Mick

You don't need to duck, I thought he was a class player.

Recently our best teams have been those that contained a twat or two.

You've contradicted yourself, you said "No one knows how we'll do next season, it really isn't very complicated." You then say "All this we'll defo struggle/get relegated unless we sign certain players is just a load of moany bollocks." Your last sentence does exactly what you complain about in the first unless you meant nobody but you knows how well do.

How does the highlighted work?

Are you seriously suggesting that what is posted on here will have the slightest effect on our coming season? Also, we didn't beat two of the teams you mentioned above, we actually won once drew twice and lost twice in the 5 games played.

I can only comment on our current situation and if we don't bring in more new faces then we're in for a poor season. I don’t see the signing of Perch and an injured Gosling as being season changing players. Campbell could make a difference for us as long as he hasn’t lost too much during the closed season.

Kettle and pop come to mind.

So it's OK for some to think we'll do well before a ball is kicked but not for those who think we might struggle?

Based on what?

I've been waiting for Barton to do something positive since the day he signed, I think I've given up on him now. Nolan just hasn't got the pace and I didn't see him improve apart from his goals but if it's down to confidence then he might have a better season than the one before last.

Who is saying we are down? I think we'll struggle to stay up with our current squad but I'm not saying we're down.

We haven't got the quality where it counts most, through the middle and that's where we'll struggle against too many teams. That's not the sound of violins it's the sound of reality.

That last line.

To be fair, 40 points would have been close to mid table last season and 35 points kept West Ham up. I'm not sure we can get that points total either and we'll probably need that many to stay up.

Barton has done nothing since he came here and did very little last season, what makes you think he'll come good all of a sudden? Nolan was embarrassingly shit last season when he didn't score in a shit division, he's not going to get the goals he got last season because he'll be up against better players, what will he offer then? The most we can hope for is that he gets in the way.

We need that level of impact.

I think more people over-rate our squad. I can't see an away win anywhere although I think we'll probably get one, I just don't see an away banker. We've been historically (since Bobby) poor away from home and we didn't do very well away to the promoted teams so they aren't going to be easy away games. If we need 40 points to stay up and only get 10 points away which is probably on a par with a lot of our Premiership seasons, where's the 30 home points coming from? I can probably see us getting 24 points at best at home.

2 good signings will make a massive difference but we haven't got them yet.

Spirit will only take you so far and will soon go when the results aren't coming.

Who are the good/reasonable Premiership standard players in our squad?

Where's our talent? I know we have some but it’s not where it counts, the spine of our team is at best unproven once you get passed centre half and even that area of the team has a lot to prove.

I’m not confident that we’ll finish above any team who were in the Premiership last season. I don't see us having a forward capable of scoring double figures and our central midfielders are so slow and one dimensional.

I think you're heading for a disappointment, we’ll offer very little of a threat up front and our central midfield will spend more time watching the ball than using it.

Our current team will struggle to get as high as 4th bottom.