Leeds fan in peace

Seems you have been unlucky week after week, and I always like when newly promoted teams stay regardless of who they are really...except Cardiff, it was funny watching them go down.

Is Pearson the right man though going forward? Did great getting you through the leagues but I think the pressure of the job in the Premier League is mashing his head up and he looks to be losing the plot?!

Anyway good luck in the run in

You won't make it. You won't make up that much ground now. Best to start planning now for next season, decide which players you want to keep and which ones you need to replace.

It's been a strange season Jud, full of what might have beens. There's no doubt that we've not had the rub if the green but the biggest contributor to our position is the lack of signings last summer. A premier league experienced CB and a better goal scorer up front and we wouldn't have been relying on the ref as much.

Frustrating thing is that almost every Leicester fan would've said we needed the above back in April when we were promoted.

As regards NP, I think it'll depend on how these last 9 games go. If the current points per game continues then he'll have to go but if he can turn the tide, even if ultimately unsuccessfully then I think they'll let him continue into next season.

I'd happily have some of the players in your squad in ours!!

Knockaert, Vardy, Nugent, King, Morgan id take to help us out of the Championship.

Thought Huth was a good bit of business, maybe a transfer window too late though like you say...Ulloa was bang in form early on but fell away a bit.

Like I said, good luck...it'll be tough but enjoy the PL while you can...I'd be happy to be in your position now just to see them mix it with the big boys again.

Great escape, more chance of Steve Mcqueen clearing the barbed wire on his motor bike.
The great escape would have started in november if the club had had the guts to sack Pearson just as he started to lose the plot both on and off the pitch.

Yeah Pearson is a mental.

Every time I watch that film Thorney I hope he's gonna make it!

25 points

↑ my head thinks that too, 3 of which on the last day vs QPR.

Heart says 40!

Tbh guys, isn't 6 of your last 9 games at home?

If you can't catch Blunderland or Villa with them fixture's then you really do deserve to go down.

Last day should be interesting.
Leicester v QPR
Villa v Burnley

Villa will be fine, we're down it's just a matter of when, then it's between Sunderland and Burnley for the last spot. I think Burnley will stay up

What happened to your nailed-on favourites for relegation West Bromwich Albion, Black Starr? The club saw the manager was no good, sacked him, and appointed a competent manager. No sentiment got in our way.

You won't find me arguing Aries, I said in November we should sack Pearson and appoint Pulis. Sadly most fans disagreed. As did the owners.

It would have been a very pragmatic thing to do, Black Starr. As soon as Pulis left Palace in August, I wrote an article here on ja606 saying that Albion should sack Alan Irvine straight away and appoint Pulis. There weren't many takers among Albion fans, and he still has some detractors, and of course our neighbours the Wolves fans have found much mirth and merriment in the hoofball factor.

I dislike Pulis significantly.. for clarityin case anyone hasn't read any of my posts in the last month

Why?

Well, I'm not a massive fan of his football style but I'm not stupid enough to think that effective winning football is not as good as losing pretty football!!

It's simply this. He has fallen out with and destabilised the boardroom at every club he has been at. He is very dictatorial (one accusation levelled at Pearson but remember he works very well with a DoF) and refuses to do it any way but his.

I wouldn't mind this if his way was right like Ferguson, O'Neil and Pearson... but it's not. This still isn't enough though, what really worries me is that our owners (as amazing as they are) are still learning, and I think they need a manager that can help them in this. Pulis and his "my way or the highway" approach would only destabilise us.

I know a few people who worked at Stole during his time and try describe him as "poison". Not the sort of man I want at my club.

So, I will say this. I'd rather be relegated under Pearson and feel confident about the long term stability of my club than stay up for this season under Pulos but at what medium term cost?

Bitter? Maybe. Probably.

Umm well i would rather watch premiership football next season Ferry boy its like cutting you nose of to spit your face. I fell the same way about pearson who does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as MoN or Fergie.

The difference between Pulis is his system has keep teams up and he would never think of himself in the same league of those you mentioned.

You say NP works well with the director of football he did so well the bloke got fired for NP's faliure in my opinion and trust me although TB won't i know for a fact the new DoF does not have the same affection for NP far from it.

Pearson does not reflect the ethos of our club and him and his cronies will be on there way soon imo

Merseyside Fox, when Pulis was at Stoke, I think most people hated the way they played football. However, he did well at Palace, not only keeping them up comfortably, but also by playing good football because he had better players at his disposal. Same at Albion, where I (biased as I am) believe he's got better players again. As for his dictatorial attitude, when a club's in trouble, as Palace and Albion were, maybe you need someone strong in charge, to stop any drifting. And I will also say that the Albion chairman, long a champion of keeping intact the incumbent coaching staff, acceded readily to Pulis's intent to bring in his own people. I think Pulis has been vindicated in that. Moreover, I will lay good money that Albion's current DofF Terry Burton will be gone in the summer, not because Pulis doesn't like him, but because he simply doesn't need him. Pulis knows what he's doing, he can run the football side of a club, including the academy, with good staff underneath him. And around Pulis, the Albion chairman has a support structure of professionals to run the business and financial side of the club. And isn't that exactly the sort of football professional that babes-in-the-wood owners like Leicester's would want to hire to keep them in the Premier League to realise a three- or five-year plan?

You make excellent points Aries and from experience, what happens though if it all goes wrong and all your eggs are with the one man, short term may work but as Mersey points out what about the long term impact IF it doesn't work?

TB what like now its not working for us or am i missing something. do you think the owners might just say we have tried this it does not work so start again?

There were two concerns I had about Pulis coming in November:

One was style of football. I don't buy the "had better players at Palace so they played better football" argument - he had years to turn Stoke into a footballing side but didn't do so. It's been fascinating to me that a mediocre manager like Mark Hughes has been able to turn them into a better footballing side, although they're still essentially a team of athletes rather than technicians at the core. Now there's not necessarily anything wrong with that if that floats your boat, but I remember one of things people really enjoyed about last season was the quality, possession football that we played. The fact that we haven't been able to reproduce that in this league is the biggest indictment of Pearson this season.

The second was a more general point, and that was one of bad timing. If Pulis came in now, he'd get a great deal of support from the fans. Had he come in in November, lots of fans would have said that Pearson wasn't given enough time. (I'm not saying all, but many.) That kind of attitude tends to linger for a while and would have made the job of the next manager that much more difficult. This didn't matter so much at West Brom because almost everyone must have been able to see that Pulis was an improvement over Alan Irvine, who was a baffling appointment. Add to that that Pulis would have needed to convince a lot of players to come to a non-established club in the relegation zone in order to improve the defence and the job here looks a lot less attractive than the one at Wet Brom.

I still think you can stay up. You run in is not particularly difficult, unlike some. You ave six at ome and only three away.

Umm well i would rather watch premiership football next season
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Do you know what, as ridiculous as it sounds, I probably wouldn't. Being in the Premier League and paying shedloads for tickets, watching us play dire defensive football and losing every week has been pretty awful.

Playing all the top teams has been really exciting but to be honest that would wear off. At least in the Championship we play exciting football in a competitive league rather than putting eight men behind the ball and hoping to nick a win.

There are many Q.P.R. supporters that echo your comments. However in the long term would you want to be Championship or get established in the Prem like Swansea and Southamption ave done ?

Its hard RR and a very good point. It would be great to be a team like Southampton or Swansea but I feel they are very special cases because of the way they have built and organised their squads as well as Southampton having a superb academy.

If we went down and reoragnised became a team with a philosophy all through the club then that would be great but I'd rather not end up like West Brom or Sunderland and win about 10 games a season and always worry about going down

I have waited 10 years to watch top flight football.last time we where promoted we did not have the resources or facilities at the club we have now.
If we stayed a second season we could encourage better players and with an improved squad we might find we enjoy it more. rather than admitting we are playing out of our league.
I did say to my son that promotion seasons are the most enjoyable and last years was the best i have had. I said next year won't be anything like this. Never did i believe it would be as turgid as has been happy to finish 17th Yes but the only aggression we have shown for most of it has come from our hapless manager.