Honestly, do you want to go up this season?

TheBlueButterfly said:
Why do people keep asking this?. It's absolutely bizarre, especially in the current climate, that people wouldn't want us to go up at the earliest opportunity. EVERY single player in that squad wants to play in the Premier League at the earliest opportunity so this great atmosphere at the club you talk about takes a beating every time we miss out. Give Wilder two more windows and we would definitely be without the likes of Fry, McNair, Dijksteel, Jones, and Tav and no way would we have the finances, even from their sales, to replace them with better. I think we all agree these players could do a job in the prem so delaying promotion and losing these would mean us having to sign more championship quality players, probably of lesser quality, so would probably take an even bigger investment and squad overall should we go up. And let's be honest, if we are not promoted soonish, would Wilder still be even here?

"I love this division" - I understand the notion that fighting for promotion is much better than fighting relegation but this is what football is all about, it always has been. If you take out that one season in the prem under Karanka, by that I mean the overall length of time we have been in the Championship, how many seasons in this division have actually been enjoyable?
Click to expand...
Fabulous post. (y)
 
100% I want us to get promoted.

Granted it's a slog just to survive, grinding out draws and the odd win, but there will be memorable games over the course of a season.

If we somehow manage to stay up there will be the novelty factor already amongst younger supporters as well as celebration off the back of it.

Even if we go down, we will do so with parachute payments that will dwarf whatever money we may get for Spence and give us a lot more clout in this league (just don't hand such a war chest to a meff like Monk!)
Look at the last 6 clubs to get relegated from the Prem the past 2 seasons. 2 of them are currently back in the Prem for a year after spending a single season down here. 1 is the runaway leader of the champo this season, another as close to nailed on for second as you can get after finishing in the top 6 last year. The 5th is in and out of the top 6 and only the last one of that sextuplet, currently managed by Mrs Doubtfire, is considered as failing as they're just in the top half of the champo as it stands.

There's a reason for all those trends and it concerns cold hard bunce.
 
I initially felt that another season of building under Wilder would put us in a stronger position to retain a place in the PL but to be fair the way the team has come on of late then why not just go for it.

We were the masters of our own downfall in Karanka's PL season with some horrible purchases made and then compounding these mistakes by replacing AK with Agnew.

The club has a much more professional feel to it now with Kieran Scott overseeing the football side of things so if we can avoid similar mistakes it gives us a far better chance of either staying up or being in a much stronger position to bounce back if the worst were to happen. For me the most important thing if we do go up will be that we must retain Wilder as Manager regardless of how the season pans out. He needs time to build and I have no doubt in time he will take us to greater things.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
If we do manage to go up this season then the key thing is to keep our heads. The club in terms of not over spending on Gestede types and the fans not howling for Wilder to be sacked if we are in the bottom 3 all season. Bank the money and then build back stronger in 23/24 should be the idea, with obviously giving it as good a go as possible to stay up next year.
Click to expand...

Agree with this.

It felt like last time we just didn't have any sort of plan in place for what we'd do if we were relegated. You don't plan to get relegated obviously, but you have to put contingencies in place as a newly promoted side.

In two season we went from having built a promotion winning side to having to start from scratch.
 
Smoggyonthesolent said:
I love this division and worry if we where to go up we'd just struggle and it would potentially ruin the great atmosphere at the club. Imagine 2 more Wilder windows and how much better equipped we'd be to mount a realistic attempt of staying in the Premiership.
Click to expand...
I hate this division. The sooner we’re out of it, the better. These threads only come around when we’re doing well. You don’t hear about people loving this league when we’re F***ing about in 14th under the tutelage of Neil Warnock.
 
Last edited:
In addition, there is never a good time to “stay and build” for another season. The gap between the Championship and the Premier League just widens further and there’s no guarantee that you go up having “built” for another season anyway.
 
festa5 said:
Agree with this.

It felt like last time we just didn't have any sort of plan in place for what we'd do if we were relegated. You don't plan to get relegated obviously, but you have to put contingencies in place as a newly promoted side.

In two season we went from having built a promotion winning side to having to start from scratch.
Click to expand...
Yes. And I lay the blame in the main squarely at the door of the soundbite speaking, more than a bit dodgy, clueless whazzock that is Garry Monk.

With notable mentions to Gibbo's appointments sadly, the recruitment in the January in the Prem and Gaston "Tools down" Ramirez.
 
festa5 said:
Agree with this.

It felt like last time we just didn't have any sort of plan in place for what we'd do if we were relegated. You don't plan to get relegated obviously, but you have to put contingencies in place as a newly promoted side.

In two season we went from having built a promotion winning side to having to start from scratch.
Click to expand...
100% this - you can see from recent seasons that the "best" teams plan for both survival and relegation in parallel. Fulham, West Brom etc - yes they might bounce between divisions but commercially that is a much greater benefit than not getting promoted each season.
 
Smoggyonthesolent said:
I love this division and worry if we where to go up we'd just struggle and it would potentially ruin the great atmosphere at the club. Imagine 2 more Wilder windows and how much better equipped we'd be to mount a realistic attempt of staying in the Premiership.
Click to expand...
You love us being in the 2nd division? Utter madness! The great atmosphere is a result of the fans and it always will be. We haven't won anything finishing outside of the playoffs season after season so I'm not sure what is so great to this division compared to the premier league where it would be much the same.

TWO MORE WILDER WINDOWS!! again utter madness. we'll already have a massive rebuilding job in the summer, why not do it so where we can retain the likes of Fry, Tavernier, Jones & McNair and and build on that ready for the premier league? We are just treading water in the championship, next season we'll have three more big fish in the pond and it gets harder and harder to get out of the division.


Hey worse case scenario, we go up.. get relegated and go back to your beloved championship!
 
Humpty said:
I hate this division. The sooner we’re out of it, the better. These threads only come around when we’re doing well. You don’t hear about people living this league when we’re F***ing about in 14th under the tutelage of Neil Warnock.
Click to expand...
This is quite true, you don't hear "I love this league, me" when aimlessly pi$$ing about in the forgotten section of lower mid-table as any realistic prospect of promotion disappears over the hill for another year around the end of February.

It IS almost only when the club is winning more often than not and bouncing around the top 6, even top 2. With the one caveat that people also decide to "love this league" when kicking about in the relegation zone and seeing the alternative of League One grinning evilly up at them and licking it's Sunderland blood-stained chops, like under Woody.

As an example I bet there's plenty of Derby fans who "love this league" right about now.
 
Last edited:
Next season Championship will be as tough as ever, if not more.
Burnley, Norwich and Watford will be very tough nuts, with recent experience of the division, plus possibly Forest, Sheff Utd etc.
No reason we can't do it this season.
UTB
 
Look at the group of players Wilder had pushing for Europe with Sheffield United. I used to be one who thought you could go up ‘too soon’ but it’s probably not true. You need a good coach and a staff with a clear plan, a bit of talent with a good team spirit and a noisy crowd behind them, and clever recruitment. You want a chairman who backs it and backs the manager. Everyone pulling in the same direction. I think we have those things in place.

It’s probably been 5 or 6 years in the making TBH, clearing out from the last time we came down ready to go again. We’re ready now IMO. Let’s just go for it. The plans appear to be in place regarding the medium term but I think there’s something to be said for momentum, for riding the crest of a wave in football. It’s partly why I wished we’d have gone up with Aitor the season before we actually did. I think we were better placed to make a fist of it with that group.

This group would need some help but I don’t see us getting mullered every week if we did do it this year.
 
festa5 said:
Agree with this.

It felt like last time we just didn't have any sort of plan in place for what we'd do if we were relegated. You don't plan to get relegated obviously, but you have to put contingencies in place as a newly promoted side.

In two season we went from having built a promotion winning side to having to start from scratch.
Click to expand...
Invest heavily on quality, don't hold back then spend to try to get back out again. I disagree about plan on relegation. Gibson clearly thought he would spend big enough to march out, then employed an utter tool and let him spend over £50m when we still had Traore, Bamford and Gibson.
Karanka got us up, but spent a lot to do so. The Summer 16 window was pitiful, then the Jan spend was woeful bar Bamford.
Invest well and you have a better squad to retain to get back up, or you have valuable assets to sell.

The promotion winning side Karanka assembled was in my opinion no better than the one that reached Wembley, but it got up having spent a lot of money/lost a fortune in that season.
It needed investment to stay up as it didn't have a lot of Premier League level quality and we invested on quantity not quality.
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
Look at the group of players Wilder had pushing for Europe with Sheffield United. I used to be one who thought you could go up ‘too soon’ but it’s probably not true. You need a good coach and a staff with a clear plan, a bit of talent with a good team spirit and a noisy crowd behind them, and clever recruitment. You want a chairman who backs it and backs the manager. Everyone pulling in the same direction. I think we have those things in place.

It’s probably been 5 or 6 years in the making TBH, clearing out from the last time we came down ready to go again. We’re ready now IMO. Let’s just go for it. The plans appear to be in place regarding the medium term but I think there’s something to be said for momentum, for riding the crest of a wave in football. It’s partly why I wished we’d have gone up with Aitor the season before we actually did. I think we were better placed to make a fist of it with that group.

This group would need some help but I don’t see us getting mullered every week if we did do it this year.
Click to expand...
I also thought that side played better football than the one that was promoted. There was talent amongst the forward line that wasn't based on being dogged and wearing the opponent down. Bamford, Tomlin and Adomah could have handled the top flight better than those that we tried with, they had the skill. Adding (and using) Traore, Stuani and Negredo to those three would have given us a chance of staying up.

Another decent midfielder to play alongside de Roon and we may have had a chance of mid table.

We would have needed a different coach though. Karanka's head had gone by the time we were promoted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top