My point being we are always looking over our shoulder with a chance of relegation but with a less injury prone squad we could be looking to aspire to a European place even if we don't get there at the end of the season

Keeping a key eye on the injury league, I don't think you are correct. Liverpool have attracted the publicity because of who they are. However, their injuries have tended to have witnesses as they were incurred in front of millions of worldwide viewers in a live match.

The only club to have remained consistently above them in the table are us. However, frustrating for the fans, few of the injuries were witnessed as they all tend to be training ground stuff. And they all take an age to recover.

The other teams have had the odd spike, but usually they are within a reasonable range of 4/5 absentees. Newcastle are currently in such a spike, but no worse than the issues we have endured since before Christmas.

Much has been said about the age of the squad and the longer recovery time. However, while undoubtedly a factor, I did say I am a keen observer of this league. This problem has been going on for years, including back when we had a much younger squad and when were were under different coaching managements.

We can upgrade the academy and refresh the squad and management as much as we like. However, we are still substantially prejudiced if we are playing opponents who have only 2/3 players in the physio room when our sick-notes are consistently in double-figures.

It is a critical area that needs work. Get is done and I am confident we will be a genuine 2nd tier premiership team that is able to pursue cup runs and still finish top half every season but without breaking the bank.

I was interested in your post, but in the end a tad disappointed because I had assumed that you were going to suggest some "silver bullet" that would solve our chronic injury problem. But you rightly dismiss the two reasons normally put forward. First, age of players can't have much to do with it because it's happened when we had a young squad. And second, it's unlikely to do with our training methods because it's happened under different training regimes. So, yes, it's an area that needs work, but what does that mean in practice? Perhaps a big change of luck.

Are our facilities as good as other sides? I've always suspected that they're not, but I do know we had more expensive stuff installed over the last few years. Like an oxygen chamber etc.
The other thing is fitness coaches, sports scientists, physios. I have no idea how the size and quality of our backroom staff compares to other sides.

Red and Blue Army!

Yeah sorry about that!

It cant be luck as we cant have the worst luck all the time. We have access to all the medical specialists London can offer so it cant be that. Unless there is something weird in the south London air or water it can only be our own in house medical team and/or facilities.

Perhaps that is where we lag behind our competitors? If so, an obvious area for serious investment.

Clyne, and McCarthy certainly had long term injuries, and are still having issues. Cahill had a couple that limited his career somewhat too. Tomkins I'm not sure how much injury he had at West Ham but it was a bit. Zaha has had injuries but probably not the worst. McArthur seems to be injured a lot over last couple of season's but was a bit of a stalwart before that.

Red and Blue Army!