Bit of Blue-Sky thinking for you: Over the past few weeks (Watford notwithstanding but it was never going to last indefinitely anyway) we've been notching up the results and we all began to think about the outside possibility of the playoffs. So, imagine that all the teams above us did indeed cave in miraculously, we carried on winning (mostly) and the unthinkable happened... What do you really think would happen the following season? Personally I think we'd get our A*ses kicked, drop back down, lose players and find ourselves playing Lolchester (sic), Yeovil and the like in 2014-15. Yes, we've had a ridiculous season, some horrible lows and some surreal, if too late, highs. But look at the competition up there: Wet Sham for example. If it means waiting another year, shedding the Bowyers and Bullards, developing the kids a bit more, I would much rather see us building and coming straight out of the starting gates in August. No, I don't think this season is anything to be proud of. Yes, we have made utter fools of ourselves sometimes. No, I wish it hadn't been that way. But it has been, and there is feck all we can do about it now. So let's consolidate the positives and think about how good we can be next season. Seriously, if we were to go up this year, next year would, imho, be one of the worst for us on record. Next year will be the one where it all comes right: good signings, more mature youngsters etc. Honest guv.
Its never the right time to go up, we wont go up this season, but if we did we would have earned the right to. We would be in the position of blackpool, everyone always predicts the worst for promoted teams especially through the play-offs but we would be in a better position to attract the needed defence and one or two outstanding attackers during the summer. We wouldn't be playing with the same team. I cant say i have enough knowledge of players out side the ones that are doing well, but if we were in a position to go up or going up then the problems we had over january wouldnt have happend. There is always a danger that whoever ends up going up will quite fancy taking martin jet or even chopra or drury and we'll have to find more replacements for them before we can start building further. We may get relegated from the premier its always likley, but we predicted Norwich would be the laughing stock of the league because they had a league 1 team, you simply cant predict what will happen, and i dont think we would be as embarrased as people think, QPR ran away with the league and are the most likely to be relegated. west ham and previously newcastle were embarrased and easily are bouncing back although people predicted a collapse, even derby didnt fall straight to league 1
Well we won't be going up this year. If we had done then with all the new money we could've splashed out on some defenders and a goalie. As it stands there won't be much development of youth going on, that's pretty clear.
if we managed to get that second goal at watford and win and then beat boro tonight we would be 3 points off the playoffs! if's, but's and maybes i know but it goes to show that our playoff ambitions weren't as distant before watford as we might have thought. and holmes1990 i have to agree with you. we've been in this f***ing league long enough to know how hard it can be. i would much prefer us to go up this year and give the premiership a shot instead of hoping to get promoted next season when another 10-15 clubs will have similar ambitions.
Agree 100% Mike, Everyone laughed at the thought of blackpool going up, off Burnley in the premier league, of Bolton and Stoke all those years ago. They didnt all survive there but I think everyone of them were glad of the chance to give it a go and none were humiliated. Last time we got promoted we were deemed to be relegation certainties and we qualified for Europe. That team was a lot stronger than our current one but you can never say never. I would also suggest that ME may invest heavily if we went up. He has spent millions at this level but with the riches the premier league can bring I reckon he may go all out to keep us there. Taking away the would we survive side of things, I cant believe any sportsman or sports fan doesnt want to see there team compete at the highest level possible. Whether the highest you can achieve is a sunday morning cup final or winning the premier league, you should always want to test yourselves against the best.
there is NEVER a wrong time to get promoted if the opportunity comes along, you grab it with both hands. totally ludicrous this suggestion from some quarters that somehow 'its too early to get promoted'. so when is the right time? when you've already got the perfect team?? has anyone got the perfect team???
I would agree with your point FBI, I think its a couple of season too early for us to be promoted. Whilst I remember in the past being annoyed by saying this exact point I do honestly think this time round that would be the case, maybe even so for next season. I would prefer us to go up as the likes of Norwich and Swansea have in that the've build up a settled squad and then added realistic signings to the squad, ones which don't upset the balance of the team. I think you can see that QPR have approached this in a different manner, tried to get to the PL asap and when they got there spent millions and upset the balance of the team, I wouldn't like to see us do this!!! But I also agree that there is never a right time to go up but atm it really isn't the right time to go up!! We want to be in a position where we don't need alot of players to come in and this summer(like the last 3/4) there are likely to be alot of changes, we need to get a settled side before we can even think about challenging for promotion!! Mike, I actually thought Norwich would do decent this season and thought the same last season, I think Southampton when they go up could well do better than both Swansea and Norwich have done this season, unless they decide to change their team alot over the summer!! If we went up this season, we do have some decent players but we don't have enough decent players or a solid foundation yet, we would with our defence get thrashed in alot of games, i reckon torres would even be able to score against our defence!!! I am not saying however I would not like to see us in the PL, I would, I would just like to see us be more likely to stay there once we got there and not have to change our team to much!!
what are you talking about ptc? qpr have been an absolute joy to watch this season! follow their mould... agree about saints by the way
