It's only just starting to sink in...

It's only when you stop and take a breather you realise how long it's been since we came down to League One.

We haven't started a season in the Championship since 2017.

Callum Doyle was 13 the last time we started a Championship season. Alex Neil had only just turned 36. Alex Neil had only just retired when we got relegated from the Premier League.

Remember all of these players we've had in League One? Semenyo. Lafferty. Declan John. Ozturk. Sinclair. Sterling. Loovens. Lynch. Tommy Smith. De Bock. McNulty. Graham. Vokins. McFadzean.

Even Madrox, only really here since League One.

It kinda felt like their ghosts were still here taunting us for not going up. Well it's over.

KLD buys the chancers out, and all the above can be forgotten.

It finally feels like an actual new era for this football club. This last 18 months under KLD was just the end of the old era.

I cannot wait for fixture release day

 

Normally around 16th June

 

23rd this year.

 

So the fixture release date is later but the season starts earlier, well done efl

 

yeh only 5 weeks between fixture release and first game. Feels much shorter than normal.

 

It takes a special skill to be able to do that you know.

 

Good post mate, agree with most of that.

Although, tbh, Donald and Methven don't occupy any of my thoughts. KLD has my trust and I believe he, his family, his advisors and solicitors are doing things this way for sound reasons.

They have the resources to have carried out a total takeover but chose not to. Now the club needs to start putting the big money in and this is where reality will dawn for the other shareholders.

It was obvious, from the scenes at Wembley, that KLD and Sartori are the main men and have the trust of 'elder statesmen like Quinn, Reid, Gray, etc.

In my humble opinion it's time to give KLD the time and respect to let him deal with those two.

Continually discussing them is nothing more than a distraction imo, so I won't ...

... what everyone else does is up to them, I just believe it doesn't help.

 

Added bonus I hadn’t considered yet. League One was looking crazily congested again next season and I wasn’t looking forward to that.

Now I think I’m going to enjoy being a neutral observer of what should be a cracking division. Have to confess I never paid any attention to league one before we got into it. So this will be my first time paying attention without a horse to back.

although I do now have a soft spot for Wycombe and ainsworth. Didn’t think I’d say that 6 months ago

 

Well I've gone and bought a season ticket for Morecambe, more to support my grandson whose so called mates have jumped ship and gone over to Burnley (ha ha) next season.
We got him a season ticket for his Birthday in April without us knowing which league they were going to be in, he said he wasn't bothered just enjoyed going to the matches and that's how it should be.
I'm retiring next March (finally) so will have more time for live footy so will be spreading myself between the Championship and League 1, happy days.

 

In L1 there were perhaps 6 or 7 teams where you thought that it was a big game - in the Championship they all look big games. After so long in L1 games like Bristol City, Reading and Stoke suddenly feel a lot bigger than they would have done a few year ago!!

 

League 1 was very tough this year. It will be harder next. Derby, Barnsley and Peterborough will all think they can go up. Add Wycombe, Sheff Wed, MK Dons, Ipswich, Plymouth, Oxford, Pompey, Bolton, Charlton and it looks a brutal division. As a league it has got better each year we have been in it.

In some ways the championship looks an easier prospect, if you can get it right off the pitch. Not saying we will waltz through it, but not too sure there is a lot to fear either.

 

Soft spots can easily be nipped.

 

The step up from league 1 to championship big.

 

Yeh. I don't think we have anything to fear but the standard does go up a notch. There's a reason Pritchard and Evans for example had to drop down. We need to recruit sensibly to ensure we remain cohesive but also raise the quality slightly

 

i remember watching how the three promoted teams got on at the start of the season and all three struggled, hull and blackpool eventually started to find their feet and i honestly think we have a better squad than either of them had when promoted.

leagues one and two are more of a 'dog eat dog' where the championship is more teams aiming for the promised land and more 'football' orientated, we have looked better against teams that tried to play football rather than the sh1thousery teams so i agree with @FellTop, in many ways it will be an 'easier' place to play but the quality of the opposition will be higher as well but i think it will suit AN more with the way he approaches games...the first 10 games will tell us a lot i guess.

 

I agree but I think we are well placed to do well. We have a championship level manager, and a core of players that will thrive in an environment where more emphasis on the technical style of play. The 3 clubs who have come down have a raft of challenges. There are also clubs in the division who have FFP challenges which may see points deductions next season. I think we will be competitive.

 

The problem for the Chuckle brothers as I see it is we will now be ramping up the running costs in the Championship over what we have been paying in League 1. With this comes additional burden for the other share holders and Donald and Methven may not have deep enough pockets to chip in their share. Maybe this was KLDs plan all along, let them hang around witness promotion and sicken them with the additional costs of of continued ownership - higher signing fees, transfer fees, running costs associated with re opening the Prem concourse etc. with the majority of season ticket holders already signing up for next season this income is more fixed at L1 prices. Sponsorship etc. will be renegotiated as and when contracts end but at least a portion of the additional costs will need to be paid for by share holders at least in the short term. Maybe KLD knows this and has planned contingency for such things happening. Guess we will never know until major changes are announced?

 

I said very much the same on the way back on Saturday. After four long seasons in League1 it will take a while to sink in how important the result is to us. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and that was our first step back to where we want to be.

 

Just to whet our appetites:

 

I know what you mean. I was making relatively little of the game to my lot, saying we'd be okay next year anyway.

But I wasn't really thinking that. I felt we had to win, and maybe the players knew that too, which makes the way they played even better.

We'd have lost most of our best players I think, and then it's start again. How would KLD have seen that as an attractive option?

No answer needed thankfully, but Saturday felt really important.