Is all this pessimism on the basis of the pre-season friendlies?

What's telling is not the performances, but the reaction to them.

It was always obvious that we would have a difficult start to the season - an entirely new squad and team is bound to take a month or two to gel (Man City last year were a freak - which was why they got so much attention).

The big question has always been whether the crowd would be patient enough to put up with a difficult month or two, to see what might develop. So whether players that struggled at first and looked out of their depth at times - would be given the time and encouragement to improve as they got used to each other etc.

The answer seems to be that we don't even have the patience to make it through pre-season . Never mind the first month or two.

Barmy.

Posted By: Tricky Hawes, Aug 3, 15:46:14