Every season it seems to be said that it will be even harder to get out of the Championship this year than last. Would it be true to say though that this coming season really will be the toughest yet?
Only in the sense that it gets tougher every year. I remember thinking ten years ago, five years ago that if we can't beat what's put in front of us in the division then our players can't really call themselves footballers. The standard compared to the Prem was Sunday League. That's not true anymore, it's much more competitive. There is real quality now.
There is still a huge gulf between the Premier League and the CCC (as our budgie friends will soon attest to!) albeit the Championship is with out doubt a much tougher proposition nowadays. There are any number of clubs (ourselves included) who could legitimately make a case for being in the top 6 next season. We have some experienced managers at the helms of many clubs, some much better quality players now plying their trade at a wider variety of clubs, so it makes for higher standards and much more competition. Toughest yet? ..... possibly yes. Sadly though it does have to be said, that as the league has strengthened we have weakened over the same period, so its getting tougher for us by dint of improved standards from others and too much inconsistency from our recent sides and we have dropped back. Lets hope PJ can turn that particular tide in our favour!!!
Our squad isnt even as strong as last season, two or three more players is not going to have us competing. Goalkeeping, central defence, right back, central midfield, wide, up front.. all areas that we need to strengthen.
Eloquently put Tim, I couldn't agree more. El Presidenté Evans needs to loosen his purse strings some more as it will only cost more in seasons to come to reach the Premiership. I expect another big club a la Newcastle to fall by the wayside next season and this trend may continue. The CCC is probably the 6-7th best league in Europe! High profile names, more investment and the standard is improving, go Championship!
I have often pondered this - think about it. Let's assume that we are still producing footballers at the same rate and quality as 20, 30 years ago. Now add in all the (very welcome) foreign imports in the Premier League. Where are the English players not quite of international standard and Scots / Welsh / Irish who in the past would've been top flight first teamers? In the reserves at top flight clubs or more likely - in this division!
I'd agree that this season is set to be the toughest to get out of, as each year goes by the quality of players that are prepared to play in the Championship seems to improve. I'd put that down to Championship clubs who are willing to spend big in this league to reach the prem league, speculate to accumulate and all that. Clubs like Forest and Leicester are acting more like newly relegated clubs and clubs relegated not so long ago like Burnley and Hull are getting their act together also. Birmingham and West Ham look certainties to bounce straight back up and promoted clubs Brighton and Southampton look very strong and will no doubt carry on some momentum. Then you have clubs like us, Cardiff, Bristol, Blackpool, Boro and Reading who all have potential to challenge at the top of the league if they can keep some consistency throughout the season. I'd compare next season to the season before last, wherby Birmingham will run away with it as Newcastle did and West Ham will comfortably finish second as WBA did.
i am glad to hear that jwm and lanks yorks agree with my commments made yesterday at this moment in time we do have an average squad to which it must be strengthend if we want to move up i can not understand why i get all this flack while speaking the the truth these are the facts nobody more than me wants the town to move up but as things are at present i just cant see it happening can you ?????????????????
Patience mate, patience. PJ has made such a difference already. What with signing players at the start of pre-season, wanting to play attractive football, getting stellar names (for Div 2) in and creating a feel good factor about the place instead of fear! We're short on quality and numbers but we've got a couple of weeks to go. I had a little flounce earlier today but on reflection we're going in the right direction. Money to burn, unbeaten in pre-season and a 20 goal a season striker playing for us. Have a little faith
Blue Monkey If we have money to burn why the **** aren't we spending it! We are getting left behind and while we are trawling around the freebies and bargain basement for players, other clubs are picking up the real quality players! It was painful watching last night as we pretty much have the same personnel as last year and they still can't defend to save their ****ing lives!
I'm thinking that we've got a big bucks signing coming up. Either that or an impressive loan coup. We want/need to! Centre-back is the real worry. Delaney needs a partner but will be 7/10 for most of the matches if we find him one. Tommy Smith isn't good enough yet. Ingarmarsson looks to be too fragile. Edwards is not a right back. Kennedy is okay if 135 and Cresswell may not be ready yet. We are defensively dogshit..... Also a complete non entity of a scouting system is very worrying. No unearthing any gems for us, we want quality we'll have to pay top dollar.
You make some fair points BM and to be honest I have been encouraged by some of the signings PJ has made but after seeing that performance last night I still have my doubts! I mean we were playing Cambridge FFS and no one should be happy with a draw against a conference side that finished in the bottom half of that league. They are so skint they are relying mostly on kids. Some of my Cambridge supporting mates were having a good old laugh when I explained that this was our full strength team! We have raked in over £10Million in transfer fees over the last year and we have only spent about £1.5Million of that so far. PJ needs to sign at least another 4 quality signings between now and the start of the season.
Do you know what though - at the risk of sounding rather over dramatic - I will NEVER forget the perpetual gut wrenching sensation, frustration, embarrassment, anger and absolute bloody misery which resulted from watching my beloved Blues perform as they did whilst under Roy Keane. Ruined my entire week - almost every week. Therefore my minimum hope / expectation is that I will never be put in such a position again. I really don't want mid-table nothingness but as long as it's not a repeat performance of the crap we have seen in recent times, then I will settle for it.
I couldn't agree more. I'm still running a Nicky Maynard fantasy in my head With the pairing of Leadbitter and Bowyer in the middle of the park do we need a defensive midfielder? It worries me when it's mentioned because it spells 4-5-1 !!!!!!!! We've got too many players that, when being honest, aren't good enough for promotion. I was going to list them but it would take too long. The ones that are Fulop - only just Delaney - if we get him a decent partner Bowyer Leadbitter - needs to improve Carson - Still a pup though Chopra - New hero in the making Get the chequebook out ME
Rushmere I mean no disrespect but that is the whole problem with our football club! We seem all too happy to put up with this meaningless ****e every week. I love the fact that we are a great family club built on the fine homely traditions established under the Cobbolds but times move on. Roy Keane at least identified the very thing that we have all known and ignored for far too long. We are too nice and are as a collective happy to accept mediocre performances from mediocre footballers. He went completely the wrong way about trying to solve the problem but the fact is that we are still too nice and too accepting of failure!
It gets tougher and more competitive every year because of the damn parachute payments. Clubs who have recently gone up and came back down again now have more money to spend because of the payments. In my opinion it's unfair. I can see the reasoning behind it, not wanting clubs to go into administration etc but at the same time it's absolute bullshit. What happened to running your football club in a way where you have to take relegation and wages into consideration before throwing ridiculous contracts about. Basically the way I see it is if you spend too much and get yourself in the **** then you have to pay the price. A hard lesson to learn but it would certainly put a stop to many aspects of our game.
I agree JWM and no offence taken mate. My point was that I don't expect to experience the same old crap ever again. I am certainly not happy to put up with more of the same, trust me, and I will not accept mediocre performances. However being realistic, and especially in the light of your match report on the Cambridge game, I can't see that our improvement over the summer will be enough to achieve more than a mid-table place. Obviously I would be ecstatic if I am wrong. Problem is JWM, that we have all had our dreams shattered for so many seasons that I don't think it is a case of settling for mediocrity but almost expecting it. Can we do anything to change that ourselves? No, is the answer. I pay for my season ticket, support the Blues Foundation, advertise with the club and turn up to every game but I cannot influence performances. I wish I could.
Fair play Rushmere We were blessed when we decided to support the Town! Thank god I support a real football club and not one inhabited by plastic fans who have never even been to watch a game. It makes me laugh when I see all these kids wearing Manure and Chelsea shirts and have never ever been within a mile of their grounds! My son god bless him waited for an hour last night to collect the autographs from our players and he was so excited when he got Lee Bowyer's. That's what being a supporter is all about and despite our current malaise I will never fall out of love with my wonderful football club.
