There was 4 teams fighting tooth and nail for promotion in 2014/15 CITY... 1st.. FINISHED 18th and 17th in championship MKD ...2nd relegated from champs and 12th in Div 1 PNE ..3rd finished 1th for 2 seasons Swindles.. finished 15th and this season relegated to Div 2 other than PNE with 2 11th places the rest of the end of season results is hardly inspirational for DIV 1 TO CHAMPIONSHIP! THE PATTERN CONTINUES.... div 1 promo's Wigan ...1st .... relegated Burton 2nd ...... 20th Barnsley 6th/play off... 14th Wolves....1st ................7th 14th 15th Brent .....2nd ..................5th 9th 10th Rotherm.. 4th/playoff ..21st 21st relegated so very uninspirational and an indication of the gap that is between Div1 and championship
PNE have done well because they have a good manager who knows what he's doing. Brentford have apparently been using the Moneyball approach and seems to have worked for them We have some half-assed five pillars and a numpty manager. It may well catch up with us next season.
6 teams have made it to PREM from DIV 1 PROMOTION Bournemouth 2013/14 Brighton (this year) Soton 2010/11 Norwich 2009/10 Leicester 2008/09 Swansea 2007/08 Doncaster x2 Yeovil Peterbro x2 Millwall Scunny came up went down as low as Div2 this season Sheff Wed; Florest; Leeds; Hudders; Wolves; Brentford; BHA; Rotherm; PNE; WIGAN; Burton; Barnsley were all promoted from Divi 1 SINCE 2006 that's half of the division made up from promoted teams. take away the 5 previously promoted and that is just about half of the 25 teams promoted in the last 10 year.....
It may be considerably harder to stay away from the very bottom of the table next season unless we can find an adequate replacement for Tammy and shore up at the back a bit too. I can see the Championship in 2017/18 being an even tighter than the one just gone and we might be amongst the favourites to go down initially..
the prem has a deep divide the top 8 and the rest almost a 20 point gap championship top 7 had a 10 point gap to 8th 8th to 15th covered by 12 points and 16th to 22nd just 4 points it is a subtle pattern but comparison with the prem over a number of years it is following the similar pattern. in maybe 3 or 4 years the championship will be a regluar mix of a dozen teams in top "8" with the same faces bouncing in and out of the prem in maybe 6 or 7 years the bottom 8 or so will be mainly the same faces vying for position with the odd "regular from div 1" making reappearances with 1 maybe making it through to the top!
It will be a tough season for a lot of teams in the Championship next seson, us included. More experienced managers than LJ have and will struggle, just look at Tony Mowbray, an experienced Premiership and higher echelon Championship manager, but still got relegated this season. An experienced manager brings you no certainty of survival.
In defence of Mowbray, he was up against it from the off given Blackburns position at the time of his appointment, which was only in February of this year. Another few games and I reckon he would have kept them up.
had Brum not played Huddersfield reserves then the likely hood would have been he saved them ..............
