Not particularly mate, but the money would sort out the club financially. I'd be happy if we could stay in the top ten or even pushing for a play-off place. Imagine finishing 7th? Would that be good or disappointing?
Here's a quick comparison to last season at the halfway stage after 23 games. Last season we had 26 points, this season 34. We won away on match 22 at Birmingham, this season we've already won 4 away. Last season we had played 3 London Derbies drew 2 lost 1, this season we have won both. I can't recall if we won on Sky ( I don't think we did, ) this season we have beaten Villa. Last season we lost 4-0 away at Forest, this season we won there for the first time ever. Last season goals scored 26, conceded 34. Goal difference -8. This season, For 28, Against 32. GD -4
Conceded a fair chunk of those 34 goals in the first 4 games didn't we? I think a top 10 finish would be a massive achievement.
I would happily take 8 wins as this should keep us up. However, the players should not give up on the chance to play at the top level and maybe if we did sneak in via play-offs it might get another monkey of Mclaren's back
32 this season Frome, last season was 34. First four games we averaged 3.25 goals against. In the nineteen games since that the average is 1.00. The overall average for 23 games is 1.391.
I think for me the the interesting stat is we have 24 Pts from last 13 games. Same rtn over next 13 games would put us on 58 with 10 to go . If that’s achieved it will make the last ten games very interesting. We have no real expectations and can sit back and enjoy the experience. That might just take the pressure off the team and who knows what can happen . Injuries will be our issue as no depth to squad . Personally think the play offs might be 5 pts beyond us this season . But enjoying the football at loftus road again after some of the dross with played under olly .
Don't forget that we gave everyone else a 4 game head start.......we're averaging 1.85 point from the last 20 games, only Leeds, Norwich and West Brom are better than that....... I must admit that after the Blackpool and Swansea capitulation I wanted McClaren out as I thought he wasn't suited to what we required, but glad to be proven wrong and will offer up a large piece of humble pie as he kooks as if he's got the side perfectly gelled and working to a game plan.......happy days. Sure we'll lose some more games this season but he has the nous to turn things around......stay under the radar until March, keep in touch with top 6 and who knows what might happen....... Up The R's
Not by a long shot are we ready for the Premiership, spirit yes but squad no, I really don’t want to have another season getting the odd moral victory in a sea of thumpings, better stay here for a season or two and build up a decent squad capable of competing for 19th
One of the most important thing that McClaren has done is to continually select a settled team, only tinkering when injuries or suspensions dictate. His substitutions have generally been clear too as to their purpose: like-for-like, chase the game or close it out. How often did we see mysterious selections and substitutions from Ollie? For me, that was kinda instrumental to his downfall.
Although logically I agree with you the problem is to try and keep a squad together long enough to reap the rewards will be very difficult as the bigger clubs in the Championship will look to pick off our best players each year. A promotion would provide a minimum £100 million and parachute payments which would give us the stability to keep building towards a side that might just prove good enough to survive and also keep our best players. We basically missed out by one season the massive increase that would have made a huge difference to our ability to compete equally with the bigger clubs...
Is any Championship club ready? Honestly thought Fulham would be ok this season, and they're really struggling even after spending over £100M, as are Baaadiff. Wolves were already rich, so are managing ok, but there's a massive gap now between the top 8-10 teams up there and the rest of the league and it's a lottery as to who will survive season upon season. Agree that we, as a club and as a team, are not ready for PL football, but the financial benefits that it would bring the club would be enormous. I don't want to see us thrashed every week, it was so demoralising last time, but if managed correctly and the money spent wisely, relegation could (and should) be followed by promotion again the following season. A couple of yoyo years could be followed by a period of PL stability - isn't that what the owners long term aim is? Personally though, I much prefer the Championship, we compete on a slighly more level playing field and have tasted relative success this term (something that has been lacking in the last few seasons) - there's just something sterile about the PL, with all the plastic fans, tourists and over-indulgence of players, the media fawning over every minor incident that grates on me.
