On the contrary, Mike...

... I think Grant's done really well. To have got rid of so much deadwood and brought in the likes of Marshall, Brellier (great signing, I agree), Cureton, Semi and Dave Striker has, in my view, been no mean achievement. The squad is indeed considerably more balanced now - but the trouble is, it's just not strong enough yet.

Even with the Turners on board, this was always going to be a very difficult season. This is Year 1 PPP (post parachute payments): a campaign we enter minus Earnshaw, Etuhu and Safri. What's more, as Dirty Delia pointed out below, you only have to look at the first 12 or 13 sides in my predicted table to see just how tough it's going to be: you have sides with rich benefactors (Wolves, Leicester), others who've just come down and have a whopping great financial advantage (Sheff Utd, Charlton, Watford), others who already have the nucleus of a successful side at this level (West Brom, Southampton, Wolves again), others who seemed to be heading in the right direction by the end of last season (Sheff Wed, Coventry, Palace), and still others with managers who know their way around this division (Cardiff, Coventry again).

Against that backdrop, and in the absence of a Mandaric-type figure suddenly appearing, the only way a club like us can succeed is by building slowly over a period of two or three years. I've certainly been encouraged by how the summer's gone - but really, we're only at the start. It'll take quite some time for a strong enough squad to develop - and at present, we lack cover in many areas, are undermanned in midfield (Brellier is not a direct replacement for Etuhu: and we won't be good enough until we find a really good box-to-box midfielder), and are quite staggeringly weak in central defence, where not just one signing is needed, but actually, two are.

So in consequence, I fancy us to improve on last season, but still have a way to go yet. When Grant was appointed, I felt he had until Christmas 2008 to show signs of clear progress, and May 2010 to take us back up - and ten months on, I stand by that. This is effectively year 1 of a three year plan: and my prediction of 11th would show we're on the right track. Put it this way: if we're all celebrating a return to the promised land come May, I'll be the first to happily eat my words and say I was wrong - but with things as they presently are, I'd be absolutely flabbergasted if it turns out like that.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Aug 11, 08:26:33