I'll put this out there....shout me down if you like. Am I the only person who actually doesn't want promotion? The season is actually fun. We're playing against real clubs, with real fans, and we don't get battered every other week....looking over our shoulders at the threat of relegation. Call me a nutter, but I prefer life in the Championship.
I kind of agree, except sport is all about momentum. This league is fun while we challenge for the top end. It isn’t much fun when the parachute payments drop out and we start dropping. I would be happy to have one more season here, but we have to make more of our youth set up and start actually using the talent we have there.
This season has been miles better than last season. Next season, without KWP, THB, Downes, Stu, Brooks, Che and maybe Bednarek, wouldn't be.
Yeah. One season down as a relegated team is fun and fresh and you're better than everyone else. Two seasons down and you're desperately trying to hold on to what talent you can. Losing all of the loanees and getting pillaged will make it much less enjoyable.
While we'll in all probability be worse next season I'd wager it'd still be more enjoyable and we'd win more games then it we got promoted. Plus there's the VAR factor to consider.
We'd almost definitely win more games, sure. But the likelihood of watching the product on the pitch get worse year on year is going to be very frustrating for a lot of people. I don't think a lot of Watford fans, as an example, find the Championship to be particularly romantic at this point.
Watford fans should be grateful for anything which distracts them from the fact they live in Watford tbh. The product on the pitch isn't going to get better if we go up either. We'll just get humped constantly.
That's what substance abuse is for, tbh. And we might get beaten constantly. We'd also have access to a better quality of player, have a chance to compete in cups, etc. I understand the allure in the abstract, but I don't think people really appreciate how much it sucks when any player who has a good half-season for you is going to get poached by Brentford or whoever, because none of them want to play at this level if they can help it, and a move to even a bottom third PL club is a 300% pay raise.
Yeah it is fun for a year or two but it wouldnt take long before we started losing more than we win in this league as well. Give me one season winning most games then a season losing every game any day
True. When we were in the prem we never had our players poached. I think Saints fans more as much as anyone know how frustrating that can be but it's the modern game. To me who they're leaving for is irrelevant. We'll clearly never agree on this one so probably better to agree to disagree. I remember though when loads of people were telling me for years that I was wrong and getting relegated wouldn't produce a more enjoyable season. I'd argue the four and a half months unbeaten proved me correct on that one.
Championship and L1 yo-yo ing is the real dream Every other season you get the added bonus of the FA Cup first round and no international breaks.
We absolutely did have our players poached. It's just that the list of teams with the ability to poach them, and the players' willingness to kick off if we don't allow it, is going to grow massively. Even with players that were clearly good enough to compete at the highest level -- VVD, Mane, etc -- we got to enjoy them for a couple years. If we're in the Championship for any length any player demonstrating top-tier quality will be off the next summer.
Yeah I get that. I just personally value seeing the team win higher than seeing individual quality. I know it doesn't work explicitly like this but If the choice is getting to watch THB for another season but seeing us win a maximum of 10 matches,or having to watch a worse CB but win double the amount of games, then I'd choose the latter every time.
I get that. But for me, it's the impact of the wins more than their quantity that tends to really heighten enjoyment. Beating Preston 3-1 en route to an 8th place finish or something is a nice bit of serotonin in the moment, but it's quickly forgotten. Knocking over Man Utd or Liverpool, even in a season where we frequently get our teeth kicked in, lives much longer in memory. We lost a bunch in our first year back under Nigel/Poch, but there were so many memorable matches in there.
Couldn’t care less about the FA Cup early rounds tbh. Watching huge gulfs in quality with an occasional upset doesn’t interest me at all Do like no international breaks though. Could be a bit harder getting a stream being another disadvantage to going into L1 as well
Yeah that's where we're at polar opposites then as the end result matters very little to me these days. I just like having something to follow and hopefully enjoy so would rather regularity of that than mostly ****e with one or two stand outs. For me too attendance plays a huge part in my enjoyment levels and I won't renew if we go up, so regardless of how we do the season would be less enjoyable from a personal perspective. Even if we're talking impact though I enjoyed the win v Huddersfield the other week as much as any win against the likes of Liverpool bar probably the LC semi. I'd also rather do the double over Pompey than say, beat Man City 5-0, and feel the former would definitely live longer in the memory.
