Everyone under-rates this league. Statistically it was the 4th most attended league in Europe last season after The Premiership, La Liga and the Bundesligue. So more people attended Championship games than Serie 1 in Italy and Ligue 1 in France. What does that mean to us? It means that the other teams comprise of pretty decent players as higher attendences mean more money throught the gates, more sponsorship, more advertising etc etc. More money means more purchase power for players. It's logical. It may not really be the 4th best league in Europe but I bet the quality is better than when we were last there( we're worse, that's for sure).
Sure, BFR, but I was only trying to point out that it was still in our hands almost right up to the last game.
Whether you win or not is mostly psychological - if you believe you can, you can.
If you think you can't, you can't.
No doubt West Ham had unbelievable good fortune, in taking points from games where they were so totally outplayed that if it was a boxing contest it would have been stopped, let alone their match versus Blackburn fiasco - where they were awarded a goal in the most bizarre circumstances, even though the ball clearly never crossed the line.
And that without even taking into account how they escaped without points deduction in seemingly corrupt circumstances - and a player allowed to change contracts outside of the transfer window - the resulting 'feel good' factor clearly fuelled their otherwise almost impossible climb to safety.
But, back to Charlton, we were much closer to safety than many seem to recognize. If we had a just a percentage of West Ham's good fortune (and obviously a little more composure and self belief) after Easter, it would have been a fine line whether we were relegated or survived,
A win instead of a draw for us. A draw instead of a win for West Ham. It's on such a fine line that belief is fired up or crushed. It could, and maybe almost was, that close.
[cite]Posted By: Rothko[/cite]Wish I could find what Sunderland and Birmingham supporters were saying this time last year
Completely different situation. They both had a budget last season that was effectively in a different league to what ours will be for this coming season.
Sunderland didn't spend big till January, they just appointed an excellent manager, who got it right, as for Birmingham, they used the loan system well, and did deals on Jerome and McSheffery which relied on promotion.
Whether we can win it is something we won't know until well into the season as unless a team runs away with it like Reading then you can be out of it even in January and come storming through in the 2nd half of the season.
What we do know is that we will certainly be in the running along with a handful of other sides who have the money/squads to challenge. Personally i think Watford and Wolves are more favourites than us as their teams won't have changed much.
Comments
Everyone under-rates this league. Statistically it was the 4th most attended league in Europe last season after The Premiership, La Liga and the Bundesligue. So more people attended Championship games than Serie 1 in Italy and Ligue 1 in France. What does that mean to us? It means that the other teams comprise of pretty decent players as higher attendences mean more money throught the gates, more sponsorship, more advertising etc etc. More money means more purchase power for players. It's logical. It may not really be the 4th best league in Europe but I bet the quality is better than when we were last there( we're worse, that's for sure).
So, I don't think we'll win the league.
Whether you win or not is mostly psychological - if you believe you can, you can.
If you think you can't, you can't.
No doubt West Ham had unbelievable good fortune, in taking points from games where they were so totally outplayed that if it was a boxing contest it would have been stopped, let alone their match versus Blackburn fiasco - where they were awarded a goal in the most bizarre circumstances, even though the ball clearly never crossed the line.
And that without even taking into account how they escaped without points deduction in seemingly corrupt circumstances - and a player allowed to change contracts outside of the transfer window - the resulting 'feel good' factor clearly fuelled their otherwise almost impossible climb to safety.
But, back to Charlton, we were much closer to safety than many seem to recognize. If we had a just a percentage of West Ham's good fortune (and obviously a little more composure and self belief) after Easter, it would have been a fine line whether we were relegated or survived,
A win instead of a draw for us. A draw instead of a win for West Ham. It's on such a fine line that belief is fired up or crushed. It could, and maybe almost was, that close.
Completely different situation. They both had a budget last season that was effectively in a different league to what ours will be for this coming season.
Doesn't seem a million miles away from us.
What we do know is that we will certainly be in the running along with a handful of other sides who have the money/squads to challenge. Personally i think Watford and Wolves are more favourites than us as their teams won't have changed much.