To follow up on Libby's point, you have to back to 2016-17 to find the last relegated PL side who failed to finish in the top six the following season but has since been promoted back to the PL. And that was Sunderland, who needed eight seasons and a trip to L1 before they returned. Every other side relegated from the PL in that time, including the two who went down with Sunderland, either finished in the top six the following season or have never yet returned to the top flight. The former has happened 15 times in that period (Boro, WBA, Fulham, Cardiff, Norwich, Watford, Bmouth, Sheff Utd, Fulham again, Burnley, Saints, Leeds, Leicester, Sheff Utd again, Burnley again), whilst the latter happened 8 times (Hull, Stoke, Swansea, Huddersfield, WBA, Norwich, Watford, Luton). Of course some of those 15 teams did lose in the play-offs. Your best chance of promotion is the season immediately after relegation. And if you don't achieve that, then at the very least you want a top six finish - the bare minimum. Amongst those eight sides listed above, being involved in Championship relegation battles has been more frequent than Championship promotion battles.
Here's some hopium for us all: In our promotion season of 11/12, the eventual champions, Reading, had; 12 points after 10 games (same as us now) (15th place) 27 points after 20 games (11th place) Then of course they went and won 20 of the next 26 games. Pretty epic.
I hope that's true so we can stop talking about Danny ****ing Rohl and Glasgow ****ing Rangers. It's probably a bit much to expect us to stop talking about Russell ****ing Martin though!
There goes the possibility of a return to what looked to be plan A in the summer. Not that I expect the board to even consider parting with Still prior to the new year.
Yeah i wouldn't disagree, and only fear it will get worse and worse. We will end up being the architect of our own extinction. A little like Sports Republic.
I'm an outsider looking in, and the first task that Still has had to do is instil in the players a belief in getting a positive result. In other words, stop the losing habit. I think he has achieved this judging by the results so far. The next step is to get the winning habit back again. Changing the manager now will achieve nothing. Hopefully, by the end of the season, SFC will be winning on a more regular basis and be better prepared for a promotion challenge with a stronger squad that would be capable to maintaining PL status following that promotion.
Had a busy day so first chance to read this properly. So, we appear to have recruited pretty well with the exception of a striker. The approach tells me the club are targeting promotion. As do the noises out at the start of the season. I thought they said that was the aim. I get that all clubs have to say similar to keep a fan base on side but come on we have far more resources than perhaps anyone in the division. And yes I think many are pissed off with the ownership of SR and the result and performances on the pitch. Putting last season aside, I haven’t exactly been too impressed with what I have seen this season. The manager doesn’t appear to know his best team, best formation, or use the players he brought in. Almost in November and that is very concerning. I don’t think he should be losing his job yet but he absolutely should be getting a little nervous as I would think the club were hoping for better than we are right now. If we fail to win before the next international break I’d be hoping they take action. We can’t let this carry on, irrespective of Ross Stewart being injured or whatever. Literally 95% of the division would love our attackers. Over to Mr Still to get a tune out of them.
Dunno why people obsess about promotion. We're miles off that and the championship is more fun anyway. Enjoy being ****
Rangers have done well getting Rohl but if he is as good as has been made out in here, he will get poached by the close of next season. I think Rohl will do ok but it would have been harder for him to get Saints promoted. Just think that the challenge at Rangers is limited to doing better than Celtic and progress more than a few rounds in Europe. Rangers are a bigger club than Saints but the challenges of getting out of the Championship are greater. I feel SR will be looking to see how Rohl does over the next 18 months.
Yeah I don't disagree with a lot of that to be fair. I just feel that as fans, many expect it this season and it is a failure if it doesn't happen. SR on the other hand may be thinking differently. Obviously if we do get promoted, then great, more money etc but if we don't, it isn't the end of the world as long as they can see progress. Surely regardless of everything, Still has shown progress. Only 2 losses in the league. As Ides has said, he has stopped the rot, we are a lot better at the back, just need to sort out the scoring. Not much more he could have done on Saturday, loads of chances, still no goals...surely keep this up and the goals will come!
I think fans are overlooking a few things because we had a few chances. It was better on saturday but it still wasn't a good 90 minute performance. If it wasn't for Scienza's 20 minute solo cameo before HT we wouldn't have created that many good chances. The second half was disappointing as we struggled to make much impact against Swansea's low block, the subs were a bit late and we kept the same formation. We are still not playing fluently as a team and our attacks are still mainly from the wings which does not suit Archer and I think that the best man to feed him good service, Azaz, was on the bench until it was too late. There is progress with a clean sheet but in truth the extra CB was wasted and slowed up possession as there were less outlets for them to pass forward to. Eventually there needs to be a way to fit a combination of four out of Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, Adarma and Archer into the team and we simply can't do it with 3 CBs.
I think the 3CB's against Swansea would have felt a bit zippier if THB hadn't kept stopping and standing still for a bit to work out what to do next. He felt like the lethargic one out there that slowed the play down. I feel like Downes has done a bit of the same when he's been on the pitch.
