Who do you think will be relegated?

Only a few games into the season, but from what you've seen so far which three teams do you think will go down?
Tempted to include us but hope won't let me so I'm going for Rotherham, Ipswich and Reading. Like us they've looked OK in patches but I think there's too much strength elsewhere.
Which 3 would you pick?

Rotherham, QPR and Birmingham, but it would be good to see Blackburn and Wigan go down again

Bottom six predictor by 538 (spoiler alert - not a good read):

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] QPR[size=11]7 pts[/size]	44.0	1.3	1.3	14.3	11.8	19.9	-17	55	20%	7%	3%	<1%
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Blackburn[size=11]10 pts[/size]	42.6	1.2	1.3	13.6	15.0	17.4	-12	56	17%	8%	3%	<1%
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Bolton[size=11]11 pts[/size]	39.3	1.1	1.4	13.3	12.7	19.9	-18	53	24%	5%	2%	<1%
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Rotherham[size=11]9 pts[/size]	38.0	1.1	1.4	12.9	10.8	22.3	-24	50	33%	3%	1%	<1%
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Reading[size=11]5 pts[/size]	40.2	1.2	1.4	11.9	12.6	21.6	-18	48	36%	3%	1%	<1%
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Ipswich Town[size=11]3 pts[/size]	40.3	1.1	1.3	10.5	14.4	21.2	-21	46	43%	2%	<1%	<1%

What on earth do those numbers mean Obs? Is the first column average predicted points - which would put us 23rd?

And according to whom? Presumably not the Nuts.

Blackburn11 pts
42.6
1.2 1.3 13.2 15.9 16.9 -12 55 18% 7% 3% <1%

Preston5 pts
46.4
1.2 1.2 13.5 13.1 19.4 -12 54 21% 6% 3% <1%

Bolton11 pts
39.2
1.1 1.4 13.2 12.6 20.2 -19 52 25% 4% 2% <1%

Rotherham9 pts
37.7
1.1 1.4 12.7 10.6 22.7 -25 49 34% 3% <1% <1%

Reading5 pts
39.9
1.2 1.4 11.4 12.4 22.2 -20 47 40% 2% <1% <1%

Ipswich Town4 pts
40.4
1.1 1.3 10.3 15.2 20.5 -19 46 42% 2% <1% <1%

observer - when you are copying and pasting you need to click the notepad icon (switch editor mode) and it should be more readable

Let's see how this looks after the Ipswich game......if we lose it then I'll say bottom three before Christmas. If we win this weekend I'll say 21st with another narrow escape.
A change of manager with some gumption would see us mid table IMO. That would be the best scenario at the moment.

We have a manager that is afraid to play football, in theory finishing 4th bottom is all we can hope for with Parkinson at the helm, but that is not progress, to me we should be aiming at mid table, that would show progress, but with Parkinson's mind numbing turgid shite we'll be lucky to see 3 worse teams again this season, so in short we are the bookies favourite for a reason, sack Parkinson and bring in those Cowley brothers from Lincoln.

terenceanne wrote:Let's see how this looks after the Ipswich game......if we lose it then I'll say bottom three before Christmas. If we win this weekend I'll say 21st with another narrow escape.
A change of manager with some gumption would see us mid table IMO. That would be the best scenario at the moment.

I think it's too early to pull the trigger on PP just now. He got us up and kept us up on an absolute shoestring and while we have lost the last two games I have to say I think QPR are much better than they were expected to be while Boro away was always going to be a tough one. I realise many think he's too one dimensional in his approach and frankly I even share that concern to some degree but I believe we should wait until the next three games have been played before we can make a realistic assessment both of where we are and what we have in terms of quality etc.

More importantly it seems clear to me that the team still believe in Phil. They showed a lot of fight last night, perhaps without much in the way of end product but everyone was giving their all and as long as he still has the dressing room on his side then I believe there's hope. Nobody's head went down last night and for me that's an encouraging sign given what we've seen all too often in the last few years.

Before the season started I thought it would be another bottom six struggle for survival.

Nothing has changed my feelings on the subject.

We have to at least draw on Saturday.

I think reading look doomed. Ipswich look like they’ll struggle too.

I’ll go for those two and Rotherham

Preston, Reading & Ipswich (as long as we dont give them hope this weekend)

BoltonTillIDie wrote:Preston, Reading & Ipswich (as long as we dont give them hope this weekend)

Really?????????

Yes

I'm surprised by the preston pick BTID but I'm guessing that's more hope than genuine expectation.

In truth I think it's going to be tight at the bottom, there are eight or nine teams who could easily be in the mix come final day. However my picks for the drop are Rotherham, Ipswich and Blackburn.

Normal clowns coming out against PP, give me another manager who’s achieved what he has in the last 2 seasons - exceeding expectations with no budget, a players strike and losing their best player twice.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Normal clowns coming out against PP, give me another manager who’s achieved what he has in the last 2 seasons - exceeding expectations with no budget, a players strike and losing their best player twice.

I'm not against him at all at this point. I do wish he'd play a little more offensively especially at home but so far he's done everything that could reasonably be asked of him in terms of getting us back into the championship and keeping us there. The football can be a bit boring, even dire at times but hopefully that will begin to change now that the finances appear to be in at least some sort of order. Phil's mandate so far seems to have been to simultaneously slash the wage bill and stay in the championship. He's done that to this point, some would say very well indeed. I think the true test for Phil starts now, since we're not under any kind of embargo and Ken's predicting a profit (albeit a small one) then I would say the true measure of PP will be what happens between now and Christmas. If he's got us reasonably comfortable (ie clear of the drop zone) then he should be given the chance to make use of the January window to see how far up the table he can get us.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Normal clowns coming out against PP, give me another manager who’s achieved what he has in the last 2 seasons - exceeding expectations with no budget, a players strike and losing their best player twice.

Wigan and Blackburn both went straight back up from tier 3 with better players than the other teams, as we did.And a few weeks into the season, both look strong enough to stay up.
Promotion from tier 3 was expected on the budget Parky had to work with.We  had the money to tempt Beevers up north from play off winners Millwall.
There is no chance that clubs such as  Gillingham, Rochdale, Southend, Bristol Rovers, Port Vale, Shrewsbury etc could afford to hand out the contracts given to the likes of Wheater, Beevers, Spearing, Madine, Le Fondre and Pratley.We had better, higher paid players than all but Sheffield United and should have been one of the 3 promoted teams in my opinion.

Last season we would have been working on a similar budget to Burton and Barnsley, but credit to Parky for finishing above Sunderland.I think this was more about Sunderland being very poorly managed rather than Parky being a genius however.

Growler wrote:

T.R.O.Y wrote:Normal clowns coming out against PP, give me another manager who’s achieved what he has in the last 2 seasons - exceeding expectations with no budget, a players strike and losing their best player twice.

Wigan and Blackburn both went straight back up from tier 3 with better players than the other teams, as we did.And a few weeks into the season, both look strong enough to stay up.
Promotion from tier 3 was expected on the budget Parky had to work with.We  had the money to tempt Beevers up north from play off winners Millwall.
There is no chance that clubs such as  Gillingham, Rochdale, Southend, Bristol Rovers, Port Vale, Shrewsbury etc could afford to hand out the contracts given to the likes of Wheater, Beevers, Spearing, Madine, Le Fondre and Pratley.We had better, higher paid players than all but Sheffield United and should have been one of the 3 promoted teams in my opinion.

Last season we would have been working on a similar budget to Burton and Barnsley, but credit to Parky for finishing above Sunderland.I think this was more about Sunderland being very poorly managed rather than Parky being a genius however.

Good points well made, that tosspot you replied to just comes on here to be as obnoxious as he possibly can, his comments bare no thought just wants to get a rise, well fuck him off and put him on ignore.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Normal clowns coming out against PP, give me another manager who’s achieved what he has in the last 2 seasons - exceeding expectations with no budget, a players strike and losing their best player twice.

Most of what you say is true, but Parky doesn't half make some questionable tactical decisions at times.

You yourself questioned his tactics against QPR on Saturday - way too negative. And then he goes even more negative last night.

I still have nightmares about that surrender at Burton.

I sometimes think we're still in this division despite Parky, not because of him.