Looking at the championship for the coming season,without doubt it is going to be the strongest since we returned seven years ago. When you look at the teams already down and coming up,plus the one remaining team coming down and the one coming up it looks pretty awsome. I really hope Delboy is backed by the board,we need some real quality in. The last thing we want is a re run of this last season. Lets hope SL will back his man , Im sure he will,none of us want to go through another season like the current one.
The general infrastructure of BCFC has been falling apart for many years now and until such time as the management realise that you have to be proactive rather than reactive we will continue to struggle. Now we all have to realise that this cannot happen overnight and if we had taken the right approach at the time of our promotion to the championship this conversation would probably not be taking place. However we took our usual approach of turning a blind eye to the obvious and allowed the rot to slowly settle in making the task of securing at least competitiveness in this division more difficult than necessary. Building a contender season by season is the right way to maintain a sustained effort to stability in any division, but due to the clear facts stated by Red Robin, it is becoming more difficult every time the competition is rearranged every year. Most teams, if not all, relegated from the Premiership intend to give it a good shot at immediate return and will therefore build a strong squad during the summer to be able to hit the blocks running. If Derek is half the man we believe him to be then that process should be well under way already, but the big unknown in the equation is the support he will recieve from his bosses. Talk is cheap and unless someone at the top of our club is prepared to stick their wallet on the line then the whole process, and the good words said during this time, is doomed for another tough season of struggling. The time has come for BCFC to show us the goods and make good on their promise of supporting Derek McInnes if we are to achieve our goals this season - nothing less is acceptable is it?
For me, Sexstone going is step 1 on our road to becoming a better run club and having a better and more professional profile. I hope the board recognise that their appointment of Millen nearly resulted in a major disaster and that they've learned their lesson for the seasons to come. You are spot on Red Robin as to how hard next season will be, so instead of starting the season with another 0-3 home defeat on the opening day, we need to hit the ground running. We're not going to be top 2 and probably not top 6, but I'm sure we'll improve.
Id have to agree that the incoming teams are stronger than the teams leaving. Especially having a sleeping giant like Shef Wednesday and ex Prem league champions Blackburn. Can imagine the bookies not giving us much chance on odd next season so hopefully we can punch above our weight and finish in the top half of the table, ideally in the top 6 but would take top 12
Sheffield Wednesday will need to buy some quality in order to survive. Charlton will be hard to beat at The Valley Wolves will be there or there abouts come May 2013 Blackburn for me is the unknown. They may do well or may struggle. They may be ex league champions, but they bought the title that year with Shearer, Flowers, Sutton, Batty, Sherwood and co and look at the mess they are in now. They could well do a Southampton and go down
Looking at those teams confirmed in Championship for next season, assuming that Sheff Utd get the play off place and that Bolton come down and WHAM go up (although it doesn't change much if it's QPR down and Blackpool up. With the current City squad and before we know the extent and quality of incoming players, if I was a betting man I know I would not put any money on us staying up. Fellow strugglers will be Barnsley and any one/two from Peterboro, Millwall and Palace. I cannot see Forest or Ipswich flirting with the bottom as they did this last season. As a confirmed pessimist, I am beginning to wonder if it would have been better to rebuild in Div One, because to rebuild in this league looks frightening and will probably be very costly in wages even if not in transfer fees.
Lets all **** ourselves because their may be a couple of decent sides it the championship next year.. Thats the spirit.
The thing is with the championship, is you can normally predict one or two to go down and maybe one to go up. The beginning of last year no one would of predicted Portsmouth and Coventry to go down but maybe Doncaster. Year before probably Scunthorpe but not PNE and Sheffield United. Likewise no one would of predicted Southampton this year and Norwich the year before. The Championship is always viewed as the hardest and IMO probably will always be. But I can say that if we went down the pessimist would say **** me div one is hard this year! I did think it was hard till I thought about it properly. There are still Barnsley, Millwall, Watford, Palace, Petersbourough, Brighton, Ipswich, Derby, Hull and Burnley to contend with some of them were good this year to watch but football changes. Plus you have the Sheff clubs and who's to say Charlton will do a Norwich and Southampton? Get a team that gels hits the ground running, can't see why we can't be challenging inthe middle of the table this year. Let's worry about the rest if we start the same as the last two years!
We need to exceed our own expectations and ignore what our team looks like on paper compared to the big spenders in the Championship. This is achieved by bringing in the right players and instilling a belief and professionalism within the club that we can match anyone in the league Del is the man to do this. Millen simply wasn't.
Thanks for the positive comments chaps. I do like to play devil's advocate occasionally and provoke a reaction. Banksy's reply was short, not very sweet but straight to the point although I would disagree there are only a couple of decent sides in next seasons Championship. There are at least a dozen who could be called very serious challengers and do you not agree that at present, we would not be among them as we have not yet started to recruit. Interesting months ahead as I firmly believe Derek McInnes and Doc are the people for the job.
When Bristol City reached the play-off finals in 2008, had we won we would have bucked the trend and been the first team to have gained consecutive automatic promotion for about 20 years- Watford in 1998 was the last I think. Since 2008, though teams coming up from Div 1, Blackpool, Nottm Forest, Swansea, Norwich, Southampton and to a lesser extent Leeds, Brighton, Millwall, have made an significant impact on the championship. Teams relegated from Premier have also tended to go back very quickly in one or two seasons. The net result of that is that the more 'established' Championship clubs, ourselves included are squeezed down the table. it is no accident that the top 6 this season, only Cardiff and Reading were in the championship last season. Not sure what this proves, except that the top of league 1, is on a par with the middle of the championship and relagated sides from the Prem, even with reduced squads, are as good as the top 6 of the championship. So existing championship sides must raise their own bar significantly to remain competitive. Like Reading did this season.,
I would if I were you, as I see no chance for City next season. This isn't banter, this is genuine fear for you lot. Relegated, and most likely bottom at that.
"Not banter,genuine fear,no chance,bottom at that",you don't have talk some crap but you makes I larf sometimes.....
Sags, Division Four also rans again!! How sad is that... put in the shade of Swindon, Cheltenham, Yeovil and about to get beaten twice by Exeter. How ****in low can it get for them..
Dont get angry about it. I'm just stating the obvious. You are the smallest team in that division, next season you will probably get the smallest gates, have the smallest finances and will be the smallest team. No shame in that...
Must hurt knowing that you can only DREAM of where we are.. i know it kills you inside.. thats why you post on our board more than the rovers board
Doesnt hurt as I know this time in a couple of years, we will be sat in a nice shiny new stadium, in league one at the very least, thrashing you lot at the UWE will be nice
Chris have you been on your eeeez and whizz again? You really are a ****** ain't you, granted you might get your stadium cheaper now. Cardiff have a load of Blue seats to sell. But to say we are the smallest when you know that ain't true
