Everyone is happy to cosplay Green Street until they actually meet those who want to fight instead of pavement dancing. If one positive to going down is watching these muppets get the **** kicked out of them it'll take the edge of a little
I could see us try to loan some of the players we will want to keep but who dont want to drop level. Alcaraz, Sulemana (although I think he should stay in the Championship, will do him good), ABK etc. They all have longer on their contracts, and hopefully we come right back up.
I was going to ask if it was ok to put up comments that weren't totally positive, but you've beaten me to it. I agree with you Lincoln ( never thought I'd say that ). Just as a promotion push would be fun, going in the opposite direction is also a real possibility. Most relegated teams are there or thereabouts for promotion the next season but Saints are champions at breaking the trend. Anyway, enough of the negative stuff. My contribution to the positive benefit is that like this season where I didn't buy a season ticket, I will not be buying one next season either thereby alleviating the need for Prozac. Happy days.
Manager is key. For Championship tactics & profile or a “friendly / trustworthy” face (Selles) to retain players. I’m not sold on Selles tactically & therefore if we go new, it’s such an important decision. Jeez, just read that last bit back. How’s the fcuk did we get NJ
I wouldn't be surprised to see Tino sign a new deal. He came in on a pretty low salary (relatively speaking) and I'm not sure he'll have many takers now. He needs to play, so we could feasibly give him the nod to be RB1 and a bit of a raise as a show of trust (maybe with a clause baked in if we don't go up and he gets PL offers in 2024/25).
If we play anywhere close to how we have this season, we will also struggle in the championship. This team is horrendous and have an awful attitude. Big changes in mentality are needed to be competitive again. Smallbone & Tella may bring some positivity back if we can keep them. I assume we will lose Lavia, JWP, KWP, ABK, Salisu & Che. I would hope we lose Adam A, elyounoussi, Bednarek, Lyanco and Diallo. A year in the championship will be great for Bazunu, Edozie, Larios, Tino and the other youngsters. But really who knows how we will fare. It’s a very tough league.
Let's stay positive lads. We've heard too much of the bitching, criticising, and bed-wetting this season. If we are going to hit the ground running in the Champ, then the fans need to put the effort in too.
The tough league is relative. It is if you have been in it for a number of seasons, then it’s very tough to get out of. It hasn’t been for relegated teams for a number of years now, look at the likes of Watford and Norwich who have yo-yoed a couple of times each. To put some perspective on their PL achievements last season Watford finished in 19th and had the same points we currently do after 38 games. Norwich didn’t even make it to 23 points. They both look unlikely to come back this season (though not impossible if one of them gets in the playoffs) but they’ll be up there or there abouts next season because of the parachute payments. Burnley have obviously walked the league, they did a complete rebuild in the summer which has worked very well so it’s hard to really compare players from their PL relegation team against ours. Sheff Utd went down 2 seasons ago and look like they will grab the other auto spot Looking at the other relegated teams that year Fulham walked the league and made an immediate return, and West Brom are in the playoff hunt this year The year before Bournemouth came back in two seasons and Norwich and Watford came back immediately the year before Fulham came back immediately, Cardiff and Huddersfield are struggling and one if not both look like going down to League 1. I believe they both have had some financial troubles which we shouldn’t encounter for the first 3 years (parachute payments) so they don’t seem relevant to the conversation right now Basically I don’t see why we shouldn’t be optimistic of our chances of coming straight back or within the parachute payment years. I really don’t think our squad is much worse than others who have gone down and we appear to have owners who will spend as well as having some players we should be able to raise money from as well
Good post. Here's a list of the last 15 teams to get relegated from the Premier League, and their finishing position in the next two seasons in the Champ (if applicable). Out of those 15 teams, 5 earned promotion straight away (I'm including Burnley this season), and 3 more earned it the following season (presuming Sheff Utd finish 2nd). There were also 5 additional (unsuccessful) playoff finishes. 18/19 West Brom - 4th - 2nd Stoke - 16th - 15th Swansea -10th - 6th 19/20 Cardiff - 5th - 8th Fulham - 4th (playoff winners) - n/a Huddersfield - 18th - 20th 20/21 Bournemouth - 6th - 2nd Watford - 2nd - n/a Norwich - 1st - n/a 21/22 Fulham - 1st - n/a West Brom - 10th - 10th Sheff Utd - 5th - 2nd 22/23 Burnley - 1st Watford - 11th Norwich - 7th The teams finishing 1st in the last three seasons of the Champ, have all been relegated teams.
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.
This is the main reason why I wanted next season's manager to be Jones' replacement, to avoid having a fourth manager in less than a year. But we went with Selles. I certainly don't think that should be a reason to stick with Selles.
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.
I absolutely agree with your first point. Yes, according, to many, he is making mistakes, but I'm not on the training ground or in the dressing room, so I have no idea what he is taking into consideration when picking the team. He's been put between a rock and a hard place and I would very much doubt, any PL manager would get us out of the current mess in time anyway. So your mention of continuity IF we are relegated, appeals to my basic sense of reason. But then again my money apart from ticket purchases is not at risk and at the end of the day that is an area in which most of us don't share in either I suspect, not being in the boardroom also has its disadvantages too from our point of view.
This is a bit of a shame, in the likely event that etc etc. Sky Sports looks set to retain the broadcast rights for the English Football League (EFL) beyond 2024, dashing the hopes of streaming companies DAZN, TNT Sports and Viaplay.
