| What stops us winning the Championship next year? 15:59 - Mar 26 with 9000 views | Chris_ITFC |
Last year we finished 2nd. Then spent £100m on that team.
If football was logical, we’d walk it, but… |  | | |  |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 22:01 - Mar 26 with 1702 views | WestSussexBlue |
Complacency and the unreasonable expectation that because we’re Premier League now, we’ll walk the league. Very dangerous assumption and until we know who’s here for the expected Championship campaign it’s difficult to predict.
We’ll be a big club who everybody raises their game against and we’ll have a target on our backs.
I’d like to think we’ll retain the majority of the squad and be challenging in the top Four all season, football sometimes doesn’t pan out as we’d expect however. |  | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 23:46 - Mar 26 with 1609 views | ParisBlue |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 17:40 - Mar 26 by Mullet |
As well as Mass obviously. Morsy is turning 36 and looks on the downward and Taylor hasn’t suggested he’s the partner for Sam to dominate the league.
Likewise if Taylor is up to snuff the other alternatives like Humphreys as a partner would be incredibly lightweight for a Saturday-Tuesday grind like the Championship. Theres no way we don’t need to rebuild our midfield. |
Sam Morsy is 33, he'll be 34 in September. |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 23:46 - Mar 26 with 1607 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 16:24 - Mar 26 by Mullet |
This sort of complacency in your first sentence being taken as received wisdom.
We are about to lose a standout striker, have no midfield, possibly two goalkeepers off and several potential exits/ loans ending throughout the squad.
If anyone thinks we don’t have a lot of work to do with or without McKenna they’re not paying attention. |
I don’t see those as huge concerns tbh.
Highly likely we will just sign the best available midfield. Say someone like Downes who has shown how good he is at that level. We are going to have more money than everyone else, probably a bigger pull than everyone else. A collation of players who are proven top championship players. Nothing is a foregone conclusion but top 2 is the absolute minimum we should be aiming for. |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 04:33 - Mar 27 with 1543 views | Benters |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 16:09 - Mar 26 by hoppy |
Possibly not being in it?
If we somehow manage to stay in the Premier League - that would be a fairly major reason to stop us winning the championship next season. |
That’s the spirit! |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 05:10 - Mar 27 with 1545 views | IPS_wich |
Nobody seems to have mentioned that next season is when there the 2-3 years of dodging FFP sanctions will come a bite Leicester on the ar$e. I by bite on the ar$e I really mean right royally f*** them so they can't sit down for a couple of years. | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 06:39 - Mar 27 with 1510 views | bobbyramsey |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 23:46 - Mar 26 by ParisBlue |
Sam Morsy is 33, he'll be 34 in September. |
Sam is one of those players who seems to get a year older every time his name is mentioned. [Post edited 27 Mar 7:15]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 07:46 - Mar 27 with 1460 views | hoppy |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 06:39 - Mar 27 by bobbyramsey |
Sam is one of those players who seems to get a year older every time his name is mentioned. [Post edited 27 Mar 7:15]
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It’s not unusual with 35 yr olds… |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 07:55 - Mar 27 with 1452 views | muccletonjoe |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 16:26 - Mar 26 by bordeaux_blue |
McK not being with us? |
That would help |  | | |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:33 - Mar 27 with 1411 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
We paid inflated prices for additional Championship players, players who didn’t get promoted with Hull, Sunderland, Blackburn and West Brom while we finished 2nd. If you remove our loans the other sides we recruited from were Burnley and Luton.
If you ignore the £100mil+ price tag, because we have been stitched up paying what we have for those, we have a team capable of finishing between 8th and 1st, depending on how Cajuste, Phillips and Delap are replaced in the summer, along with the possibility of Hutchinson, Davis and others moving on.
There’s nothing however to suggest we’re walking the Championship. In fact in the past two seasons alone only two of the three who have come down (and it could still be fewer this season) have gone back up straight away.
It’s going to be a long hard season like it was last season. |  |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:53 - Mar 27 with 1398 views | baxterbasics |
I don't see much mention of Tuanzebe here in the discussion about next years squad. He could be really important. Wether in our defence or as a saleable asset. I hope the former. |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:57 - Mar 27 with 1380 views | Earls_Jeans |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:53 - Mar 27 by baxterbasics |
I don't see much mention of Tuanzebe here in the discussion about next years squad. He could be really important. Wether in our defence or as a saleable asset. I hope the former. |
Sadly I believe he is out of contract.
While we have got a lot more football out of him than his previous clubs were able to, he is unfortunately still an injury waiting to happen so hopefully Johnson steps up in the championship. [Post edited 27 Mar 8:57]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 09:00 - Mar 27 with 1352 views | baxterbasics |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:57 - Mar 27 by Earls_Jeans |
Sadly I believe he is out of contract.
While we have got a lot more football out of him than his previous clubs were able to, he is unfortunately still an injury waiting to happen so hopefully Johnson steps up in the championship. [Post edited 27 Mar 8:57]
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Ugh that would sting if we lose him on a free.
But as you say with his record it might be he is not an attractive prospect for PL teams. I'd be happy if we kept him on if the wage was reasonable. | |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 09:46 - Mar 27 with 1279 views | tractorboy1978 |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 23:46 - Mar 26 by TRUE_BLUE123 |
I don’t see those as huge concerns tbh.
Highly likely we will just sign the best available midfield. Say someone like Downes who has shown how good he is at that level. We are going to have more money than everyone else, probably a bigger pull than everyone else. A collation of players who are proven top championship players. Nothing is a foregone conclusion but top 2 is the absolute minimum we should be aiming for. |
On what basis will we have more money or pull than Southampton? I don't know what is going to happen deductions wise with Leicester, but they will also be strong again.
We will be thereabouts but I think the real threat is what happened to Leeds last season happening to us. 3 strong relegated teams and maybe an outsider coming into the mix. You could easily get 90 points and not get into the top 2. | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 09:58 - Mar 27 with 1247 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 09:46 - Mar 27 by tractorboy1978 |
On what basis will we have more money or pull than Southampton? I don't know what is going to happen deductions wise with Leicester, but they will also be strong again.
We will be thereabouts but I think the real threat is what happened to Leeds last season happening to us. 3 strong relegated teams and maybe an outsider coming into the mix. You could easily get 90 points and not get into the top 2. |
I think a few reasons. Firstly Southampton are going to be managerless going in to the season. Their ownership is far from impressive. Speak to saints fans about Sport Republic and you are not going to get a nice response, if fans think our recruitment has been bad then they are a different gear. I think their squad is in a far worse state than ours will be in. We are just a far steadier and better run club than they are, coupled with the pull of Mckenna which is a very real thing especially for young players and loan players given his rep. I have no concerns about recruiting next summer. Leicester are a mess. Aging squad, fans hate the ownership, the players, the manager, seem to have avoided a points deduction but not sure they run from it forever. Will likely be looking for a new manager themselves.
I don't think anyone serious has suggested that we are going to win the league at a canter, but id be astonished if we weren't strong favourites to win the division and that should be the aim. No point downplaying it imo. [Post edited 27 Mar 10:02]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 10:21 - Mar 27 with 1213 views | tractorboy1978 |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 09:58 - Mar 27 by TRUE_BLUE123 |
I think a few reasons. Firstly Southampton are going to be managerless going in to the season. Their ownership is far from impressive. Speak to saints fans about Sport Republic and you are not going to get a nice response, if fans think our recruitment has been bad then they are a different gear. I think their squad is in a far worse state than ours will be in. We are just a far steadier and better run club than they are, coupled with the pull of Mckenna which is a very real thing especially for young players and loan players given his rep. I have no concerns about recruiting next summer. Leicester are a mess. Aging squad, fans hate the ownership, the players, the manager, seem to have avoided a points deduction but not sure they run from it forever. Will likely be looking for a new manager themselves.
I don't think anyone serious has suggested that we are going to win the league at a canter, but id be astonished if we weren't strong favourites to win the division and that should be the aim. No point downplaying it imo. [Post edited 27 Mar 10:02]
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We will definitely be in the top 3 favourites. Can't be complacent about Leicester and Southampton though. Both will still have squads littered with top quality Championship players. | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 11:38 - Mar 27 with 1149 views | davblue |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 17:50 - Mar 26 by hoppy |
You mention Birmingham... but should they get promotion, you'd imagine Wrexham will chuck an absolute wad at trying to buy the next level too. |
There's a big difference between spending 200-300k in the lower leagues to the Championship.
Wages will be a massive step up, plus fees, have they shown that they will spend over a million on a player yet?
Not sure they are that brilliant a team. |  | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 12:40 - Mar 27 with 1090 views | glasso |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 18:55 - Mar 26 by MK1 |
Wrexham will be happy to stay in the league. Birmingham will be happy with mid table. I think Leicester, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Coventry, Sheff. Utd/Burnley, W.B.A & Ourselves will be battling for top 6. I think we have a better chance than all those already in the Championship if we get our attitude right. Leicester and Ourselves will be looking for top 2. I see Southampton struggling a little as their better players will leave.
Our best chance of bouncing straight back will be McKenna. If we can keep him, then we go straight back up. |
TBF when we came up, WE would've been happy with just staying in the Champ. Doesn't always work like that, though. That's why it's a bloody brilliant league and far more interesting than the Prem. | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 12:42 - Mar 27 with 1089 views | Chris_ITFC |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:33 - Mar 27 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
We paid inflated prices for additional Championship players, players who didn’t get promoted with Hull, Sunderland, Blackburn and West Brom while we finished 2nd. If you remove our loans the other sides we recruited from were Burnley and Luton.
If you ignore the £100mil+ price tag, because we have been stitched up paying what we have for those, we have a team capable of finishing between 8th and 1st, depending on how Cajuste, Phillips and Delap are replaced in the summer, along with the possibility of Hutchinson, Davis and others moving on.
There’s nothing however to suggest we’re walking the Championship. In fact in the past two seasons alone only two of the three who have come down (and it could still be fewer this season) have gone back up straight away.
It’s going to be a long hard season like it was last season. |
I always find the “players who didn’t get promoted” line a bit odd, as they were mostly the best players in their teams (and the league), yet they are judged because their team mates didn’t help to get them promoted?
It’s like saying Bruno Fernandes would be no good for a Champions League team because he won’t qualify for it this season. | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 12:53 - Mar 27 with 1082 views | Smoresy |
The midfield isn't ready to go. We could have spent more on wages than many imagine, which would dictate player sales in order to plug known gaps, and we may not recruit well. The depth we need in attacking positions is very hampered by injuries currently, touch wood for next season. We should need to reinforce the striker position due to departures, which we've struggled to do in previous windows. Some may feel the hangover of losing consistently. The manager could leave. One of Burnley, Sheff Utd or Leeds could remain, while Leicester are close to our equal today, and Southampton edged us out over head-to-heads. All those sides have the talent available today to consistently win at the weaker level.
Against these knowns and hypotheticals is a stronger squad than we came up with. Ignoring loans, we've swapped Ladapo for Delapo, Jackson for Philogene, Donacien for O'Shea, Edmundson for Greaves, Aluko for Ogbene, Humphreys (loan) for Townsend, Hladky for Palmer and Muric, Ball for Johnson, Harness (loan) for Clarke, and Scarlett for Szmodics. It's a much stronger squad than we came up with, even taking into account the work that will be required in CM, probably CF too.
I'm geared up for an exciting race, with more top teams than there are promotion slots available, but fewer top teams than there are play-off spots available, much like this season, last season, the season before, etc.. Something would have gone terribly wrong for us not to be one of those three or four top teams. [Post edited 27 Mar 14:04]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 12:59 - Mar 27 with 1070 views | Herbivore |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 12:42 - Mar 27 by Chris_ITFC |
I always find the “players who didn’t get promoted” line a bit odd, as they were mostly the best players in their teams (and the league), yet they are judged because their team mates didn’t help to get them promoted?
It’s like saying Bruno Fernandes would be no good for a Champions League team because he won’t qualify for it this season. |
It's their usual negative spin nonsense. Best ignored to be honest. |  |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 13:20 - Mar 27 with 1030 views | Vic |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 16:31 - Mar 26 by Swansea_Blue |
It’s very strange isn’t it. Potentially, we could only have one or two left from those who started our last match. Hopefully we’ll hang on to more than I expect, but I think some people are going to be disappointed if they think we’ve bought a title winning side for next year already.
We will have money to spend that’s beyond the wildest dreams of most of the rest of the league though, so we’ll be in a good position. Just not with most of this team. |
Hutch playing so well in the yoof internationals hasn't helped has it!
I can't but think that although we love him, what has he actually done in the Prem to make other teams think he'll make it more with them than with us? We're not a bad team but he hasn;t been able to drag us up to the next step. he's still young a growing 9in every way) so I wonder who will pay the money that we'd want for him. [Post edited 27 Mar 13:33]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 13:27 - Mar 27 with 1026 views | Vic |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 18:46 - Mar 26 by Superblue95 |
Delap, Omari and Axel will go. Probably Leif and O Shea too with Harness and Luongo released. I imagine we’ll try to bin Muric and Johnson due to their high wages versus performance, but it will be difficult.
Assuming we don’t balls up recruitment then I don’t see how the below doesn’t see us in a strong position for automatic promotion.
Palmer
H. Clarke
Woolfenden
Greaves
New LB
Morsy
New CM
Burns
Szmodics
Philogene
New ST
Walton
Burgess
Townsend
New CM
Taylor
Ogbene
Chaplin
J Clarke
Hirst |
New LB is already in the door - Townsend | |
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 14:36 - Mar 27 with 938 views | roblenton |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 17:48 - Mar 26 by Mullet |
Burgess, Muric, probably Walton too as he won’t want to be missing another season.
Harness and Luongo are gone too I think. |
Birmingham City | | | |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 15:41 - Mar 27 with 877 views | CBMTOBWMMBG |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 20:03 - Mar 26 by Linners |
Pound-for-pound, that team wasn't good enough to get promoted last season. It was a combination of decent players, smart coaching and irrepressible momentum that took us up. Next year, at least one, maybe two of those elements won't be there.
That said, we should still go close. |
Totally agree.
I would also argue that luck was more on our side last year.
We had far less injuries, and, especially in the early games e.g. both QPR & Sunderland Away, that bit of luck that you need to create momentum. [Post edited 27 Mar 15:47]
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| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 21:44 - Mar 27 with 751 views | Sharkey |
| What stops us winning the Championship next year? on 08:57 - Mar 27 by Earls_Jeans |
Sadly I believe he is out of contract.
While we have got a lot more football out of him than his previous clubs were able to, he is unfortunately still an injury waiting to happen so hopefully Johnson steps up in the championship. [Post edited 27 Mar 8:57]
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I still blame Ashton for his Henry V -style speech about attacking the washing-up. |  | | |
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