If you get up to the premiership because you have performed better over the season then you must be ready for the step up. It's what you do in the close season to make sure you stay up that counts. I'm concerned that should we get promoted we wouldn't get the players of the standard required and would come straight back down, some players will grow professionally by being in the premiership others will fall behind and not be able to make the grade.
H, do you mean winning the league with a squad that only needs a two or three signings. I think that is asking too much. You go up, sign who you can. and play football that suits the league. As a promoted team you can't do much more. The thing is even teams that get through their first season find it difficult in the second season (Newcastle excepted). It is too hard to define what it means to be ready. I understand that we want to be ready, but the financial gain that an unexpected promotion (if it is used wisely) can't be sniffed at either!
If a team in the championship wins the majority of games over the season they need a bigger challenge as they have beaten those below them. They get the challenge by being promoted to the premiership. So they are "ready" for the premiership. It's then up to those players to show they are ready by competing in the higher league, if they are subsequently relegated then they can be deemed "not ready" for the premiership. If the team is strengthened in the close season it's always a gamble. The players that got you there should be given the chance to compete in the premiership. Any players coming in have to be better than current players and fit with the managers chosen game plan. It's a gamble because those new players may not perform to their usual standard quick enough and the team could be in a relegation fight before they find their form.
When the swans went up most of us thought we had about 3-4 players that could cut it at that level, turned out it was alot more than that, you may well be suprised at what could happen,you Will never know until your in it
Lets just get there and then find out how ready we are. Other than the top 5 or 6 teams I don't think the premier league is as strong as in previous seasons. In order to survive there you only have to win 11 games and draw 6 or 7 more. If you can't do that then clearly you're not ready.
Don't think reading will go up in autos have the hardest run in of top 8 by far. Ad gar ad being ready? Norwich and the swans are both playing players that helped them get out of league 1, neither have the infrastructure in place we have or potential financial muscle. IF and its a big IF we go up I'm confident we'll stay there for a long time
Why wouldn't you want the auto's? Okay, yourselves in particular have had a lot of heartbreak in the past with them, but it's the only chance you have this season, else it's another season in the CCC. From a rivals point of view, do I think your ready for the Premier league? Simple answer is no. There is no doubting you have some great players, namely Whittingham, but you simply do not have the pace. Most of the teams in the PL have fast LB's, RB's, and wingers and I really don't think you could cope with that, not until you address the issue. Last season, you had the answer down the left with Bellamy, and now he's gone, you've struggled. Personally, I think this is the main reason you've struggled to get into the PL for the last 4 or 5 years, close, but no cigar. With regards to players taking the step up, we (And Norwich) have shown it can be done, but with the right players. Most of us Jacks weren't expecting great things, we believed, but in all honesty, I thought we would struggle, but our lads made the step up and look at where we are. So, it goes back to the "Are you ready". While some of your players will make the step up, the pace isn't going to magic itself, remember, we have Dyer, Sinclair, Taylor etc that have alot of pace so, until that issue is addressed, I can't see you getting promotion, and if you did, great, but I can see you struggling.
Well said Jackash coming from a supporter of a team who finished below us last year. What a Plum you are.
Reading struggle with the lesser teams . Reading are 5 win , 2 draws & 2 losses against teams above Cardiff . Reading might help the Bluebirds out a bit securing auto's , not so much with West Ham & Southampton as they'll both make a playoff or auto spot . But with Birmingham & Leeds they could be a big help .
Is there a new rule that we can't sign any new players? Why would you assume that we would not have the resources to buy 5 or so players that would add a heap of pace to the side. Why can Swansea stay up without too many problems, but Cardiff couldn't. Unless you mean that Swansea was ready, but another promoted team would not be.
Sorry, I meant I could see you struggle unless you were to sign players. We were lucky to already have pacey wingers in our side so all we had to do was hope they could make the step up. So, if you were to do this, ala QPR, would you struggle then because you just thrown in a bunch of lads that are new to your system etc? I saw, We (Swans) finished above you (3rd), but that is irrelevant. It wasn't a WUM, it's just my general opinion, and judging by a few of your fans recent posts, you agree that you have not got enough pace, and it shows.
Taff , i think that the top six in the Prem are safe bets but anything below them are just playing in a league withing a league ,its been well documented that the standards are not as high now in the Prem and every new team has to survive the first season to get established and lets be honest the top 5 in the Championship are as good as the bottom 10 in the Prem at this stage .
You're right about those top 6 or so John, but I can't agree with the second part though. Maybe in a one off game or even a mini tournament, any of the top 5 Champ sides could hold their own against a bottom ten Prem club, but the quality players that those Prem sides could draw on would see them through over a season's campaign. That's not to say that given the same resources, many of the Champ clubs wouldn't outshine the habitual Prem propper uppers given the chance. It's all about getting that chance. Swansea and Norwich have taken theirs, whereas QPR with all their alleged billionaire resources have floundered. It's about the clubs themselves, and the people that run them.
Agree Sparky, but you wonder who will be there the longest out of those three clubs. If QPR get through this season, they have the ability to become a perennial BPL club due to their resources.
The bottom half of the prem league is not much stronger than a top 6 championship team but as already mentioned the prem side have a bigger pool of players. They usually fail to make an impact when relegated because they lose their better players to clubs still in the prem. We've beaten a few premier league sides in our time in on-off games but we must be honest some of our teams in those years would struggle in the prem at the time. If we were to go up this season we'd struggle without bringing in 10 players methinks.
That's just my point Siam - QPR have the mega-resources right now if they choose to use them, but need the football management to go with it. Why are they in 18th and a relegation spot? Can't be the money - must be something else. Having got to the heady heights of the Prem, I would have thought a club run by committed owners, especially if they've got squillions in their pockets like QPR, should be able to stay there - just like Swansea and Norwich without the same personal squillions. No mate - there is something not right about QPR and the set up there. None of our business I suppose, but interesting all the same.
The difference for me is the second season. A team without a lot of resources seems thrive under the excitement of the first year (Hull and Blackpool as examples) and then struggle when they still do not add quality to the squad.
Not picking on our new Mod, but Blackpool only lasted a season. I think the support base might have something to do with it. What are QPR averaging this season, 16,000 if they are lucky and not always sell outs, whereas the Swans and Norwich are playing to 20k plus each week in full, modern stadiums. And the Swans want to expand once they sort out the McDonalds issue. Blackpool had similar problems to QPR, small ground and not full every week. Okay you can argue against that with Wigan, low crowds, half empty stadium but at least their Chairman has been with them for some years and has continued financial and managerial support - unlike the guy at QPR who makes good noises and says/does the right things but is a Johnny Come Lately and I question what he will do if they go down. Also they have had a fast moving managerial merrygoround. Even though Norwich went down to Div. 1 they have always had a top line set up from the top with consistent support at board level. In some ways that makes the Swans achievement more remarkable with no track record of Prem set up and a very cautious financial approach - although some great choices for manager (Sousa excepted) who have continued the concept of football style have undoubtably helped. Next season will be very interesting at Swansea as the top clubs will be used to their style and have had time to work out how to deal with it. Can the Swans move forward and enhance what they have done this season, maybe adapting their style to meet the different challenges that might be thrown at them.?
