We’re 6th!! Stevenage, Barnsley, Orient & Stockport to come shortly.
Enjoy it!! Matches that mean something at the right end of the table! Exciting.
I’m going to - realistically, a league 1 promotion battle / attempt is about as exciting as we can realistically hope for for the foreseeable - a championship one is gonna take a bit of time but I don’t think surviving in the championship is as difficult as some believe - we missed out on staying up very narrowly last time and that was with Roland offering no financial support and an injury decimated squad - just Lyle Taylor not downing tools would probably have kept us up
The quality has improved massively since then.
The money might have, I’m not convinced the players have
We’re 6th!! Stevenage, Barnsley, Orient & Stockport to come shortly.
Enjoy it!! Matches that mean something at the right end of the table! Exciting.
I’m going to - realistically, a league 1 promotion battle / attempt is about as exciting as we can realistically hope for for the foreseeable - a championship one is gonna take a bit of time but I don’t think surviving in the championship is as difficult as some believe - we missed out on staying up very narrowly last time and that was with Roland offering no financial support and an injury decimated squad - just Lyle Taylor not downing tools would probably have kept us up
What you need is a quality loan signing like Conor Gallagher, as realistically without him in the first half of the season, we would have been relegated sooner than we were.
Nathan Jones is the only reason we’d have a chance in the championship. His style suits us not having the ball, we wouldn’t have much of it at all against most championships sides
The gap between the 2 leagues is definitely getting wider but Oxford have shown it is possible without spending big money. Let’s worry about getting promoted first though
Nathan Jones is the only reason we’d have a chance in the championship. His style suits us not having the ball, we wouldn’t have much of it at all against most championships sides
The gap between the 2 leagues is definitely getting wider but Oxford have shown it is possible without spending big money. Let’s worry about getting promoted first though
Absolutely. Look at Sheff Wed’s bipolar season pre and post Danny Rohl - they were dead certs for relegation at Christmas. To a lesser extent with Oxford and Rowett this year.
There is still room at that level for a manager to make a meaningful difference between being relegation fodder and mid table. To progress beyond that is likely going to require an injection of funds.
Not even in the top 6 in league one but apparently have a squad that could compete in the championship. This fanbase 😂
Go through the list of players though and the vast majority of them I think will play at Championship or better level at some point in their career.
If we happened to get promoted this season then why wouldn’t it be next season?
No-one said anything about this current team being competitive at Championship level - the implication is that with two or three high quality additions in key areas, the rest of the squad we now have in a good basis for a team that won’t immediately be doomed to coming back down.
Think you will find Nathan Jones / SMT said wanted players that could play Championship football for Charlton.
If it wasn’t to be competitive what the ?€(& are we buying them for in the first place.
At least part of the issue if indeed it is an issue with this window was that Jones wasn’t pressing the owners for reinforcements. He wanted the squad reduced in size and got rid of players he knew he wasn’t going to use but on the whole was content with what he had left. I think Gilbert being the exception, in a role that even the doziest of fans could see we’re were in need of. I’m sadly confident that we’ll lose Small in the summer and he’ll definitely be hard to replace. Just like every summer we’ll need to rebuild in order to go for it next season but how many times have we all said that.
I agree with your post but I'm not sure I'd call the summer another 'rebuild'. The only players out of contract in the summer are:
Tennai Watson Chuks Aneke Thierry Small Aaron Henry
It would be nice to be more like a normal club and not need 10+ signings every summer.
Summer will imho still require a fairly significant recruitment. I’d suggest a replacement for Small if he goes which I expect. Competition for Gilesphey, replace Aneke, replace Watson and get in a GK. That’s without anyone being sold. I’d like to think a striker would come in. I’d say that quite a rebuild.
Well ideally McIntyre does well enough to convert into a permanent so you're only talking 3 (I think 4 as Leaburn could go) signings, that's pretty quiet for most L1 clubs. If we go up I wouldn't be surprised to see Leaburn and Small stay so then that would be 2 plus a couple of places where we might need an upgrade
If we don't succeed this season it is because our squad is not strong enough and needs to be improved so as not to fail again next season.
Obviously the hope would be that our best players stay and renew/improve their contracts, but as it stands Small would be out of contract and TC and Leaburn would have a year left each. So I would imagine a high possibility of all leaving if we remain in L1.
That will be a huge re-build to simply replace that talent, let alone then improve so we don't fail again.
This.
Absolutely potty saying that we don't want promotion this season as we would only come back.down again.
I guarantee that if we dont go up we will lose at least one of those 3. Maybe all 3. In order I'd say Small l, TC & then Leaburn.
Just watch the Championship highlights... The quality of the football and the average player are now so far beyond this league.
In the recent past, Rotherham have been far more successful in L1 than us, with three promotions. In fact, the last promoted Rotherham side was one of the most impressive L1 teams I've seen at The Valley.
Those three promotions were followed by three instant relegations.
Plymouth, Portsmouth and Derby all fighting for their lives this season.
We would need far more than a couple of signings. We'd need a LOT of investment to even survive at the next level.
And what's frightening is that the owners didnt seem to want to spend £1m in January to push for promotion. To stay in The Championship will probably take 10x that.
I really don’t want us to get into the premiership honestly the thought of us being like Southampton, Sheffield Utd etc getting spanked ever week does not fill me with joy ! I would take being a well run competitive championship club
I really don’t want us to get into the premiership honestly the thought of us being like Southampton, Sheffield Utd etc getting spanked ever week does not fill me with joy ! I would take being a well run competitive championship club
Almost as mad as you thinking last January under Appleton we could still make the play offs. Yes I have a long memory
The financial rewards of 1 year in the prem would allow us to buy back the Valley and the training ground.
Why are we fixated on how many players would be decent in the Championship? Surely if we have ambition we should be thinking about which players would cope in the Premiership?
Why are we fixated on how many players would be decent in the Championship? Surely if we have ambition we should be thinking about which players would cope in the Premiership?
Don’t be so negative. Is Maynard brewer capable of clean sheets for us in the champions league
I really don’t want us to get into the premiership honestly the thought of us being like Southampton, Sheffield Utd etc getting spanked ever week does not fill me with joy ! I would take being a well run competitive championship club
If you don’t want us to play at the highest level then why are you, we, anyone bothering. I mean what’s the point?
I really don’t want us to get into the premiership honestly the thought of us being like Southampton, Sheffield Utd etc getting spanked ever week does not fill me with joy ! I would take being a well run competitive championship club
Handle the money properly like Burnley, West Brom and Watford and yo yo. You HAVE to get in the Premier League.
I really don’t want us to get into the premiership honestly the thought of us being like Southampton, Sheffield Utd etc getting spanked ever week does not fill me with joy ! I would take being a well run competitive championship club
Almost as mad as you thinking last January under Appleton we could still make the play offs. Yes I have a long memory
The financial rewards of 1 year in the prem would allow us to buy back the Valley and the training ground.
I admit I under estimated quite what a prick Appleton was mate. 😜
Anybody thinking we have 6 championship level starters are crazy. Ramsey and jones maybe. Coventry, TC, Edward’s as reserves, maybe. Leaburn is being dominated by shrewsbury center halves. Maybe one day but not currently
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The gap between the 2 leagues is definitely getting wider but Oxford have shown it is possible without spending big money. Let’s worry about getting promoted first though
There is still room at that level for a manager to make a meaningful difference between being relegation fodder and mid table. To progress beyond that is likely going to require an injection of funds.
If it wasn’t to be competitive what the ?€(& are we buying them for in the first place.
Absolutely potty saying that we don't want promotion this season as we would only come back.down again.
I guarantee that if we dont go up we will lose at least one of those 3. Maybe all 3. In order I'd say Small l, TC & then Leaburn.
They survived the season we got relegated, and didn't go up to the Premier League until 22-23
The financial rewards of 1 year in the prem would allow us to buy back the Valley and the training ground.
looked at lunch and the thread is discussing our team in the Championship.
Get home from the pub tonight and we’re discussing whether we want to go straight through to the Prem and how we might not enjoy it.
You HAVE to get in the Premier League.