These Hodgson in or out responses are just going round in circles. It isn’t so much him but rather what’s been mentioned “a dads army squad” That’s what needs a major overhaul - with a younger squad Hodgson will be able to do what he’s done whilst in charge and that’s to keep us up - even then, it will take some blending in as the turnover Of players needs to be huge. No one will keep this old squad up next season without this overhaul. But, Hodgson may be the best bet to do it?

My understanding is that the 'Transfer Window' will open when the season ends, 26 July, but there is no official confirmation as to when it will close.

Edited by Willo (06 Jul 2020 12.24pm)

I don’t know how many times I’ve posted this on this thread: we have stayed up ourselves, numerous times over the past few years, playing infinitely better football than we do now. Every single season, the teams who finish 10th-17th have comparable budgets to us, and 90% of those play better football than we do now. Call that 6 or 7 teams a season, over 7 seasons, and you’re talking the best part of 50 teams.

This season we’ve turned out, by any statistical measure, is one of the dullest you would ever see at this level (assuming you see goals scored and chances created as entertaining).

Why is it unrealistic to think we could achieve something we, and countless others, already have done on a similar budget?

Those defending Hodgson seem to have invented this straw man argument that we want gun ho football and the only alternative to what we do now is to play suicide football. I haven’t seen anyone suggesting that.

On a separate point; judging spending based on a single transfer window (or even season) in isolation is pretty pointless - Liverpool spent nothing this year, but have racked up £300m in the 2 years prior, so the total spend across the last few years is still very high. You don’t just sign a player for one year.

Similarly, we might have spent little of late, but we had a few year spell where we were amongst the highest spenders outside of the top 8. This idea that our team is so much weaker than our competitors is pure fantasy, and only used to defend an illogical position that Hodgson is working miracles.

And I haven't seen any of those defending Hodgson claiming that '' suicide football '' is an alternative.

What I have seen is people pointing out that the previous attempts to play more expansive football - under Pardew and De Boer hasn't ended well.

Your point about our expenditure doesn't allow for the fact that most of that spend was pre Hodgson. So it would be true to say that he has been operating on a shoestring budget in comparison to the clubs around us.

I don't believe has has been working miracles but he has done a fine job under the circumstances.

Old, Ungifted and White

Quite literally the post I replied to said “the 100% stark reality is that the only way we can play attractive/attacking football AND stay in the premier is to invest hundreds of millions”. If the barometer is playing like Man City, that might be true.

I want to distinguish between expansive and entertaining - entertaining football doesn’t have to be expansive; there are a lot of direct teams who’s plan is getting the ball forward quickly and overload with crosses.. this can be exciting without ever being expansive. We are neither, for clarity.

It doesn’t matter when it was spent, it’s indicative of the quality of the squad. Our squad is as good, if not better, than most of the bottom half.

Yes Roy has done a great job. Sadly now we are losing to crap sides as well as being boring. Get Dyche in