This will be something unusual for some of our younger supporters, and will stir some grainy memories for our long time supporters, but for the first time this century, the club finds itself in a relegation battle, even though the hierarchy, the director of football, the manager, the players, and a lot of the fanbase seem to be blissfully unaware. The groundwork for this debacle was started by the inept stewardship of Daniel Levy, and has been continued by the even worse team of Vivienne and Charlie Lewis, Vinai Venkatesham, and Johan Lange. Here is the state of play with 13 games to go: For me, Burnley and Wolves are gone, but one of us, Palace, Leeds, Forest or West Ham is going down. We have the best goal difference of ant of those teams, and that may be enough to keep us up if the unthinkable happens and we need a result on the last day of the season vs Everton. We play Palace, Leeds, and Forest at home, and Wolves away. If we don't pick up sufficient points from those games, we are in big trouble.
William Hill doesn`t share your optimism - we are 9-1 to go down - I would take that punt. Wolverhampton Wanderers – 1/500 Burnley – 1/100 West Ham United – 8/13 Nottingham Forest – 10/3 Leeds United – 8/1 Tottenham Hotspur – 9/1
Reminds me of the joke about the guy stopping to lace up his shoes when being chased by a bear. "You can't outrun a bear" his mate said. "No, but I just need to outrun you" he replied. Sad that we are reduced to this.
Remaining PL fixtures: (H) Newcastle, Arsenal, Everton, Palace, Brighton, Leeds, Forest (A) Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Sunderland, Fulham, Wolves
I'd say Daniel Levy is laughing his arse off right now ... but given he owns about 30% of ENIC, he's probably well more angry than any of us at the moment. Ange though. In hysterics, surely.
At this point last season we had 4 more points - not much better, I know - but were 16 points clear of the drop.
If Ange were still here, we would already be in the bottom three. How many games did he win at Forest? That's what I thought.
It's a perfect storm of injuries, dreadful recruitment, new inexperienced and hubristic owners, a new and flailing coaching team, and a lack of belief creating a death spiral.
No shit. I'm not saying that anyone should want him back. I'm just saying, like Levy, he'll find a degree of vindication, however slight, in response to being sacked by the answer to "did things get better or worse?"
Today, Forest could get to 29 points, equal with us, if they beat Wolves. And Palace could get to 35 points if they beat Burnley, which might be enough for safety.
A lot of buttocks clenching today: Palace blow a 2-goal lead at home and lose 3-2 to Burnley. Brighton lose 1-0 at Villa, and Forest can only manage a home draw against Wolves.
Lol, Big Malaka is less than amused by the draw with Wolves, so boom goes Dyche. That'll be what, 4 managers for Forest in one season?
The 2008-09 season was also very worrying. In late October Redknapp was brought in to rescue Spurs from the bottom of the table having zero wins. So, not really the first time this century, but it is the first time when the worries were so strong at this point in the season.
It's events like this that one has thoughts of looking up in the record books for the most managers in a single season.
Harry was just great that year - just triffic. Within two games - a win v Liverpool and the 4-4 v 'them' - you knew we'd be safe. And he took us to penalties in the League Cup final. Lordy, we should've won that one, ManU were there for the taking. And the two years after ... Lordy, the Redknapp era was great, great fun.