Here are some interesting stats showing how teams relegated from the PL fared durig their championship srason the year after. Positive forus...negative for our neighbours. please log in to view this image
Also puts into perspective jist how hard it is to get out of this division no matter who the manager is.
Think we're probably all just a bit frustrated we've made a relative meal of this since Feb. We've been by far the most committed collective of fans in supporting their team, home and away, having had the benefit of a solid platform to get promotion from. The games against - in particular - Fulham, Sheff Weds and Ipswich have almost belied our position in the table and in isolation made us look particularly poor.
It does show how tough the league can be - to a point. I would say we have come down with a better quality of player and spent our way out of it. Others have tried this and failed like Villa. To be honest though the problem most have had on that list is an inability to fund a push or at least a fear to. Say what you want about Ashley, when we have gone down, both times he's made sure we have got straight back into the cash game. I'm sure there are very selfish reasons for that but nevertheless he has done it.
the graphic depicts 3 teams to successfully navigate their way back to the PL automatically following relegation. It doesn't include play off winners. We would be the 4th team to do it out of the last 33. We only need to look at Villa and Norwich to see how well we have done this year. people had us down to walk the league, but it's a lot tougher than people think and a top two finish is commendable and should definitely be celebrated. I just want to be included when the PL fixtures come out next year!
Are you starting up a team TMS? If so, shouldn't you be starting at the bottom of the pyramid, like everyone else has to?
We can still win it! And the chart's misleading then, as it obviously should include playoff winners, as that's a successful immediate return to the league, regardless of if it's in the top 2. I expected Norwich to be more involved this year, but after we beat them 4-3 they were on a terrible run for ages, and took far too long to ditch Alex Neil. Villa were a complete farce over the summer, and I kinda expected them to balls it up - taken over by a lunatic owner saying he's gonna make them one of the one 3 in the world, making obvious and predictable signings with no regard to how they'd function as a team, and appointing an average manager who hadn't been in the country for 4 years.
Exactly - I guess not spending Jan was something of a gamble in not spending money and hoping we'd have enough to achieve promotion - a gamble which should pay off (just). Which keeps that money available for far more important purchases in the summer. However, I would say this league is stronger than that in 2009/10 - the sides currently in 3rd - 7th already have more points than their respective counterparts finished the season with last time.
What money though? I think the fact that Ashley has had to put in £33m to the club this season to keep us afloat suggests there wasn't any money to spend in January (unless he had put in even more himself).
I was working purely on our transfer "profit" from last summer - without taking into account any consideration of the running costs of the club as I believe the two are kept separate. I guess we'll see in the summer whether that money did make its way into Ashley's back pocket - but given that loans to club so far haven't been paid back, would suggest the transfer pot was left alone - I think the lack of signings in Jan was more related to us not getting the players we wanted (Koeman said outright he wouldn't sell McCarthy etc) - if that is the case the case then I'm pleased we weren't held to ransom or paid stupid amounts for other players just to been seen to be doing something (we've often done this in the past).
I would assume Ashley wouldn't put money into the club to pay for running costs unless we had no money in the bank. It was basically an overdraft because our bank account had hit zero. The trading surplus from last summer's transfers seems to have been partly spent on running costs prior to Ashley's cash injection and the remainder of it will be coming in from instalments due this summer according to the accounts. I suppose you are partly right in what you say and this is what I posted yesterday about having the Thauvin and Sissoko payments coming in (allegedly £9.5m and £6m respectively). This is my best guess based on the snippets of info that have been put out there.
