Realistic or overtly positive?

I’ve heard plenty of discussion over the summer so far, so heres my two penneth.

This coming season will be shit…no getting around it, however some of our fans have to have a reality check. 

If we were to be relegated (which I’m confident we wont be, more on this later…) we, as a football club, would face complete and utter ruin.  There is zero possibility that we’d maintain the vast majority of our squad the way we did when we went down the other season.  We simply couldn’t afford another drop…the impact would be too severe. 

Some people have mentioned we would linger around in mediocrity for years, ala Leeds/Forest/Charlton/Southampton, which is highly plausible.

I’d rather see us play terrible football, stay up and push on the season after this than as some have suggested spend 2/3 years in the Championship then fade in obscurity for the sake of it being a brilliant season football wise.

Let’s not forget our style of play last year, for the most part was horrid.  At the beginning of the season we looked complete and utter tosh.  The football was awful to watch at times, and often or not the result glossed over the actual way we got it.  It was nasty, boring, untidy, but ultimately got us results.

People forget that the team that went down were low on confidence/morale/ability.  This changed part way through the season.  Is it any surprise that after the addition of Routledge…having width and two attacking wingers, provided a much needed lift and shift in style of play?

Hughton grew in confidence with his team, and by the end of the season, the team resembled worthy Championship leaders and ultimately winners. He played key playerss in positions they deserved to be in (Guthrie).  Had the balls to drop key players (Alan Smith/Nicky Butt).  Had the gumption to stick with Nolan(when many were calling for him to be dropped - me included).  He provided astute substitutions in games, where at the start of the season he’d have been happy to bizarrely put 3 strikers on when holding onto a 1-nil lead away from home.

He’s learned as a young developing manager, any one comparing the two half’s of last season will be able to see that.

He’s galvanised a bunch of players, and made them into a team.  A team that played as a unit and were willing to put everything into it, rather than just pick up a pay check at the end of the week. 

With Hughton in charge, the camaraderie, and our strange, if somewhat effective transfer policy is part of the reason I think we’ll stay up. Young hungry players, who don’t just want to earn a crust but want to earn a reputation too.  Couple this with how average the bottom half of the ‘Greatest League on Earth’ is, the teams we got promoted with are worse than us, meaning we have to get more points than one other team.

Will the ground be unanimous in its support like our spell in the Championship? Or will the moaners, groaners and glory hunters return to infect the ground with false expectations and negativity remains to be seen.

I know one thing though.  I can’t wait to be back home in Level 7.