I always presume the people who say they are looking forward to The Championship m’s only recollection of nonPL football was 2010-2012.
Far too many are looking at it as some sort of short term novelty, as if we’ll be there a year or two max then solidify back in the PL. Certainly no guarantees of this.
My worst fear of all is becoming a Norwich/WBA style yo-yo club. We all remember 2012 so fondly, I do wonder if Norwich fans can remember one promotion or relegation season from another.
I'm largely with you, even though it might come across like I'm not.
I'm not "looking forward" to the Championship. I would take survival over relegation all day long. Like you, I also think that too many people choose to ignore those first four seasons after relegation in 2005. I think trying to re-establish ourselves as a PL club, as opposed to a yo-yo style club at best, could be hugely difficult if we were to go down.
But at the same time, I do expect us to have a squad next season which could really compete at that level. Largely because our squad is so young, so big, and so lacking in players who'll be attractive to other PL clubs. It's a very different squad to 2005. Back then, we had the likes of Le Saux, Redknapp and Dodd who were on their last legs, the likes of Davenport, Camara and Svensson who were on loan or leaving, and the likes of Niemi, Crouch and Phillips who were easily good to remain in the PL. Once you took them out of the picture, we were basically just left with Claus, Prutton, Higginbotham and Oakley from that PL team. When you look back at the list of players we signed, mainly on free transfers, there was a whole lot of rubbish in there. I'm not sure who the modern day equivalents are of, say, Darren Powell and Jim Brennan, but we shouldn't need to be signing them next season.
Basically I'm confident about 2023-24. But 2024-25 and beyond, I think is a whole different story. And I do worry about that. A few years of being a yo-yo club, followed then by not getting promoted and drifting down the Championship. I'd rather just stay in the PL this season. But, alas, it's not going to happen.