Hope or True Belief ?

[rognix]

I am a Stokie through and through and so don't want to see us humiliated in the Premier League. I agree that we have recruited 3 Premiership Quality Players. However, we need a significant overhaul of the team as it stands to even compete, never mind win matches in the Premiership.

I think Stokies who are being optimistic as things stand are doing so I hope , rather than true belief.

The club decided that it wanted to enter the money mad league that is the premiership. If we won't pay the money that top players demand, we should never have even taken up the challenge. Physical strength , comitment and aggression will not win matches in the Premiership. We need skill, pace and experience.

A chance like this may not come along again for a very long time, it should not be a chance wasted.

The team, as it stands, it set up to deliver only every Stokies worst nightmare. Relegation by a significant margin, and we will become a laughing stock.

So , it time to roll the dice Coates and Pulis, otherwise we are doomed to fail !!

Bringing a couple of loanees in after we have played the first 2/3 games is not the approach of a club that means business. The squad should be in place, a system should be in place, we should be fine tuning the starting 11 for Bolton.

Are we doing any of those things at present ?????

[bayernoatcake]

Blind faith here! ;D

[Block 26]

Faith!

[Titan Uranus]

Fookin panic here !!

lots of it

in fact, I am havin nightmares thinking about the possible humiliation...

don't mind admitting it.

[lordb]

I can accept relegation but am very very very worried that we will suffer the same fate as Derby.

[Danstoke82]

Im shitting it to be honest, Ive tried to be calm, cool and collective. But for the season we have ahead of us, playing staff wise, we are severely short. 3 good players are fantastic and I take my hat off to the work that was done to bring them in, but this must not stop. There is still a lot of work too do and with only one week and a bit left, Im starting to get very worried that by 3pm on that Saturday, not a lot will have changed. I keep dreading the start of the season as I really dont want my club to be humiliated like Derby were last season.

Please Mr Coates and Mr Pulis...please please please sort this

[luke45]

Aug 5, 2008 12:12:13 GMT lordb said:

I can accept relegation but am very very very worried that we will suffer the same fate as Derby.

Even with our current squad, that will not happen.

Keep the Faith People!!!

There is still time for us to strengthen our squad....

[huddersstokie]

To be honest, I am bricking it and am a little disappointed.

Even if we brought in a whole slew of top players this week, they will have had no pre season together with their new teammates to gel. For all intensive purposes we will have almost an entirely new team who have never played together before. So much for the head start we were supposed to have on Hull.

At the end of the day, I do think TP will bring in the quality and the numbers (he may leave it as late as the next window) but I fear it might be too late.

[Beardy200]

Just Hope i'm afraid and anyone who "believes" we will say up must living in a fantasy world. The bookmakers have us a 2-1 to survive (and they're not often far away) so they see us having approx a 1 in 3 chance of staying up. Id say thats about fair so 33% chance to stay up results in hope - not belief.

[bigb35]

faith, we can do it CMON STOKE

[stokemark]

We clearly need quality players and a squad to stay up

We are at least 3/4 quality players short and 2 more (via the loan system) short of a small squad

We cannot go into September without these (minimum 5 players) and if we do we WILL be relegated. If we can bring them in I have every faith in the manager that he will give it everything to make sure we stop up - Its that black and white for me.

[mistersausage]

Every time I need a shit I think about our season to come.


Makes it so much easier to clear the back shed ;D

[jamerg]

Faith = the belief in something in the absence of evidence (i.e. the sort of behaviour that outside a church or a footy ground would get you locked up as a nutter).

I remain in the "hope" category for now. If the evidence changes (by us signing the 3 - 4 class players we are clearly desperately short of) I may start to believe we could fight our way to a last day survival!

If we don't sign at least a left winger and a full back soon hope might quickly turn to despair however...

[redditchpotter]

Faith we definitely will not do a Derby.We have too good a dressing room for that. A lot of passion will go a long way in Premier.all these top players are Prima-Donnas

[DannyStokie]

Faith! I agree, I really can't see us doing a Derby.

[woolster]

I'm sorry but the reality is we are woefully short of the quality required to stay up!! I love this football club and what we achieved last season was fantastic - and I'm a very optimistic Stokie the vast majority of the time (continually backed us to get it right last year when we just started to wobble a bit near the end). The 3 signings brought in most definitely improve the football club, put us on the map a little as far as attracting further quality is concerned and I firmly believe we will do better than Derby because our manager gets things right as far as he puts out a very determined, organised and structured side that plays to its strengths!

Our defence will be better organised than Derby I believe (Pulis is good at that) - it will have limitations and we need another couple brought in defensive-wise, but we'll never do as badly as Derby for shipping goals (certainly not at home I dont think) as any team that has Darren Moore and Leacock at the back for a Prem season will struggle!!!!!!

However, we need to move out of Fantasy World if we think this side we currently have now and that we'll take to Bolton if we dont add any more will keep us up!! I'm sorry - I'm a positive Stokie - very much so in fact - but it simply wont happen - we need at least 4 or 5 more to make a fist of this - I just think thats fact.

[Cityfullergoals]

Lets look at things in a true light

1. Derby were NOT prepared for the Premiership. Before Billy Davies took over they were in the bottom three - and we did the double over them.

We have been on the fringes of promotion for two years before finally achieving. And when we did achieve, we did it comfortably (points wise 4), not heart rate wise I admit.

2. We have spent over 8 million pounds on players so far, something that any Stoke City fanatic would only dream of happening. Kitson seems a very popular choice because we know he will work hard for the cause. Seyi is maybe an untapped talent - time will tell.

3. More signings may come in before August 31st - TP is not daft enough to think that the present squad will be in anything other than a relegation battle with what we have got - what he does insist on, is the right type of player for the club and for the team spirit that can win points unexpectedly.

HOPE - always

TRUE BELIEF - We have to have it. And if it all goes belly-up, then lets at least enjoy the ride.

We are almost certainly better than Dull, we are very evenly matched with Brazil. It only takes a couple of teams to have a below average season, and the relegation scrap could involve 6-7 teams.

Then thats where true fighting spirit and will to win (or not get beat) comes in.

And of course - backing from 20,000 vocal Stokies every game

Im definately not shitting it - and not daft enough to think we will survive comfortably, but I certainly AM looking forward to it all

[Denis Smiths fow staith]

I wonder what mr_sausage thinks about when he wants to clear his front shed

[dorsetpotter]

parkin probably

[stokey-pokey pudding and pie]

if you compare our squad last season to say ipswich, palace, watford then on paper we had no right to promotion - our attendance's were less than average, our transfer budget small compared to many but we got promoted, automatically and only 2 points behind a team full of premiership quality and experience.

we got promoted because the team earned it, every point, every goal and no matter how many more we bring in this week, we'll still have a very small squad, lacking quality by premier league standards, but we'll still earn points we have no right to win. TP will still build a team that'll compete with whatever is put in front of em, week in week out.

Aug 5, 2008 14:12:26 GMT jamerg said:

Faith = the belief in something in the absence of evidence (i.e. the sort of behaviour that outside a church or a footy ground would get you locked up as a nutter)

my faith has the evidence of a season of promotion to back it up - your lack of faith only has a season which hasn't started yet. so tell me who's the 'nutter'?

[frasier37]

Aug 5, 2008 14:45:57 GMT redditchpotter said:

Faith we definitely will not do a Derby.We have too good a dressing room for that. A lot of passion will go a long way in Premier.all these top players are Prima-Donnas

That "good dressing room" will soon collapse after a few losses

[sw12potter]

It has to be blind faith...as Bayern said.

Unfortunately, as we stand, our first 11 or even squad of 18 is not a patch on the likes of Birmingham's or Reading's from last season, and look what happened to them.

We are still 5 very good signings away from even reaching their 'standards'...

But does that mean I think we'll go down...well, my head says without a doubt, my heart says will we fook...

People who say we'll do a Derby are generally opposing fans who haven't seen what team spirit can achieve...but it'll be amazing how that will be damaged if we get a few tonkings...

EDIT - Frasier, you beat me to it!

[Oatcake Andy]

Hope. Having seen two of the pre-season friendlies I have no doubt the side we are currently putting out will do a Derby. However, with Fuller, Lawrence, Cort And Seyi to come in I think we will have a realistic chance of making a fist of it in a relegation battle (although I shudder to think what happens when injuries and suspensions kick in) If TP can get these 3-7 signings we probably need and I see no reason why this still can't happen (although as frustrated as hell they haven't happened yet) I can see us surviving. No matter what I happens I'll be there supporting the lads and as long as they are putting the effort in I'll be clapping them on and off the pitch no matter what the result. 23 years is a long time to wait and I'm making the most of this season no matter what

[trout-licker]

Aug 5, 2008 12:31:21 GMT Beardy200 said:

Just Hope i'm afraid and anyone who "believes" we will say up must living in a fantasy world. The bookmakers have us a 2-1 to survive (and they're not often far away) so they see us having approx a 1 in 3 chance of staying up. Id say thats about fair so 33% chance to stay up results in hope - not belief.

I wonder what odds we were to get promoted last season though, im sure we werent 2nd favourites, they do sometimes get it wrong

[Beardy200]

yeah on this bet they'll get it wrong 1 in 3 times hehe ... i'm more worried about the 2 in 3 times they'll get it right ;-(

I do hope a lot though - we're definitely not doomed.

[Travis]

I believe in Pulis

Therefore i believe in what they are doing. Even if we don't survive, I'll believe we will be back and I believe that we will soon be a permanent team in this league

[stokienorthants]

For me it is if not blind faith then at least partially sighted!

I believe that even if we do go down we will with the aid of parachute payments and astute purchases come straight back up again, although I appreciate that this rarely happens.

Hang on for the ride it could be fun