Getting concerned that some of our supporters feel we shouldn't be here and would be better off going back down. If membership of the Premier league was decided by Sky/BT/etc voting for them, God help us. Clubs like Cardiff, Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Watford would be replaced automatically with Villa, Leeds, Derby etc. The televised Championship games revolve around those and some others - they'd be even better box office if they were in the Prem instead of us. You can sense from the media we're not wanted up here with the "elite". Our game against Burnley was chosen by Sky because it was deemed to be "low key" and minimal attraction for neutrals. As such, it wouldn't upset the advertisers who were booking prime spots on the Ryder Cup coverage channel on at the same time. We're just tolerated at best, and in our case maybe half of that is because we've got a controversial character in Warnock fronting us for the games on the box to provide some entertainment. It's not Xenophobia a fear of foreigners, more like Doshophobia, a fear of not making as much money as they can with others up here. It looks like it's becoming a concern for some supporters as much as the television companies in as much as they feel we don't belong here either. I'd like to follow the tracks of Bournemouth, Watford and even Brighton - go for it and stick it to them. Sky/BT and the "elite" can't have it all their own way - let the elite piss off and form a European Super League and let us get on with the real game where we all have a chance of being relatively equal. We wont get the same money out of it but perhaps we can get our game back.
I subscribe to Sky Sports, and cant help but agree with the above. Same teams cropping up all the time! In the Championship in previous years it was always Newcastle. Derby and Villa this season. Watching MOD last night experienced an epiphany, watching Man City score four magnificent and easy goals, against WHU. Strolled it they did, and I thought don’t want to see this...all bought! When you watch Championship football, you see scruffy goals, backside goals...all sorts! Currently we see “fug all” goals! Hmmmm...going where with this I am?
It is unfortunate but we are still under the cloud of our "Boot boy" image of the '70's where we were hated by every other team. We have bought into that image by managers and owners alike, we harness the them and us attitude. It could be thought be get stick because we are Welsh but Swansea don't get the same hatred in fact they were loved by the "elite" because of their over-rated tippy tappy game.
I caught the last 20 mins of Rotherham v Sheff Utd and a bit of the Midlands derby today. Every game in that league is unpredictable whereas you know with relative certainty which way most PL games will go. Seeimg yesterday’s game at Everton and all the other away games, it wasn’t enjoyable seeing their players have so much possession and look so more comfortable on the ball and having so much more pace and attacking threat and their defenders having little difficulty with our few and far between attacks. Yes the Championship is better to watch as we’re expecting to win and have more realistic aspirations to win but we’re in the PL and I really really want to survive and then hopefully improve season by season to be on a par with the likes of Bournemouth and Watford.
I think we are the 10th or 11th best supported team in the league. Unfortunately smaller clubs have a bigger budget by a distance as theyve got PL money banked. Harsh reality is we dont have the funds. I back the way the club is being run. We will be in The Championship next season. So what? Great league we will be competitive and play off challenge will be a minimum. Look down West and at QPR. Both screwed up clubs. We wont be in that position. We could if we blow 50 million like Fulham.
We're a "bigger" (I hate that word - sounds like a Leeds fan ) club than Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Watford and Brighton for a start - and they've all done OK. Looking at the jacks and QPR as examples of what not to do is like being frightened of your own shadow. For all his past detractors, I'd trust the stewardship of Vincent Tan to see this club get established as a Premier side. It will takes some work, money and maybe some harsh decisions along the way, but having arrived in the Prem, we are now in a prime position to go forward. Going back down with £50M might seem a decent option but we'll always bank that whenever we might go down, so that's a very poor argument for the drop this season. Let's stay up and bank another £100M and worry about next season after that, not resign ourselves to what would amount to failure in capitalising on what we've now achieved.
I can’t help but think how we’d have got on this season if City had been allowed to spend an extra £50m on a right back, a defensive midfield player and a centre forward. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, the error was trying to get an over achieving squad with a few new championship players adapt to the PL rather than add 4-5 quality players to supplement the best 5-6 of the Championship squad. As it is we’re looking wholly unlikely to (1) get an away win and (2) keep a clean sheet and so unless we can win enough home games we’ll be likely adrift by January.
But it's not 50 mill. is it. It's 50 mill. plus another three times, say 3 mill., per annum for four years, say. And TV money is , say, 100 mill. per season......but there are much increased costs compared to last year and I don't know if we made a profit last season?
Furter - the paras are spread over 3 seasons now and for the first year are set at 55% of the income of the bottom finishing club (broadcast revenues) for the previous season with less spread over the next two seasons. The trouble is if you go down after your first season in the Prem, you forfeit the 3rd years parachute payment and only get the first two years. Another year up here would guarantee us another approx £20M by then if we went down. That's big bucks to lose for going down this year.
I'm not sure about an inferiority complex, given our good fortune last season and not building better for the return to the premier league. Many believe we over-achieved last season with many being happy to take a play-off place. Not to have paid big bucks to strengthen our team is seen by some as a foolish move, others see it as a wise move. As an over-acheiving team last season, it stands to reason there would have needed to have been wholesale changes across the whole first team. What outlay would that have needed? People criticised Fulham and Wolves for splashing out whilst in the Championship as it could have gone badly wrong, thus far it hasn't. So, were we the ones who were foolish, in buying journeymen and rejects, suddenly to find ourselves at the top table with a below standard squad? Fulham are struggling at the moment and Wolves are doing slightly better, so how much do we need to get a team to stay in the premier league, but get us promoted, at the first attempt, should we get relegated? 200 million seems like a reasonable guess as most of this squad, on current form are not good enough.
Taff - you're talking about last season again. We got up through hard work because we couldn't spend a lot of money or risk being in breech of FFP - that was a no brainer. This season is totally different. Being in the Prem with a first season guaranteed income of £100M+ means FFP is out of the window. Some of that (at least more than actually was) should have been invested to ensure as much as you can another season up here. The last time we went up was totally different to the present circumstances. The whole club was in pieces with the Malky/Moody and Tan backdrop. The change of colours by an owner who didn't know **** from clay about the club and the game in general. Then to cap it all, taking on boy wonder "kid in a sweetshop" Solksjaer to keep us up - FFS we can't got there again and we aren't. The mistakes were made in the summer and there is sweet FA we can do about that now. The point is, how badly do we want to stay up? Hoping it will come good with the same players is behaving like Mr. Micawber - something will turn up. We have to do something positive in January whether players or management. I say that because when I look at the paid for imports that Warnock/Blackwell/Jepson have bought I can't help visualising Tomlin and Madine. Also the judgement in paying £10M for Reid, a player that hardly gets on the pitch with the current thinking. Grind it out and hope for the best or be pro-active and gain about £20M straight cash for staying up just for this season? That's the amount we'll effectively lose for accepting the current status quo and going down in May. Sorry Taff - my passion may be getting in the way of my good humour.
The more and more this season goes on the more you end of scratching your head and being puzzled by such a lamentable pre season failure to put together a competent squad at this much higher level. Boy are us fans suffering for that cock up
Our next 3 games could be make or break for many at our club. Wolves & Southampton at home and WHU away. There could be a big clear out in January.
Yes, and from what we read, Zohore could be one of them. Read that stuff about Zohore and that Turkish club (Fenerbahce?) about a fortnight back on one of the more obscure football websites - seem like WOL have got hold of it now. One thing that both have got wrong is his contract isn't up next summer like they've said. He signed a 1 year extension last year to the summer of 2020 so no cheap off load in January.
