Is this the strongest Championship in a while?

[oldtype]

You've got West Brom and Middlesbrough going down, who both look like they'll keep most of their squads which are pretty much pre-made to challenge for the Championship title.

 

You've got Sheffield United failing to win promotion and probably spending big in the summer with the Tevez money.

 

You've got the usual suspects, Reading, Preston, Cardiff, Bristol City, Ipswich, Crystal Palace.

 

You've got Swansea newly competitive and QPR who's surely liable to get it right one of these days. Watford looks like they're getting things back together.

 

On the bottom end of the table you've got a big club coming back up in Leicester and a talented young manager at Peterborough.

 

Then you have us... pretty much screwed

 

Is this the strongest Championship in a while?

[Mowen]

It's hard to say, but I'd be surprised if it's that good given that it's the bunch of teams playing below the weakest premiership (bar the top 6) I've seen in some time.

[oldtype]

Oh well, we have a bunch of Championship fans on the board now to correct me if I'm just talking out of my ass.

[PRL]

I don't think it's that much stronger than it has been in the past and it's so unpredictable. If you were doing this at the end of last season Charlton and Norwich would have got a mention, maybe even Southampton with their youth set up and look what happened to them.

 

Boro are as well prepared as us (= not very). Been a while since they've been down and they're squad has arguably even less quality likely to stay on than ours.

 

West Brom - here's hoping Celtic nick Mowbray and they're left in a bit of disarray

 

Sheff Utd - Blackwell has said he is thinking of quitting as they have no cash at all, parachute payments have stopped and they have to cut the wage bill to pieces, moving out a lot of players.

 

Reading are dangerous and I'd say good outside bet for winning the league, Preston, Cardiff, Bristol City, Ipswich and Palace are tidy, nothing more, if they're the best in the league i'd hope we can match them.

 

Swansea, QPR, Leicester and maybe Peterborough, they'll have me a little more worried. Surprise packages seem to be order of the day in the Championship so expect someone unexpected to be in and around the automatic places.

 

But to reiterate, i don't think it stands out as particularly strong this year, or any other recently, i see it more as a massive mire, collectively fucking difficult to get out of.

[Leazes1986]

I don't think Boro will be a force next season unless they spend a lot of the money they make in transfers. They've always had some decent youngsters to come into the team but I'm not convinced they will be good enough to get them up.

[Decky]

I still think we are in the best position, loads of players down there would absolutely love to play for us.

[oldtype]

I still think we are in the best position, loads of players down there would absolutely love to play for us.

 

The thing is, we still have to find, negotiate for, and integrate the players that will take us up.

 

Our major rivals already have them.

[Lotus]

I don't think Boro will be a force next season unless they spend a lot of the money they make in transfers. They've always had some decent youngsters to come into the team but I'm not convinced they will be good enough to get them up.

 

I would think they'll have more of this years squad for next season than we will tbh.

[The Prophet]

I think last years was stronger for a start. Southampton, Charlton and Norwich all went down but are capable of causing serious upsets on their day, plus the New Den and the Valley weren't exactly our favourite grounds in the world. There's something wrong if we can't turn over sides like Peterborough and Scunthorpe. No matter how high they are flying we should be capable of knocking them over, all though the players shouldn't be taking that attitude.

 

Blackpool, Plymouth, Coventry, Doncaster and Crystal Palace are all pretty poor. Palace will improve this season but will finish mid-table at best in my opinion.

 

Leicester and Ipswich are two that could go either way. Keane will have no where near the amount of money he was given at Sunderland so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

 

Forest and Derby will improve this season but they've got a lot of work to do while the rest will compete for play-off/automatic spots.

 

I have a feeling Swansea might struggle this season especially if they get raided in the summer, they'll struggle to hold on to the likes of Gomez and Scotland.

 

QPR will probably push for the play-offs but even with their money I can't see anything better on the hoizon.

 

So no unpredictable yes but not the strongest by a long way.

[afar]

I'm not sure it is, and I'm also certain that people have overplayed how difficult a league it is.

 

Cool hard fact is we took 10 pts out of 12 from the other two teams that went down this year, there is no one that didn't come up that we should be afraid of.

 

I'm not saying it's going to be a walk in the park at all. We have to work hard, make the right decisions on managerial positions and players in and out. But at the same time we can't overestimate the difficulty of our task, we should be more than capable of coming straight back up next season. Being frightened and lacking in self confidence is a sure fire way to not achieving our goals.

[oldtype]

I'm not sure it is, and I'm also certain that people have overplayed how difficult a league it is.

 

Cool hard fact is we took 10 pts out of 12 from the other two teams that went down this year, there is no one that didn't come up that we should be afraid of.

 

I'm not saying it's going to be a walk in the park at all. We have to work hard, make the right decisions on managerial positions and players in and out. But at the same time we can't overestimate the difficulty of our task, we should be more than capable of coming straight back up next season. Being frightened and lacking in self confidence is a sure fire way to not achieving our goals.

 

Those teams keep their squads though, that's the big thing. We lose pretty much all of ours.

 

Our success pretty much relies on how well we're able to build a new squad and how well we can make it gel, two things I have absolutely no trust in Newcastle United to achieve.

[QBG]

I think we'll be fine. We just need to keep a core of players that have actually been fairly solid this season, and combine them with good Championship players and a few players from the youth setup. SJP needs to be a fortress if we are to go straight back up.

[afar]

I'm not sure it is, and I'm also certain that people have overplayed how difficult a league it is.

 

Cool hard fact is we took 10 pts out of 12 from the other two teams that went down this year, there is no one that didn't come up that we should be afraid of.

 

I'm not saying it's going to be a walk in the park at all. We have to work hard, make the right decisions on managerial positions and players in and out. But at the same time we can't overestimate the difficulty of our task, we should be more than capable of coming straight back up next season. Being frightened and lacking in self confidence is a sure fire way to not achieving our goals.

 

Those teams keep their squads though, that's the big thing. We lose pretty much all of ours.

 

Our success pretty much relies on how well we're able to build a new squad and how well we can make it gel, two things I have absolutely no trust in Newcastle United to achieve.

 

No they won't, Boro will lose Downing and Tuncay and possibly also Wheater, the rest are a pile of crap anyway. WBA will lose Brunt and the striker they had on loan, and whoever else has attracted any attention from PL clubs, but again they are hardly world beaters.

 

We won't lose everyone, the ones that will go are the ones that have cost us most in terms of salary. We have Taylor, Bassong, Beye, Enrique to name a few under contract and if we've gotten rid of the high earning dross we are not under any pressure to sell them as they are on manageable wages.

 

We are still favourites to go straight back up as we should be, we had a revenue of 100 million last year with our resources available to us there is no reason at all why we can not come back up and absolutely no reason that we should adopt an inferiority complex to the likes of Boro, WBA and Sheff Utd.

 

[GG]

I think it's strong, in the sense that there are 15/16 teams all who will be aiming for at least the last play-off spot. It will be very competitive next season.

[Guest MarkMag]

I'm not sure it is, and I'm also certain that people have overplayed how difficult a league it is.

 

Cool hard fact is we took 10 pts out of 12 from the other two teams that went down this year, there is no one that didn't come up that we should be afraid of.

 

I'm not saying it's going to be a walk in the park at all. We have to work hard, make the right decisions on managerial positions and players in and out. But at the same time we can't overestimate the difficulty of our task, we should be more than capable of coming straight back up next season. Being frightened and lacking in self confidence is a sure fire way to not achieving our goals.

 

Those teams keep their squads though, that's the big thing. We lose pretty much all of ours.

 

Our success pretty much relies on how well we're able to build a new squad and how well we can make it gel, two things I have absolutely no trust in Newcastle United to achieve.

 

No they won't, Boro will lose Downing and Tuncay and possibly also Wheater, the rest are a pile of crap anyway. WBA will lose Brunt and the striker they had on loan, and whoever else has attracted any attention from PL clubs, but again they are hardly world beaters.

 

We won't lose everyone, the ones that will go are the ones that have cost us most in terms of salary. We have Taylor, Bassong, Beye, Enrique to name a few under contract and if we've gotten rid of the high earning dross we are not under any pressure to sell them as they are on manageable wages.

 

We are still favourites to go straight back up as we should be, we had a revenue of 100 million last year with our resources available to us there is no reason at all why we can not come back up and absolutely no reason that we should adopt an inferiority complex to the likes of Boro, WBA and Sheff Utd.

 

 

Have to agree. We should go back up. I don't think it will easy by any means but the league isn't that great.

[Wullie]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

[oldtype]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

 

Almost as interesting as what'll happen to us given our reported debt levels I imagine.

[Tisd09]

I still think we are in the best position, loads of players down there would absolutely love to play for us.

 

This I agree with, I mentioned it in another post we should bully some of the teams down there, we are the big boys of the division. We'll be seen as a team that SHOULD come straight back up. If we have the funds to do it we should try to get the best players from the other teams in the league.

[Guest gggg]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

 

Boro's debts are below 30 million and they say they'll be wiped out soon with player sales.

[Guest westamfan]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

 

Almost as interesting as what'll happen to us given our reported debt levels I imagine.

 

£34 million loss in 12 months announced in January + 100 million owed to Ashley + £40 million TV revenue Loss for next season + £73 million wage bill = mess

 

 

:omg:

 

 

 

 

[Frazzle]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

 

Almost as interesting as what'll happen to us given our reported debt levels I imagine.

 

£34 million loss in 12 months announced in January + 100 million owed to Ashley + £40 million TV revenue Loss for next season + £73 million wage bill = mess

 

 

:omg:

 

 

 

 

 

We're hardly going to have the same wage bill come August are we? 

[thenige]

It's been fairly strong for a while, I think it's going to be a bit of a culture shock for our supports who live in Premier League cloud land. Not to mention the press will be on our back the second we drop any points, no matter the opposition or the circumstance.

[Jayson]

Big advantage other sides in the championship have as said before is that they will largely be keeping the same sides that have already gelled/done reasonably well.

 

If we start putting together random players, they wont have that. It'll take time. Obviously depends how many players we manage to keep.

[Guest westamfan]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Boro in the summer given their reported debt levels.

 

Almost as interesting as what'll happen to us given our reported debt levels I imagine.

 

£34 million loss in 12 months announced in January + 100 million owed to Ashley + £40 million TV revenue Loss for next season + £73 million wage bill = mess

 

 

:omg:

 

 

 

 

 

We're hardly going to have the same wage bill come August are we? 

 

I hope not, but there's going to be a few mercenaries desperate to hang onto their contracts with you. For example, who's going to offer Duff a contract to lure him from you? Nobody. Which means you're stuck with them. The only way out would be to accept a £2million bid from Wigan, and then you'll be forced to do a Leeds .... and agree to pay about a huge % of his wage until his contract would have ended, just to cut your losses. No relegation wage cuts in contracts has made it really difficult. There's loyalty payments to consider as well. Without transfer requests Alan Smith would be entitled to some if he leaves.

 

[S.S.R.]

Surely if relegation was such a financial distaster, Ashley would have moved heaven and earth improving the team to avoid it, instead of getting a couple of plodders in like Nolan and Ryan Taylor.

 

Or is he just unbelievably stupid?

 

"Well, it looks like I'm headed straight over this cliff; I could apply the brake... ....ner, lets see what happens, maybe the cliff will suddenly transform into a road."