[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Seems a bit of a drastic conclusion to me. Not sure what kind of improvements you're looking for in the players, but in some matches this season - notably against Man Utd - we were passing the ball around better than we have in years, and scored two cracking goals. If only we could have done the same when we played them back in March, rather than rolling over to a 3-0 defeat! This, to me, is improvement.

It can't be stated enough that in four of the last five seasons, the team who finished 17th one year were relegated the next. Sunderland bucked that trend last season, but they're right back down there again now. In contrast, at the moment we're about where you'd expect us to be in an average season (as opposed to a season where we've made wholesale changes over the summer and are dealing with the fallout of eighteen shambolic months on and off the pitch), and though that could all change very quickly, for now it's a decent position. Gutting to be out of the League Cup, but the team that night should have been good enough to win. All in all, if we can avoid the nightmare of last season and regain some stability, then that's me happy.