This is football we’re discussing, never let principles get in the way of getting advantage over others! The commission of which you speak needs to actually act in line with its principles surely?
Oooh exciting times I thought it was 31. Relegated earlier than Derby would be quite some achievement.
Indeed. Derby, Huddersfield and Sheff Utd all jointly hold this particular record. So they'd all be glad to pass it on. And unless West Ham fight back, I'd say it'll be very likely that we'll go on Sunday. I guess that also might mean that tomorrow could be the last I see of Juric. I won't miss him.
Yeah I can't see Wolves not beating Ipswich and we'll almost certainly lose both. Doubt it'd count for the record books as wouldn't technically be mathematical but even 4 points for Wolves would confirm it given the respective GD. Wolves play Saturday too so we'll know when we take the pitch at Spurs.
My mate text me saying “relegation sorted now with Wolves winning”. Told him it was sorted in November. His solution is for 4 teams to go down, which I don’t think he has thought through
I know we are all blinded by just how **** we are this season, but the bigger story is the utter canyon forming between the Championship and PL, doubt it has ever been this significant before. 12 points between Wolves and Ipswich now, 17 points between 18th and 16th (West Ham) too. All three promoted sides straight back down for the second season in a row and both ourselves and Leicester were previously well established PL sides that bounced back after only 1 season in the Championship. Of course we got relegated the very season that the gap became a chasm, good luck whoever gets promoted this season (although I doubt anyone will be quite as bad as us for a long time, who knows we will probably come back up to break our own record).
They'll never scrap the play offs because they generate too much money and entertainment but I wouldn't mind the format changing to what they do in Germany and have a 2 leg relegation/promotion play off match between 18th in the PL and 3rd in the Championship.
What would be the benefit of that though? Wouldn't that also just make the gap even worse as you'd likely only get two teams promoted most seasons? Not to mention it'd make the championship duller as loads more teams would have nothing to play for by this point of the season.
Here's a fun idea: Promoted teams get 4 points for a win. Or, even better: 30 points guarantees survival (for promoted clubs), regardless of final position. (So teams 15th to 17th could go down, in theory). I'm an ideas man.
Those are potential negatives yes. But teams who finish 5th or 6th in the Championship are likely going to be just as bad as us this season in the PL should they go up. And I think games between 18th in the PL and 3rd in the Championship may be closer than you think. Confidence is a big thing in football.
For me, this would work better only if a fourth promotion/relegation slot. The three guaranteed promotions needs to be a minimum.
I didn't say they wouldn't be close. Just that you'd expect the PL side to come out on top in the majority of cases. I just think the play offs system isn't broken so why change it and make the championship a less interesting division? It'll also make the situation where it's mostly the same teams going up and down much worse too due to the parachute payment gap. You mention 5th or 6th placed teams coming up but a team lower than 4th hasn't won the play offs since 2019.
