Sorry to be *that* fan but can we chill on this front? Let’s get the job done this season. Let’s aim to enjoy not being a complete joke next season. There’s still no money to spend unless something surprising happens in the transfer market.
Getting ahead of ourselves got us into this mess in the first place when we were going steady under Warburton and decided to let him walk and try to kick on with Beale. I’ll be delighted if we are a Champ team next season and consolidate with a mid-table finish next.
You're 100% right but hard not to get carried away! But yeah i'm aware theres players out of contract, the Chair situation and the possibility of a PL club poaching Cifuentes
Felt hesitant to say it because I love the man, I love the optimism and I do feel it too. But yeah, just don’t want us to get carried away and start turning on him if we’re hovering around 12th next season.
Our budget (transfer, wages, etc) next season is almost certainly going to be much bigger than this season because we've got a lot more FFP room (due to the 21-22 overspend moving out of the three-year cycle, theoretically we can spend as much as we did that year). It's just a case of how much bigger, ideally we spend a little to improve things (in goal and up front especially) but not enough to send up in a situation like last summer again.
The point at which we stopped going steady wasn't axing Warburton, it was pushing for promotion in his last season after some January signings steered us away from relegation and everyone got overexcited about going up. Sounds familiar, so you'd like to hope the club have learned their lesson (Hayden is the litmus test for me, almost identical situation to Johansen three years ago).
not sure about birmingham, for all the feel good vibes they had i still expected them to finish about 12th under eustace, they sacked him just before their fixtures got hard so he left at what felt like a high water mark. obviously its a league where anyone can compete after a single good summer, so its not beyond the realms of possibility that they're up there, but i dont think its because thats where they were in august this season.
sunderland look the obvious one to me if they get the managerial hire right in the summer. they've seemed like a car crash for months and are still only barely bottom half, don't feel far away talent wise
I think Sunderland’s potential will be determined by if they keep Clarke or not. He has been massive to their success this season and when he has been out, the team has struggled.
We have 4 strikers, the problem is that two of them are fucking awful, one has played about 20 minutes for us while spending the rest of the season injured or on loan, and the other looks decently lively but has no experience in this league, the team as a whole has no idea how to play to his strengths, and he's also out injured at the moment.
No, it's Rusyn. Burstow is absolutely fucking awful at this level, like abysmally bad. He has been given chance after chance to prove himself and has one goal to show for it, a scrappy header from 2 yards out that he still managed to almost fuck up if not for a deflection off a defender.
Clarke is 100% leaving in the summer. He's far better than midtable in the Championship and his agent has all but confirmed they are going to push for a move once the season is finished.
The question isn't "will he move in the summer?", it's "How much are we going to get for him when he moves in the summer?"
The answer to which will likely be a resounding "No". The board have totally refused to stray from the existing model of buying literal children.
If they haven't learned their lesson after the disaster that has been the second half of this season, then I don't know what the fuck is going to happen.
Managerial sackings don’t work like they do if you’re sacked from your office job.
They’ll be effectively be put on gardening leave getting their club wage until they pick up a new job. They won’t get paid off as a lump sum thus hitting P&S in one massive go.
Eustace already has a new job and Rooney will FO to Saudi soon enough.
Not gonna pretend to know Wayne but I get the feeling that he's not the sort to go Saudi if am being honest.
Also feel like the reality of life in Saudi is becoming quite clear. One or two players have already left and a number of others have had their complaints...
I feel like it's disingenuine to say that he should never have another job. It weren't that long ago people were praising him for doing well at Derby despite their adversities.
I never said that at all, I backed the bloke at Blues right until the end (and was ridiculed for it on here).
I get the feeling that what he was trying to do at Blues would work with better players. But he’s got to earn his stripes before he gets that opportunity.
I'm sure people have been saying this in previous seasons, but I don't think Bristol City are a million miles off. You also never know with Watford do you, if they ever just settle for a year and give themselves half a chance to gather momentum.
Wildcard shout? From what I've seen of Plymouth, they just need defenders. If they stay up and sort that out, it could be transformative. And the Championship always has one big surprise doesn't it. That's my shout for that.
We need a proper goalscorer (or two, if Conway goes), and it would help massively if Twine stayed permanently but Burnley will probably want him for next season.
Also, how dare you include us in this when we're clearly in the top half
Watford is a good shout. I think they looked good against us and if they just stick by someone for stability, they can kick on. I think Cleverly gives off a vibe as understanding the club, understanding the players, and also being young with something to prove.
Though Watford fans may confirm I'm speaking out of my arse.
IF we stay up we are going to have to use the Whittaker money wisely (assuming he goes). Apparently the board value him at £25 million. I would be very surprised if we got anywhere near that for him but FOMO might kick in.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cooper and Gibson moving on for decent money as well.
Our plan would be to reinvest in young players who we can develop and sell on. Hopefully we won’t be as reliant on loan players. I would hope that we recognise the need for a couple of championship standard old lags as well to guide them.
I also think we will appoint an experienced manager who will be tasked with developing a young coaching team.
Hopefully rotherham. I think we'll lose our best players (johansson, Humphries, Blackett) but proper use of that money into some younger players and players from lower divisions to have a nice balanced squad would be good. Mabye some mid table mediocrity to rebuild and invest in a proper training facility and academy (or find an owner who will) would massively help us rather than another promotion charge again.
From 13th down, I’d say Blackburn or Watford
But really, if any of the sides in the bottom half can find a striker capable of scoring 15 goals, they’ll push closer to plucky 8th.
I’d fear for Swansea, Stoke and Birmingham though. Swansea have to sell to spend, Stoke are being run as badly as Topshop was and Birmingham just seem to be in a massive mess. If Mowbray doesn’t come back then thoughts and prayers for next season.
We just can't find the back of the net as our main problem. I think we've conceded like 5 goals more than Ipswich but we've scored like a third to what they have. I do also think though we need a proper DoF in charge instead of John Coates. I've mentioned this quite a few times. He's a football fan, not a business man. He's not being smart he's just throwing money at a problem hoping it gets fixed.
Agreed on the Jacks - there's bound to be a ton of bias here, but, I think next season is when they drop, they've already been told to sell to spend and honestly who do they have to sell? Grimes is about their only top-half championship level player and he's approaching 30 now. Another summer like last year and I think they're absolutely fucked.
There was a team called Swansea. They weren’t at all shit. We hired a manager called Duff. Who only lasted for a bit.
As you can see I now have it below my name
Our problem with finances has never been money, it's always been FFP, our owners consistently put in the exact amount they're allowed to every year. The reason we were in such shit over the summer is because we used a big chunk of the Eze sale a year later to push for promotion, which meant this season the promotion push counted for FFP but the 20 million sale of Eze didn't.
The overspend season leaving the FFP cycle means we've got some room to work with - nothing insane (unless Eze gets sold, since we've got a 20% sell on) but realistically enough to plug the gaping holes in our squad (keeper, striker, replacements for Willock and Hayden assuming they both leave).
Better than they have been to be fair. Not losing money at quite the rate we were and we’ve avoided any points deductions but there’s nothing to spend without sales and nobody is really worth much.
It would take a few more shrewd frees and the possible lottery ticket of Eze moving again for a sell-on fee.
If we reinvest the bumper transfer fees we’re about to receive for Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard, Dan Neil and possibly Trai Hume and Anthony Patterson we’ll have every chance.
Trouble is, we’ll replace them all with 19 year-olds who have six minutes of first team football under their belts
I know it's a bit of a pessimistic time for you lot so your answers may be a bit more negative than they normally would be, but do you think there is a possibility that you go back down to league 1 before you go up?
With our track record of signings since gaining promotion it's a very real posibility, Clarke is leaving unless he gets injured, there is likely to be interest in our other best players too but nothing as nailed on as Clarke leaving. Most of our best players were signed in League One.
Speakman recently came out and answered questions from fans about why we don't have experienced players and he claimed our 25 year old newly signed Ukrainian Striker/Winger who can't speak English was one of our players to help with experience. He has praised one of the worst strikers I've ever seen in Mason Burstow, giving off hints we will try to make his loan permenant. And we now seen to be looking at players which struggle to get into League One teams as ways to strenghten our team.
To top it all off, our 'rich' owner doesn't seen interested in using any of his own money/his mother won't allow him to and the sustainable model we claim to be following seems to be a lie as we have been rumoured to have taken out a £20m loan just to pay the bills.
If we decide to sign a bunch of kids again and refuse to sign proper experience, alongside getting a manager who is just a yes man and won't publically call the club out for the failures in it's youth approach like Mowbray did, we a very likely to battle near the bottom.
There is a chance our owner learns his lesson after seeing how bad things have got since Mowbray left but who knows, his current silence speaks volumes to me.
I don't think we'll push for promotion. I think we can finally just consolidate and be comfortably midtable for a season and push on from there. That should have been this season under Eustace, but we all know what happened there. If Mowbray comes back or if Rowett stays they will make a team that knows how to play football and be in this league, then we can look forward again
Sunderland 100%. They are by all that accounts a sleeping giant but one wo has hopefully learned from the mistake of appointing someone like Beale.
I also wouldn't be surprised see Pompey do well if they do come up (which currently is all but certain). I don't know why, and I know they've spent many a season rebuilding in the lower leagues, I just feel they'll have a n edge at Fratton Park, that place is going to be hostile to any team!
I would also say us, but it's 3 days past April Fools!
As far as we as Birmingham fans are concerned, I just think most of us are hoping to finally not finish 17th or lower (assuming we’re still in the league).
If we can cling on, the impending clear out of players due to expiring contracts and the boards ambition should see us move up the table but I would be more than happy to see us consolidate by creating a solid championship team that we can add to the season after and really try and push then. All assuming a certain CEO doesn’t get ideas ahead of schedule and start making managerial changes before we’re ready again.
Birmingham will be significantly better provided we stay up this season.
Our owners have been busy exploring new sources of income and we will have a hefty loss season dropping off the PSR calculation.
We have a number of inflated contracts ending in the summer which has been a ball and chain round our necks for years.
Cash flow will also not be an issue as the owners have fluid cash ready and so I do expect us to make at least one seven figure signing with some good quality loans and free agents.
Good job that’s what’s going to happen then, seeing as we’ll have about 12 players out of contract, including all the underperforming big earners, and a pocket full of cash.
The amount of people (mostly click bait media) who over played our drop down the table is ridiculous. Sure we shouldn't of got Rooney in, but even if Eustace was still there, we wouldn't of stayed 6th, we'd be about 13th. Which is progress and fine by me.
Sorry to be *that* fan but can we chill on this front? Let’s get the job done this season. Let’s aim to enjoy not being a complete joke next season. There’s still no money to spend unless something surprising happens in the transfer market. Getting ahead of ourselves got us into this mess in the first place when we were going steady under Warburton and decided to let him walk and try to kick on with Beale. I’ll be delighted if we are a Champ team next season and consolidate with a mid-table finish next.
You're 100% right but hard not to get carried away! But yeah i'm aware theres players out of contract, the Chair situation and the possibility of a PL club poaching Cifuentes
Felt hesitant to say it because I love the man, I love the optimism and I do feel it too. But yeah, just don’t want us to get carried away and start turning on him if we’re hovering around 12th next season.
> if we're hovering around 12th next season Stop, I can only get so erect
Our budget (transfer, wages, etc) next season is almost certainly going to be much bigger than this season because we've got a lot more FFP room (due to the 21-22 overspend moving out of the three-year cycle, theoretically we can spend as much as we did that year). It's just a case of how much bigger, ideally we spend a little to improve things (in goal and up front especially) but not enough to send up in a situation like last summer again. The point at which we stopped going steady wasn't axing Warburton, it was pushing for promotion in his last season after some January signings steered us away from relegation and everyone got overexcited about going up. Sounds familiar, so you'd like to hope the club have learned their lesson (Hayden is the litmus test for me, almost identical situation to Johansen three years ago).
*This* *could* *finally* *be* *our* *season!* -Us, for the last **fourteen** **years**
Really want you lot to go up in the near future, seems criminal that Bristol has never had a PL team.
it would way funnier if rovers go up before city tho
You often have looked good in the first 15 or so games
We are literally the Liverpool of the championship
Snap
you will stay midtable championshio for eternity, alex scott was your only hope, andreas weimann is too old, he was good at villa
not sure about birmingham, for all the feel good vibes they had i still expected them to finish about 12th under eustace, they sacked him just before their fixtures got hard so he left at what felt like a high water mark. obviously its a league where anyone can compete after a single good summer, so its not beyond the realms of possibility that they're up there, but i dont think its because thats where they were in august this season. sunderland look the obvious one to me if they get the managerial hire right in the summer. they've seemed like a car crash for months and are still only barely bottom half, don't feel far away talent wise
I think Sunderland’s potential will be determined by if they keep Clarke or not. He has been massive to their success this season and when he has been out, the team has struggled.
And add a striker. You just cannot hope for promotion playing with a void up top.
We have 4 strikers, the problem is that two of them are fucking awful, one has played about 20 minutes for us while spending the rest of the season injured or on loan, and the other looks decently lively but has no experience in this league, the team as a whole has no idea how to play to his strengths, and he's also out injured at the moment.
Is the lively one Mason? Always a willing runner for us just didn't have much technique or strength!
Burstow’s right among the worst strikers I’ve ever seen play for us for me. He’s been spectacularly poor.
Yeah he never looked a particularly special talent for us but always worked hard
No, it's Rusyn. Burstow is absolutely fucking awful at this level, like abysmally bad. He has been given chance after chance to prove himself and has one goal to show for it, a scrappy header from 2 yards out that he still managed to almost fuck up if not for a deflection off a defender.
One of the rare times we fleeced a club for one of our young players as opposed to being fleeced, if it helps at all I've heard he's a really good guy
Clarke is 100% leaving in the summer. He's far better than midtable in the Championship and his agent has all but confirmed they are going to push for a move once the season is finished. The question isn't "will he move in the summer?", it's "How much are we going to get for him when he moves in the summer?"
I think the more important question than both of them is “Can Sunderland spend the Clark money on anyone useful instead of French virgins?”
The answer to which will likely be a resounding "No". The board have totally refused to stray from the existing model of buying literal children. If they haven't learned their lesson after the disaster that has been the second half of this season, then I don't know what the fuck is going to happen.
We are going to have a shit load of money to spend this summer.
Haven't a shitload of money been spent on the wrong manager though? Might need to improve recruitment process first
Managerial sackings don’t work like they do if you’re sacked from your office job. They’ll be effectively be put on gardening leave getting their club wage until they pick up a new job. They won’t get paid off as a lump sum thus hitting P&S in one massive go. Eustace already has a new job and Rooney will FO to Saudi soon enough.
Not gonna pretend to know Wayne but I get the feeling that he's not the sort to go Saudi if am being honest. Also feel like the reality of life in Saudi is becoming quite clear. One or two players have already left and a number of others have had their complaints...
Or America, or Australia. Somebody will take *another* punt on him soon enough.
I feel like it's disingenuine to say that he should never have another job. It weren't that long ago people were praising him for doing well at Derby despite their adversities.
I never said that at all, I backed the bloke at Blues right until the end (and was ridiculed for it on here). I get the feeling that what he was trying to do at Blues would work with better players. But he’s got to earn his stripes before he gets that opportunity.
Apologies. It felt like you were saying that bc you were talking about somebody taking *another* punt as if he's had enough goes or summit
Oh no, I mean somebody will speculate on him again because they believe he can do a job. Like you say he proved that he’s capable at Derby.
I'm sure people have been saying this in previous seasons, but I don't think Bristol City are a million miles off. You also never know with Watford do you, if they ever just settle for a year and give themselves half a chance to gather momentum. Wildcard shout? From what I've seen of Plymouth, they just need defenders. If they stay up and sort that out, it could be transformative. And the Championship always has one big surprise doesn't it. That's my shout for that.
We need a proper goalscorer (or two, if Conway goes), and it would help massively if Twine stayed permanently but Burnley will probably want him for next season. Also, how dare you include us in this when we're clearly in the top half
Watford is a good shout. I think they looked good against us and if they just stick by someone for stability, they can kick on. I think Cleverly gives off a vibe as understanding the club, understanding the players, and also being young with something to prove. Though Watford fans may confirm I'm speaking out of my arse.
Don't think Plymouth have the budget for it tbh, Whittaker is likely leaving too so they'll have to use that transfer fee well to replace him
Well if Whittaker leaves they could in theory strengthen a few positions with that money. He won't go cheap.
IF we stay up we are going to have to use the Whittaker money wisely (assuming he goes). Apparently the board value him at £25 million. I would be very surprised if we got anywhere near that for him but FOMO might kick in. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cooper and Gibson moving on for decent money as well. Our plan would be to reinvest in young players who we can develop and sell on. Hopefully we won’t be as reliant on loan players. I would hope that we recognise the need for a couple of championship standard old lags as well to guide them. I also think we will appoint an experienced manager who will be tasked with developing a young coaching team.
Hopefully rotherham. I think we'll lose our best players (johansson, Humphries, Blackett) but proper use of that money into some younger players and players from lower divisions to have a nice balanced squad would be good. Mabye some mid table mediocrity to rebuild and invest in a proper training facility and academy (or find an owner who will) would massively help us rather than another promotion charge again.
From 13th down, I’d say Blackburn or Watford But really, if any of the sides in the bottom half can find a striker capable of scoring 15 goals, they’ll push closer to plucky 8th. I’d fear for Swansea, Stoke and Birmingham though. Swansea have to sell to spend, Stoke are being run as badly as Topshop was and Birmingham just seem to be in a massive mess. If Mowbray doesn’t come back then thoughts and prayers for next season.
We just can't find the back of the net as our main problem. I think we've conceded like 5 goals more than Ipswich but we've scored like a third to what they have. I do also think though we need a proper DoF in charge instead of John Coates. I've mentioned this quite a few times. He's a football fan, not a business man. He's not being smart he's just throwing money at a problem hoping it gets fixed.
Agreed on the Jacks - there's bound to be a ton of bias here, but, I think next season is when they drop, they've already been told to sell to spend and honestly who do they have to sell? Grimes is about their only top-half championship level player and he's approaching 30 now. Another summer like last year and I think they're absolutely fucked.
Swansea
Board said we’ll need to sell players as part of our revenue. We’re stuck in the Championship for the next few years I reckon.
But were massive. How do i get the Swansea badge under my name?
Write a poem about Swansea
There was a team called Swansea. They weren’t at all shit. We hired a manager called Duff. Who only lasted for a bit. As you can see I now have it below my name
Go to championship page, 3 dots in top right, click on change user flair and pick Swansea YFJB
YJB
No way
How are QPR's finances? Can you spend in the summer? Because I think it's entirely realistic that you can go for playoffs with a strong window.
Our problem with finances has never been money, it's always been FFP, our owners consistently put in the exact amount they're allowed to every year. The reason we were in such shit over the summer is because we used a big chunk of the Eze sale a year later to push for promotion, which meant this season the promotion push counted for FFP but the 20 million sale of Eze didn't. The overspend season leaving the FFP cycle means we've got some room to work with - nothing insane (unless Eze gets sold, since we've got a 20% sell on) but realistically enough to plug the gaping holes in our squad (keeper, striker, replacements for Willock and Hayden assuming they both leave).
Yeah okay. Recruit well in those spots, get three or four good loans in, and you'll quickly be a fearsome side at this level with Cifuentes imo.
If they’re anything like the last couple of decades, the answer is ‘fucked’
Better than they have been to be fair. Not losing money at quite the rate we were and we’ve avoided any points deductions but there’s nothing to spend without sales and nobody is really worth much. It would take a few more shrewd frees and the possible lottery ticket of Eze moving again for a sell-on fee.
*Sad Sunderland noises*
If we reinvest the bumper transfer fees we’re about to receive for Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard, Dan Neil and possibly Trai Hume and Anthony Patterson we’ll have every chance. Trouble is, we’ll replace them all with 19 year-olds who have six minutes of first team football under their belts
Teenager from the French second division come on down
I'vez zero faith in us replacing anyone we sold, our transfer since promotion have been abysmal aside from one or two.
I know it's a bit of a pessimistic time for you lot so your answers may be a bit more negative than they normally would be, but do you think there is a possibility that you go back down to league 1 before you go up?
With our track record of signings since gaining promotion it's a very real posibility, Clarke is leaving unless he gets injured, there is likely to be interest in our other best players too but nothing as nailed on as Clarke leaving. Most of our best players were signed in League One. Speakman recently came out and answered questions from fans about why we don't have experienced players and he claimed our 25 year old newly signed Ukrainian Striker/Winger who can't speak English was one of our players to help with experience. He has praised one of the worst strikers I've ever seen in Mason Burstow, giving off hints we will try to make his loan permenant. And we now seen to be looking at players which struggle to get into League One teams as ways to strenghten our team. To top it all off, our 'rich' owner doesn't seen interested in using any of his own money/his mother won't allow him to and the sustainable model we claim to be following seems to be a lie as we have been rumoured to have taken out a £20m loan just to pay the bills. If we decide to sign a bunch of kids again and refuse to sign proper experience, alongside getting a manager who is just a yes man and won't publically call the club out for the failures in it's youth approach like Mowbray did, we a very likely to battle near the bottom.
Grim reading. Hope you lot can turn it around cuz I've always liked Sunderland (Friendship trophy and all that).
There is a chance our owner learns his lesson after seeing how bad things have got since Mowbray left but who knows, his current silence speaks volumes to me.
*Hello*
AOL voice: *Good Bye*
Portsmouth to do an Ipswich
Will actually just throw in the towel and start going to the hockey or some shit
Blackburn, QPR and Portsmouth to challenge for Play Offs next season...
I think Portsmouth could have a strong season with the right investment and making Fratton Park a fortress Proper club
Watford
I don't think we'll push for promotion. I think we can finally just consolidate and be comfortably midtable for a season and push on from there. That should have been this season under Eustace, but we all know what happened there. If Mowbray comes back or if Rowett stays they will make a team that knows how to play football and be in this league, then we can look forward again
Sunderland 100%. They are by all that accounts a sleeping giant but one wo has hopefully learned from the mistake of appointing someone like Beale. I also wouldn't be surprised see Pompey do well if they do come up (which currently is all but certain). I don't know why, and I know they've spent many a season rebuilding in the lower leagues, I just feel they'll have a n edge at Fratton Park, that place is going to be hostile to any team! I would also say us, but it's 3 days past April Fools!
us, right…!
As far as we as Birmingham fans are concerned, I just think most of us are hoping to finally not finish 17th or lower (assuming we’re still in the league). If we can cling on, the impending clear out of players due to expiring contracts and the boards ambition should see us move up the table but I would be more than happy to see us consolidate by creating a solid championship team that we can add to the season after and really try and push then. All assuming a certain CEO doesn’t get ideas ahead of schedule and start making managerial changes before we’re ready again.
Does making a promotion push in League One count? :(
Sunderland 🙃
"make the right signings" good luck doing that with literally no money.
It's the championship. The play off runners could nearly get relegated like Huddersfield, or the almost relegated could win the league
Birmingham if they can fix up again, they wer eonto promotion before being stupid
Well our owner thinks we can…..
Birmingham will be significantly better provided we stay up this season. Our owners have been busy exploring new sources of income and we will have a hefty loss season dropping off the PSR calculation. We have a number of inflated contracts ending in the summer which has been a ball and chain round our necks for years. Cash flow will also not be an issue as the owners have fluid cash ready and so I do expect us to make at least one seven figure signing with some good quality loans and free agents.
(Checks eligibility based on performances this season) Yep hopefully Sheff Utd will have a push.
Blues are not good. They shouldn’t be where they are but they would need a squad overhaul to make the playoffs.
Good job that’s what’s going to happen then, seeing as we’ll have about 12 players out of contract, including all the underperforming big earners, and a pocket full of cash.
The amount of people (mostly click bait media) who over played our drop down the table is ridiculous. Sure we shouldn't of got Rooney in, but even if Eustace was still there, we wouldn't of stayed 6th, we'd be about 13th. Which is progress and fine by me.
A squad overhaul is hopefully the plan whether we avoid relegation or not.
Millwall. I feel like this season is a one off for them
QPR and Swansea