well my interpretation on the oldish players is to try to bring some stability into the club, we did play with relegation for a while last season so i can only assume thats the reason really, Fonte has been dissapointing to say the least but i'm sure he's just gap stopper for now,
and yes it looks like 8th to 12th imo, the real question has to be would you take 8th place now?
personally cannot see us finishing higher.
be lucky now
john.