by Snowball » 
          04 Jun 2011 11:43
         
         
        
       
       
       Reading Chronicle suggests McDermot wants to fight and keep the side together
even while recognising SJM wants to make cuts. Add in Hammond seems to be sabre-
rattling a little, perhaps Hammond-McDermot genuinely feel that hanging on to Shane,
Jimmy, Matt etc, and maybe one addition we have a fantastic chance next year.
The flip side is that once one star goes, 4-5 might and then we could be flirting
with the bottom six
The table since L-Wood arrived (all 28 games, not just the ones he played in)
shows we averaged 1.86 points-per-game, the equivalent of an 86-point season,
and that's starting with an unfit L-Wood and two 0-0 home draws
The squad held together might easily achieve that 86 points, good enough for automatic.
There is every reason to expect Shane to get 20+ goals. We should see big improvements
in HRK and Cummings and McCarthy, improvement in Karacan. It's unlikely Simon Church will
have a worse season than this one. He may well recapture his 2009-10 form and be a force,
and there's Manset and Williams pushing for a place.
The only question will be the full-backs who are aging. Can they cut it for another season
or would we need to bring in some pace? I'd say this squad +1 or +2 would be top three for
most of the season and have a great chance of top two.
1 	28 	16 	09 	3 	56-33 	+23 	57 	(94) 2.04 Norwich City 	
2 	28 	14 	10 	4 	49-29 	+20 	52 	(86) 1.86 Reading 	
3 	28 	14 	08 	6 	38-24 	+14 	50 	(82) 1.79 Queens Park Rangers 	
4 	27 	14 	05 	8 	45-26 	+19 	47 	(80) 1.74 Swansea City 	
5 	28 	14 	06 	8 	48-34 	+14 	48 	(79) 1.71 Nottingham Forest 	
6 	28 	13 	06 	9 	53-40 	+13 	45 	(74) 1.61 Leicester City 	
But lose Long, Kebe, Mills, NcAnuff, maybe Karacan and ,,, ?