Championship Fans – Sounding Board Sept 2014

Hello all Championship fans!



As promised I’m coming back to report on the findings of our survey. As I previously said, this is no scientific study; it is for championship fans by championship fans. We’ve just tried to use common sense. Not everybody answered every question, so percentages for total number of entries of some sort – EIGHTY THREE received - don’t apply as such, so I’ve taken the number of votes for a particular selection and left it at that. Occasionally somebody couldn’t decide between two options, so I noted both - and we’ve included both.



Most interesting reading, so let’s take it question by question.




1 * The BEST championship team of the season so far, by attractive play on the pitch, in your opinion?

On this, Wolves have proved to be the team regarded with the best attractive football play, though Forest and Watford are also seen very favourably. I should clarify that I was not looking specifically for the ‘best’ team as such but rather the most ‘attractive’, and certainly the most attractive/interesting for a neutral fan. However, even so, I think you are all saying that these following teams all have high possibilities of finishing very high up in the final table. Here goes for the votes cast:
27 – Wolves
18 – Nottm Forest
15 – Watford
10 – Derby
4 – Bournemouth
3 – Sheff Wed
1 – Middlesbrough, Wigan and Huddersfield



2 * The biggest surprise package – which team has fared much BETTER than you initially expected?

This was a difficult one to answer because we had the two concepts of A) surprise compared to other teams in the division and for even more of you B) surprise in that a more modest team had done better than expected of itself. So this dealt more with surprise teams being a ‘surprise’ than what might be expected by history, finances etc. and here Millwall and Charlton were obviously your first choices, with newcomers Wolves again faring very well. The exact votes were:
26 – Millwall ***** well done!
22 – Charlton
15 – Wolves
4 – Brentford
3 – Nottm Forest
1 – Leeds, Blackpool, Watford, Norwich, Ipswich, Rotherham and Bournemouth



3 * The biggest disappointment – which team has fared much WORSE than you initially expected?

This has been the most unanimous part of the entire survey – I am very sorry Cottagers, but Fulham stand out alone here. Still, things are very much in the early days yet – maybe here I should mention that as a Reading fan myself (though try to be impartial in Inter-Forum stuff!!) I can vividly remember just three seasons ago the Royals being pen-ultimate in the Championship after 6 games, and went on to take the title! Or even last season when Blackpool stood first in the division at this point, yet went on to dangerously flirt with relegation towards the end of the season. So there’s hope for everyone! Anyway, votes cast in this section were:
67 – Fulham
3 – Wigan
2 – Reading, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Leeds
1 – Derby and Brighton



4 * The best individual summer/close season transfer in your opinion? (not including your own club players here)

Here there are simply too many names (twenty eight in fact) to mention every one, but the top voted (5+) mentioned figures were the following, all likely to be major influences in their teams’ fortunes this season:
16 - Grabban (Norwich)
15 – Assombalonga (Forest)
7 – Wilson (Bournemouth)
5 - Vetokele (Charlton)
5 – Vydra (Watford)



5 * The most interesting young hope, in your opinion? (not including your own club players here)

Here again we had two dozen suggestions, so I limit myself to naming only the top few (5+ votes); all would seem assured of brilliant future careers! -
17 - Hughes (Derby)
6 – Roberts (Fulham)
6 – Wilson (Bournemouth)
5 – Assombalonga (Forest)



6 * Your wild guesses as to the next THREE championship clubs to part with their manager, for whatever reason?

Here I think we can safely say there are 5 or 6 front runners, they seem the likely ‘suspects’ to me. With the question of Leeds there is obvious substantial insecurity, for the answers are directed at the next manager who we do not yet know! The exact figures were:
60 – Fulham (Magath)
52 – Bolton (Freedman)
36 – Blackpool (Riga)
33 – Leeds ( ? )
26 – Birmingham (Clark)
11 – Cardiff (Solkjaer)
4 – Middlesbrough (Karanka)
3 – Brighton ( Hyypia) and Reading (Adkins)
2 – Blackburn (Bowyer)
1 – Ipswich (Mccarthy) and Forest (Pearce).



So, who’s happy with the results? Sure to be some “I told you so’s” later, but a large fan indication usually holds some weight!

I’d be very happy to hear your thoughts on how these turned out, so feel welcome to post a summary – above all, I hope you enjoyed it!!



daib0/David – “Royals Rendezvous”







P.S. I'll be back very shortly, this time to talk about the upcoming Reading v Millwall game ...