I don't think it's going to happen

[MidlandsBoroFan]

That assumes a lot of things like Bristol City falling away, Coventry not sustaining their form, West Brom losing a couple of games heavily, and or Boro winning a couple of games by a few goals, and Blackburn and Watford not getting their act together.

Some of those are possible, but not all of them.

Also West Brom and Coventry are on track for 70 points, even if their form doesn't improve. Boro need more than 70.

Exactly. Less than 70 points won’t be enough.

Even if you ignore Norwich and Millwall (who aren’t actually that far behind), it still leaves 7 teams currently on 56-51 points. You have to assume at least 2 of those 7 will get 6 or 7 wins from 9 games.

We just have to be one of them.

 

[Scrug]

That's a lie.

Against the top 4 teams in this division:

Leeds away - they battered us. The best team we've played by far.
Leeds home - still to play
Sheff Utd home - we raised our game and won 1-0
Sheff Utd away - we were a disgrace and we were very very lucky to be going in at HT at 1-1. We lost 3-1, deservedly so.
Burnley home - draw. Both teams were poor
Burnley away - draw. Arguably we were the better team and a howler from Dieng cost us. But again, mentally weak.
Sunderland away - lost. We didn't lay a glove on them for the whole time we were 1-0 down.
Sunderland home - lost. We should've been 2 goals up inside first 20 mins or so...but again, or weak mentality allowed them back in the game. A draw was a fair result, probably....but we lost it at the death because we're not good enough.

So of the 8 fixtures against the best teams in the league...we have played 7, and won 1.

That is not 'raising our level consistently against the bigger teams'

It’s not a lie, it’s a different perspective. This season, no. Historically, yes.

We have beaten all those teams plus Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Leeds and Chelsea in the not so distant past. You genuinely don’t think we tend to perform better against sides that should be hammering us?

It’s a constant trope that we’re at our worst against teams we should be beating. And that’s because they sit in and we struggle to break them down. That’s not going to happen anywhere near as frequently in the prem, and that suits the football we try and play.

I’m not saying we would be world beaters, but I think we’d surprise a few.

 

[indeedido]

Yes I do. Whenever we’ve come up against the bigger teams we raise our level, we’ve seen this consistently. Who’s to say we wouldn’t? Nobody really knows.

And we wouldn’t need a huge investment. Bank the money, carry on with the model. That’s the way forward.

We simply don't raise our level this season - the one we're in, with the squad we've got.
Every club that has survived in the PL after promotion has had huge investment and from a squad that is a stronger starting squad than I believe ours is.

The "model" is as Bruce describes. Revenue covers wages, Profit from player transfers offsets some of the losses from all other running costs, but Gibson still has to fund the balance.
We have recruited two good players that have been sold for profit (Rogers, LL) but most of the profit has come from within (Tavernier, Spence, Jones) Akpom was fully amortised at sale anyway and bought pre "model".
The investment in new players has us clawing at 6th after missing out last season. Our squad doesn't feel strong for whatever league. Most potential profit still sits in academy products (Hackney) not buys.

I absolutely agree that we grasp promotion however it comes, and of course its possible we stay up. Subsequent relegation would still see us far stronger on and off the pitch than we are now. We agree.
But imagining we can nickel and dime our way on promotion makes no sense to me and is exactly why we went down in 16-17 without a whimper.

 

[Mackem Chatter]

How are you feeling ahead of the playoffs? Looks like things have turned a bit stale for you recently.

I’m relatively okay about our chances. We’re not great going forward but we’re still difficult to beat. Fairly solid in the way Karanka had you lot set up.

I’m hoping that once Le Fee returns & Danns eventually gets fit, we’d look better going forward.

 

[parmoboy]

I’m relatively okay about our chances. We’re not great going forward but we’re still difficult to beat. Fairly solid in the way Karanka had you lot set up.

I’m hoping that once Le Fee returns & Danns eventually gets fit, we’d look better going forward.

Le Fee was excellent in our game at the Riverside to be fair, although was surprised to find he's only contributed one goal and assist so far.