The official EPL relegation battle thread

[voetballiefhebb]

16 Leeds      37   -1   44 
17 Bolton     37   -11  41 
-----------------------------------
18 West Ham   37   -17  41 
19 West Brom  37   -36  25 
20 Sunderland 37   -40  19

Leeds v Aston Villa
Bolton v Boro
Brummy Scum v West Ham

Birmingham's chairman is a West Ham fan. He won't get Bruce to job seeing as each position is worth 500k.

West Ham need 18 goals if Leeds lose to stay up, or if Bolton lose and West Ham draw/win, we stay up. If Bolton win, then we need to beat Brum by +6 goals than what Bolton won by.

Aston Villa have the second worst away record in the premiership. Boro have the worst away record with only 1 win away from all season, so McClaren hopefully can do us a favour.

I have a gut feeling now we will be blowing bubbles in the Nationwide next year.

 

[Digitarius]

Yep. I think that West Ham still have an uphill task despite the recent victories.

 

[voetballiefhebb]

Thank you for posting Digitarius.

It seems everyone is wanking over the boring half of the table (top) and the interesting half (bottom) is being knocked down by "Even though I live in Australia, I support Man U because they win a lot " posts.

I honestly can't see us staying up.

 

[Digitarius]

Just to show that not all Man Utd fans are only embroiled in their club's success.

I think it has been a valiant attempt by West Ham, and most notably Trevor Brooking, towards the end of the season. But if West Ham had shown that sort of fight earlier in the season they would have been challenging for Europe, not survival.

Diabolical defending from Repka, Breen, and Dailly didn't help matters either.

 

[Silverhawk]

Let's hope the hammers do it for Roeder.Poor guy,try as he might,just couldn't win!.
btw,wonder if DeFoe will remain at west ham!! He's got real quality.
Hey,doesn't kanoute look a LOT like henry when he's on the ball?

 

[playmate]

actually i felt a bit bad for west ham today. i think even if arsenal won today we'd have managed to win the tilte anyway with our own game against the Toffees.
i have some kinda feeling that west ham will survive though.
let me clarify i don't have anything against bolton but a bit of a soft corner for west ham.
EDIT: Di Canio will do it again

 

[voetballiefhebb]

Originally posted by Silverhawk

Hey,doesn't kanoute look a LOT like henry when he's on the ball?

Yup Kanoute is class. He will get a hat trick this weekend v Brummy. Dunno why, just got a weird feeling.

 

[ryan_goal]

good to c bolton going down tho, so we dont have to play them any more

 

[fender]

Sad to say but i expect West Ham to go down.

 

[Bobby]

Originally posted by Silverhawk
Hey,doesn't kanoute look a LOT like henry when he's on the ball?

If West Ham go down Arsenal are willing to spend the transfer budget to keep him away from any other team.

 

[Bobby]

Originally posted by ryan_goal
good to c bolton going down tho, so we dont have to play them any more

They'll take 4 more off you next year, no worries.

 

[.::John::.]

If West Ham do go down, I can't see them coming straight back up They'll probably lose most of their good players and if that happens then I can see them in the nationwide for a good few years

 

[Tony Wang]

West Ham will survive. Their fighting spirit are great stuff!

 

[johnnyboyuk]

I wouldn't like to see either team go down to be honest. Bolton have just got to playing some good attacking football with their new players. West Ham have just seemed to always be there, so equally can't go. I'd prefer to lose sum crap team like Villa. I mean, what purpose do they serve?? They never seem to win yet stay up??

Which ever team does go down will suffer quite badly, as many of their players will leave. In west ham's case you could expect to see leave:
Di Canio
Defoe
James
Carrick
Cole
Kanoute
Sinclair

Which would severely harm any chance of promotion.
And in Bolton's case:
Okocha
Djorkaeff
Nolan
Frandsen
Mendy

And furthermore will not be able to acquire the loan signings which they have relied on these past two seasons.

SO either way, it's very bad news, more so for west ham though i believe. So we'll see how it goes come May 11.....

 

[Moron]

BOLTON MUST STAY!!!

GO BOLTON!!!

 

[briggzy]

C'mon West Ham!

 

[Oz_Leeds_Fan]

frankly i would prefer bolton to go down because i think Okocha would shine in another team. My mum supports the Hammers too so i would like to see them stay.

Brooking is quite funny, he has absolutly no idea about the finer points of being a manager, he doesnt seem to grasp the technical area concept that the managers have to stay in. He also doesnt stick to the regular poker face managers usually put up all game, u can see the rollercoaster of emotions all game...hehe i hope he saves west ham but he really isnt manager material. i think its more to do with the players doing it for roeder or maybe the awful reality of nationwide finally sunk in...thank christ it did for my boys.

 

[Digitarius]

Half of Bolton's team are on loan or on short term contract, so it is highly likely that they'll lose half their team whether they stay up or not.

Okocha could be courted by a bigger club after his performances, especially towards the end of the campaign, this season.

Gudni Bergsson is going to retire.

Players like Laville, Mendy, Andre, Salva, etc. are all on loan and might not return.

 

[voetballiefhebb]

Bruce is looking for revenge

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce admits he is looking forward to putting the final nail in West Ham's relegation coffin.

The Hammers travel to the Midlands on Sunday knowing they need to get a better result than Bolton manage at home to Middlesbrough if they are to avoid the drop.

But they will get no favours from Bruce, who was Manchester United skipper in 1995 when a 1-1 draw at Upton Park meant the Premiership title went to Blackburn Rovers.

"I remember losing the league title by drawing at West Ham," he said. "It's still in the back of my memory.

Preview: Birmingham v West Ham
"I remember how delirious they all were, delighted at the way they denied us. I remember the way they were all whooping away.

"They were all there really giving us the big high-fives down the tunnel just after we had lost the league.

"I don't bear grudges but I've waited a long, long time for Sunday. I'm looking forward to it immensely. We will be fielding our strongest side.

"There is a bias in the media towards West Ham, the glamour club from London, and we live with that."

Meanwhile, French striker Christophe Dugarry is likely to have committed himself to Blues for a further two years by kick-off time.

The on-loan Bordeaux player becomes a free agent in the summer but Bruce said: "The over-riding thing is that he enjoys playing in our country. He enjoys the football in the Premiership.

"He thinks we are crazy at times but he enjoys the football because the accent is on winning. In Italy, Spain and France tactically it is all very slow. He enjoys the hurly-burly of the Premier League."

 

[Amika]

to be frank.. i really can't see west ham surviving this drop... it all now depends on boro, but they are on the verge of getting themselves into euro through the fair play award, so don't expect any boro tackles at the reebok stadium, my heart go out to west ham really, i really want them to stay up.. wish u guys all the best...