I know that PL would never agree until mathmatically certain, but with Premier League football all but guaranteed for next season, what do you think our main priority should be now ? With my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, do you think winning The F.A. Cup ? Or as we are just 8 points behind them, chasing Arsenal down for that 4th Champions League spot ? In all seriousness, I truly believe we have a great chance in the Cup this year and I hope that PL thinks so too and puts out a full strength side on Saturday. I'm not taking anything for granted but, should we beat Leicester on Saturday and then get a home draw in the Quarter-Finals, we could top this incredible season off with a Wembley appearance. Mind you, we still probably won't the credit we deserve from MOTD etc., for that I reckon we would need to win The Cup AND finish fourth ! OTBC .... CTI .... ILWT
To quote Lambert and each team member who has been asked this question: 'To try to win every game as they come up, and see where that takes us'. And that includes Cup Games. I agree that the way this season is going we should simply enjoy every game as it comes. MKD and Sunderland apart, we have not been disappointed in the way the team has played, or with how Lambert has set them up. The only teams who have soundly beaten us have been top clubs, and they have had to be at the top of their game to win, and that has given us some wonderful games at C Road.
All those people who kept harping on about being in the Premiership over being in the cup now look silly - we have done both! (well virtually) The stage is set to have a go at the cup - however now we are playing so well we cannot afford to just expect to turn up and turn over Leicester. Plus we seem to have a defensive nightmare at the moment with just about everybody carrying knocks or injuries across the back line! Attack could very well be our best form of defense on Saturday.
I think 4th is too far away.I agree that we are effectively safe but 7th or 8th is as high as we can realistically go.Surely we can't get a result next week ,can we? All I hope is that we don't get a result against United and get beat by City.I would hate to see The Premiership bought in that way.Would suit me to beat both but City by a bigger margin.
europe (through the league) is probably unrealistic. we'd have to go on one heck of a run to finish even 6th (the last place available if liverpool win the carling cup - its 5th if they lose) but a top half finish and a wembley appearance (be it semi final or even final) are certainly goals we can now look to for the rest of the season. even with a tumultuous car crash finish to the season we've probably still got enough points now to survive so relegation is not really an issue anymore. the five at the bottom are so far adrift and it would require 3 of them to put a european-style run of form together to overtake us. one might do it but not three! if we finish 8th (best of the rest as i call it) then that is outstanding. i still think with our tricky run at the end we may fall back a tad and finish 11th or 12th but even that would be a brilliant season. i have to say, i am one of those who would take the league this season over the cup but now we are safe, i'd happily finish 17th and get to the cup final than finish 8th and lose to leicester! mind you, i'm not sure the club would - i think its about £1m per place in the league...
Cruyff, I did say that I had 'my tongue firmly in my cheek' when I said 4th ! However, I was being serious about the Cup
i don't agree with this thing about 'buying the title', i mean, doesn't everybody 'buy the title'? its who they buy and how they are managed and how they perform week in week out that wins the title. i'd rather city win the title or even better spurs - its nice seeing new teams winning things
Isn't it great that Lambert has made us believe again? Last season I would have taken mid table and this season seventeenth and knocked out in the 3rd round and now look at us. If we can keep playing like we are, who knows what is possible. Believe.
TBH whatever happens now its still been one hell of a season! a mid table finish with a run to the Final in the cup would be just about unbelievable, but incredibly, fantastically these are realistic possibilities, in fact I'd be quite surprised if we didnt now! Champions league is well beyond us though we might just sneak into the Uefa ... I'd expect to see Newcastle dropping back a bit and with all the stuff kicking off at Pool that could well affect their performances.... 6th is definately do-able... ooo err, cant believe I said that!
And comparisons with earlier times are invalid.Even twenty years ago money had not really had effect that it has today and a well organised side could go a long way.When teams like Man City are prepared to spend £300 million in an attempt to clean up poorer (financially) sides cannot compete.The next step will be The Premiership being played in Quatar in an air conditioned dome.In which case I will take my football at Crown Meadow where my Grandad did his stuff without any pay.
I think a top half finish would represent our biggest victory of the lambert era. To do what we are doing is amazing. I can imagine the ratings people at EA sports scratching their heads and screaming "this is not possible!! We gave them **** ratings in championship manager 2011!! Why don't they listen arghhhhhh!!!!" As far as the cup goes, it's all down to lambert and the desire of the players. We can go a little further and then we have to play our hearts out. It IS possible, anything is under lambert.
£1m per place is a massive amount of money which we can further invest in the team. this could be a real bonus compared to the money we we quoted on getting on promotion (that was to finish last i think)
1mill a place could change outer club forever. We had/have about 18mill debt left I think. Not sure how much of the prem tv money has been spent but we had 3m or so to spend in January so we aren't short of a few quid. We'll soon be running with very little debt at all and with revenues from merch and attendances higher than they've ever been there's no limit to what we can potentially achieve. Just need to change what we are riding at the minute into a worthwhile dynasty. That's where McNally comes in. Sharp as a tack that bloke, he's doing what's neccessary for the longevity of this club financially
remembering back, i think mcnally said our debt was being reduced from £12m to about £6m (this figure does not include the £11m we owe delia) since league one so i assume that includes initial payments following promotion to the premier league - we won't be allowed to pay it all to the bank in one go - you know what banks are like! this debt of £6m is very manageable, even if we went down and that was the purpose for trying to get to that figure. i don't know how accurate these numbers are though! i guess we will then pay another lump sum on the debt in the summer and the rest will be put aside for future transfers, wages and new stand. i think its about £41m for the bottom club so with my crap maths skills i work it out as being £53m for 8th. that of course does not factor in our cup run money. in terms of achievement, i'm in total agreement with cruyff. it is so much harder for a club of our size to compete in the premier league at the moment. clubs in the 60s, 70s and 80s were guaranteed a shot at success if they had a decent manager because there was little between the clubs financially - obviously the best players were still likely to be drawn to the big clubs but money was not vital. if we finish in the top half this season, that for me is as big an achievement as finishing 3rd nearly 20 years ago. it makes you wonder how far lambert could take us if we were still in the 70s!!
I just found this old chestnut. The link to the page (including a 606 quote from Beef ) is below, but these two paragraphs caught my eye. Smile, FFS, if my grin was any broader, the top half of my head would fall off ! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/colchester_united/8715286.stm
All I know is that I keep having to pinch myself, I'm scared that I'm going to wake up from this wonderful dream and find it's the day after the Col-who debacle !!!!!
