Hi Ian-VI - I'm glad you're confident but I fail to see any reasons you give for your optimism, which I was after.

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

I was watching the film Moneyball last night and thinking about the similarities in the sense of assembling a team that doesn't play the best football, doesn't make the best use of players (necessarily) and which doesn't contain players that get fans excited...but...which is designed to beat the odds and get points. Not that I think Dougie is a mathematics genius, or Roy, but for a club our size there is that battle between budget and ambition. Brighton played much better football than us last season, but finished below us. Sheffield Utd lacked headline signings but did really well, as did Burnley, the latter playing worse football than us!

Personally I would rather we hedged our bets on playing better football than climbing a few places in the table. After all, Billy Bean's team never actually wins the Championship in Moneyball! (sorry for the spoiler)

good times are relative, mate. Far more enjoyable seasons were had in the Championship when the standard of football was (relatively) far superior to what we see from the team now. Bolasie, Ambrose, Murray to name a few who were pure joys to watch. I could go back further. We had seasons and parts-of-seasons where we absolutely steamrollered teams, has highly skilled and talented players who got the ground on their feet.

Some people have higher expectations than 'survival', which is no existence at all. We won't be in the Prem forever, nothing is forever, and if we don't really give it a go then that time will be over sooner.