I think a lot of the problem fans had with Pards is he was always seen as a yes man to Ashley. When the get rid of pardew crowd started to grow I always argued against it as my point was always Ashley is the problem not Pards. I thought he did pretty well for us for much of the time he was there but in the end after that long abysmal run I also wanted him gone.It’s been said on here. I’ve always e argued he did a good job but suffered from being associated with Ashley. I maintain that Benitez won’t do as well as Pardew but will be far more fondly thought of. In fairness Rafa is doing very good job and better than I expected. I didn’t think you’s would go down but thought it would be nip and tuck. Hats off to the bloke.
That said at the end he started to turn it round and started to pull some results together.
For a good chunk of the season I had huge worries we would be going down but he turned it round. I think he has done really well this season both in terms of getting us to safety and the way he has brought some of the players on a really improved them.
i'd agree with that last statement. every year you have teams who've spent a decent wedge coming back down, even if they've only been up for 1 season, and have parachute payments to hold onto players. its only if they get stuck down there for 4 or 5 years that they have to trim their squad costs down. looks like stoke, southampton and brom are coming down, who've been up there for 10 years or so and spent a lot on their squads. there's not that much difference between the bottom half and the top 6 or so in the champ.
I would agree with that.
Then you have a huge gulf to the have nots.
I think in the next few years you are going to see a premier league top 10 in which they start the season knowing they are not going to go down.
then you are going to have the bottom 10 premier sides and the top 10 championship sides who are fairly close in terms of quality.
Then there will be a huge gulf to the rest.
I think it's important for you as a club to get a new owner and get competing at the top half of the championship ASAP or you could be a long time in the wilderness. Not saying that as a wind up just how I genuinely see things going over the next few years.
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