Planet Swans ArchivesIt happened when we first arrived at this level in 2011 and for 2011 you can now read 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 as pundits queue up to take what seems on the outside to be the “easy” option and predict that we will be relegated.
The reason I say easy is that most football pundits look at money spent and equate it to guaranteed success. What the great ‘educated’ who comment on the game do not realise is that this is not a mantra that is needed to stay in this division and if it was then Newcastle, QPR and Cardiff amongst others would still be here and not finding themselves playing second tier football.
You can also look at Portsmouth and Leeds as two classic examples of where the spending went wrong and of course a very well publicised example last season was Bolton Wanderers.
What you need to stay in this division is a good team spirit, players who want to be at this level and appreciate the chances that they have and overall just that unnerving ability to upset the big boys.
What the likes of Robbie Savage and Jamie Carragher seem to have overlooked is that in 5 years at this level we are yet to finish lower than 12th and consistently pull off at least 2/3 results every season (even last term when we struggled more than we had done in previous years) that nobody expects us to pull off (remember we beat Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool last time around)
So why does it keep on happening? Some of it may just be wishful thinking but some of it is just plain ignorance. We sell Ashley Williams – a 31 year old centre half for £12m – and we are doomed. We sell Andre Ayew – who never fully fitted into our system – for £20m and we are doomed. In their place come a man capped 24 times for Spain and a club record signing. Williams’ replacement was already here and of course we added Leroy Fer to the side who added much to us at the back end of last season.
Add to that a four year contract for Gylfi and two of the quickest wingers in the league and there is nothing really to suggest that we will go down this season.
Carragher and Savage are not alone as Paul Merson and Martin Keown both predict struggles for us as well and they won’t be alone in thinking that we will struggle.
Of course they could be right come the end of the season – I guess if you predict the same thing often enough then eventually it will come true – but for me there will continue to be 3 worse teams than us in this division and being the underdog has never done us any harm in the past, I don’t see why it will now.
Time will tell but for me they are wrong and maybe one day they will realise more what they are looking at rather than just looking topline at what they think is happening.
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