you need the playing staff to produce the goods?

No, if we have a bad season Madejski will hopefully get a big enough kick up the arse to shift him. When Madejski says he's flogged the Bentley and is more than happy with the Skoda that he has bought to replace it (both good cars but in terms of performance you do tend to get what you pay for) then I might be satisfied with the level of reinvestment.

The only signing likely to hit the ground running is the only one who cost a reasonably significant sum of money. To expect the other two 'cheap' youngsters to do so is a very big ask and will place significant pressure on them.

[Stranded]

WE'LL BE FINE - the catchphrase of the Ostrich-like RFC fanbase this time 4 years ago.

After 5 games, it's the view, as a fan I'd rather have,thanks. If we're still doing badly after 15/20 games then I'll gear myself up for a relegation battle - at the moment, it's just a poor run that sadly has come at the start of the season - making it look worse.

[Avon Royal]

WE'LL BE FINE - the catchphrase of the Ostrich-like RFC fanbase this time 4 years ago.

After 5 games, it's the view, as a fan I'd rather have,thanks. If we're still doing badly after 15/20 games then I'll gear myself up for a relegation battle - at the moment, it's just a poor run that sadly has come at the start of the season - making it look worse.

But it was so predictable!

It isn't as if it's a situation of "oh, a run of poor form - didn't expect that" - it was always, always going to happen. That's why it is so frustrating.

[rhroyal]

The people who were telling us not to get carried away after the Leicester win are doing exactly that now. Okay, it's 3 losses, but we'll only view 1 of them as a particularly bad result come the end of the season IMO. Still early days.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

WE'LL BE FINE - the catchphrase of the Ostrich-like RFC fanbase this time 4 years ago.

After 5 games, it's the view, as a fan I'd rather have,thanks. If we're still doing badly after 15/20 games then I'll gear myself up for a relegation battle - at the moment, it's just a poor run that sadly has come at the start of the season - making it look worse.

But it was so predictable!

It isn't as if it's a situation of "oh, a run of poor form - didn't expect that" - it was always, always going to happen. That's why it is so frustrating.

Can you really say the problems this season are down to Mills and Long leaving?

We've looked lethargic since the start of pre-season. We just don't look up for it. Perhaps the play-off defeat hit the players harder than imagined, and the prospect of another play-off push isn't inspiring them.

Even including pre-season, beyond the match with no-hopers Dravograd, we've only managed one 1st half goal, and that was Shane Long's 45th minute effort at Northampton, which was against the run of play.

For me the most disappointing players have been Kebe & McAnuff. Both are playing far too deep and don't seem keen to get forward. No doubt you'll attribute all this to Madejski, but it just seems like a fairly common play-off defeat hangover to me.

[Royal Rother]

WE'LL BE FINE - the catchphrase of the Ostrich-like RFC fanbase this time 4 years ago.

Or - DOOMED TO A RELEGATION BATTLE - the catchphrase of the depressive glass half empty RFC fanbase at the start of EVERY bloody season.

[Avon Royal]

Or - DOOMED TO A RELEGATION BATTLE - the catchphrase of the depressive glass half empty RFC fanbase at the start of EVERY bloody season.

Every season? Don't think so...........

[The Prisoner]

We've played badly and still only lost by one goal in three league games (I'm discounting the cup). Play them again - as badly - and we could have had 5 points.

One of those games was somewhere we never get anything, another was against a team only in it's second season out of the prem. Oh, and two of them were away. The only REALLY disappointing game was probably Barnsley, and even then the result was a touch freakish.

Fine margins, countered by the addition of two very decent signings (and a promising one), a break to try and get the basics right, and 5 or so winnable games coming up.

Typical reactionary bollocks on here, no doubt more to wind the likes of me up than in true belief from the OP that Crawley away waits next August. On that basis it worked. Great thread.

[rhroyal]

Or - DOOMED TO A RELEGATION BATTLE - the catchphrase of the depressive glass half empty RFC fanbase at the start of EVERY bloody season.

Every season? Don't think so...........

Have you been on HNA? in August in previous seasons?

[Avon Royal]

Or - DOOMED TO A RELEGATION BATTLE - the catchphrase of the depressive glass half empty RFC fanbase at the start of EVERY bloody season.

Every season? Don't think so...........

Have you been on HNA? in August in previous seasons?

Yes, and most seasons I see more "doomed to another year in the Championship" than "doomed to relegation".

[rhroyal]

Every season? Don't think so...........

Have you been on HNA? in August in previous seasons?

Yes, and most seasons I see more "doomed to another year in the Championship" than "doomed to relegation".

After selling Siggy it was definitely said by many. Likewise the start of Rodgers' era. 08/09 of course people wouldn't say that coming down from the Premiership.

Premiership years, of course they would, with more justification than these days, so I won't factor that in.

[readingbedding]

International break has come at a good time for us.
Not even September and we're in a relegation battle?

I blame Sky.

Blimey.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

This has all the hall marks of a relagation season even with the new signings.

Worryingly the manager is showing the same tendancy as Coppell did in later days in that certain players are never going to be dropped - and from what I have seen in 2 games myself, and reading reviews of the others on here, there seems a worrying lack of energy and appetite which has previously been a McD hallmark.

We have played well in one game out of 6 so far and largely against teams who will not feature in the top half - that is relagation form.

The Barnsley result wasn't freakish - they certainly deserved to be in front at half time and we did not play well enough to deserve to win.

[rhroyal]

Missing 2 penalties in a game is definitely freakish if you ask me. Which is encouraging. We were far from our best against Barnsley, but still should have won. We were flat against Pompey and Hull, but only lost by 1 goal. Imagine what we could do if we played nearer our potential. Actually, we don't have to imagine. We saw what we could achieve against Leicester. Consistency is the key, but the squad definitely has it in them.

As for teams you expect to struggle, the only side we've played so far who I'd class as that are Barnsley. That's the only poor result out of our season so far; I'd put Millwall as the 2nd worst. Away losses to Hull and Portsmouth really are not that bad. They're the sort of games where we need more to challenge for promotion; but not the sort that indicate relegation candidates.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

20th with a defeat a home to Watford who are also struggling will put us in the bottom three.

Worrying times ahead should this happen.

[Ian Royal]

Table isn't worth looking at as anything other than a short term form guide until game 10. If we're still in the bottom six at that point I'll start thinking about worrying.

[FiNeRaIn]

lol relegation battle. Even I couldn't get away with trolling this obvious.

We are a mid-table team.