I just don't like the premier league. I don't like the expense, I don't like the "fans", I don't like the "sport". I think it will only get worse - it is run by money, and that is not the sport I have loved all my life. I love the Championship - I even enjoyed League 1. Real football, real clubs, real fans. Sorry....but that's just me. I guess I'm weird
More chance of interesting draws from the first round. The idea of having to go to some ****ty non league ground up north for a cup match offers as much potential excitement as a European qualification to me. Not arsed about streams tbh.
I'm still scarred from the 1st time that happened. Really wouldn't fancy a play off shoot out again either
Yeah it's nice existing and enjoying a football season outside of the ridiculous hype and sky bubble. Championship is almost as money driven these days too mind which is why I'd like Ipswich to get promoted. You forgot to mention VAR though
It's all about enjoying the football for me, whatever league we are in but there's no reason that we can't emulate say a Villa or Brighton in a few years. I've said before you can go a long way with a great team spirit and a clear football philosophy. It's very early days for the club with relatively new owners and changes from the top to the bottom on every level and i'm not too bothered about promotion this season as I think there will still be decent investment next season. I just want to enjoy a stress fee run in and then the excitement of the play-offs, I personally want to see us have a right go at the Scousers on Wednesday. COYRs
I so enjoyed the League 1 and Championship seasons. Coming into Soton with the wife, who would do a little retail therapy, l would meet friends in the pub, before meeting up with the wife, stop off for lunch on the way to the ground, the whole time living in this relaxed bubble of anticipation of a positive outcome. Compare this to the trepidation of the EPL, walking to St Mary's with grim thoughts of the unlikely prospect of even a draw. Yes, l am possibly looking back in rose tinted glasses, but those promotion seasons were the best, for me, in decades as a Saints fan.
I’m with you guys. I want saints to get promoted because I think we will be in trouble if we don’t. But ultimately not fussed. I much prefer this league, it’s so much more entertaining. I agree with all the points raised about VAR, plastic fans, getting smashed every week. Plus there are cheaper tickets and it’s easier to get hold of them. I don’t really care what league we are in as long as we are competitive and the team gives their all.
When l was a nipper my late father would take we to The Dell to support the Saints. I started going in the mid/late 1960's. Later in life, when l had grown up and moved away l would visit my father who would then take me to watch Eastleigh when they were in the lower leagues (1990's). So l had a series of snapshots over the years as they progressed up to Blue Square South (my father passed away during that time). I enjoyed all the games l went to, you soon forget the quality not matching that of the EPL, it about enjoying the spectacle on the day (Francis Benali coaching from the touchline was possibly on of the scariest experiences i have ever witnessed). The point is, l want to enjoy the day out, from walking to the game, watching and coming home. Those last few seasons in the EPL were soul destroying and so expensive too. I have mixed emotions about having to go through that again, should we get promoted, so maybe l should follow my father in his latter years and attend Eastleigh games and Saints through the TV.
I never expected promotion at the start of the season. I’m surprised people did to be honest, a whole bunch of new young players to learn an entirely new system in an entirely new league, with more midweek games under a new manager and coaching staff and perform consistently over the entire season? Doesn’t sound like a top 6 to me, if anything I thought there could be a chance it could all go very sideways. But I thought 11/12th seemed realistic. I’m really not surprised by the current form. I thought it was always there tbh. We had moments of really really great football but I always thought we were a one pace team and if a team really went at us we’d fold like a house of cards. I dontt think losing Downes is the problem, he’s certainly an issue but that doesn’t explain the complete switch in attitude from the players who don’t seem to give a **** when we’re losing at home against a side that’s 21st and you’re slipping quickly from 2nd. I don’t understand how we can be passing it round the back in the 93rd minute in that scenario. It’s why I’d like us personally to stay in the championship. This team still has a hell of a lot of gelling to do and if we went up this season I genuinely believe we’d be in for the worst season in our history. The confidence in that team is fragile as hell, the defence is made up entirely of people who were either in our defence last season or have zero PL experience, a couple of early losses and we’d be screwed. I also need to see RM tested a bit more. I’m very concerned by his inability to adapt within a game, multiple times, even when we’ve won, I’ve felt he’s stuck too close to his plan instead of adapting to the requirements of a game. Yesterday, I wanted to scream when the ball just kept going to the wing. You need to be able to see when things aren’t working and switch up tactics within a game. And I’m not yet convinced he’s ready for the PL either. My biggest fear is to become a Norwich or a West Brom. Too **** for the PL but too good for the Championship.
I think that the idea of a midtable consolidation season post a PL relegation is about a decade out of date to be honest. The gap has got so much bigger in recent years and pretty much any relegated side (which isn't a first year relegation) should be hitting the top 6 comfortably really. Our wage bill is double the amount of any other side in the league bar our fellow relegated ones and you can see by the quality on our bench most weeks just how far ahead our squad is due to that. If the squad is good enough that Alcaraz (who'd walk into at least 18 teams XI in this league) is going out on loan to get more game time then I don't see an argument that we shouldn't be challenging for automatic promotion. 11th/12th would have been a horrifically poor outcome with this squad.
another point...the massive financial bubble that is the premier league is going to burst, spectacularly and soon - it is flat out unsustainable. It is that bubble that is ruining it for everyone else and the reason why any player who can tie their own bootlaces gets poached. It is going to be messy, very messy...and I would rather be in the Championship when it happens. When we were relegated to div 1 that was the result of years and years of mismanagement, and I think it actually did the club some good. We came back stronger. I honestly don't see that happening any time soon.
I don’t quite see how the Alcarez situation equates. Unless I’m in the wrong circles that’s widely seen as quite a negative decision by the club, especially considering the current form it’s arguable letting Alcarez go is looking a stupider mistake with each passing week. As for the squad in my opinion it’s all one of those ‘on paper’ things. Yes on paper the squad is full of good players. There was absolutely no reason to believe though that they could gel together, plenty of squads over the years have shown that a bunch of good players mean nothing. Some argued our squad last season was a bunch of good players too and look how that turned out. All I’m saying is if these players, some of which had shown last year that they’d happily down tools if they didn’t like a managers playing style, didn’t like RM and just continued playing the way we did post Sunderland 5-0, the scenario of us being wildly inconsistent isn’t unrealistic. It would have been a bad season sure, but I don’t think it was a unforseeable problem.
The point about Alcaraz is that he'd walk into most teams in the league. So the fact that he's gone out on loan due to a lack of game time serves as evidence of just how strong our squad is in comparison to the vast majority of the division. Agree it wouldn't have been unforeseeable but I don't think it's unrealistic to expect a top 6 finish given the huge disparity in resources. For the record I didn't expect promotion this season and don't particularly want it. If the poor form after Sunderland and co had continued I doubt RM would have seen Christmas tbh as we were so bad. He did brilliantly well to turn it around though and deserves huge credit for that. Now we're having a bit of a bad patch again but it's not the end of world and I expect us to turn it around again sooner rather than later. Yeah a lot of people did say our squad was good enough last year but I always felt that was incorrect tbh. We had a young inexperienced keeper thrown in at a level he clearly wasn't ready for and no reliable goalscorer on top of losing Romeu. A team which is poor defensively and doesn't score many is always going to struggle.
Tbh we won’t be going up now. We won’t win the playoffs. We don’t have the mentality for it. All that will happen is Hull/WBA/Ipswich/whoever will sit back, hit us on the counter and then defend while we pass it backwards and sideways. This is especially true if Fraser’s injury is a bad one. He’s our only match winner.
I find that all those who say how much they enjoy the Championship and League One refer predominantly to 2009-12 (JPT, double promotion) and this season so far (I unbeaten run, automatic promotion push, possible play offs as worst case scenario) You don’t get many remembering fondly the 2005-2009 years. Fail to go up this year and that’s likely where we’re heading (or at least more similar to that than current performance)
