Is The Championship Really That Difficult.

[prowl]

15 hours ago, BRADDO said:

The top teams this season aren't of the same calibre we faced in Brighton, Newcastle etc in my view. It seems a weaker league this season 

At the start of every season posters say how hard it is going to be, the relegated clubs are going to walk it because of parachute payments an X,Y and Z clubs are really strong. Every year it doesn't turn out that way.

 

If you are a strong organised team it's a relatively easy league every year, if you aren't then it's a hard league. It throws up strange results every week but the cream always rises to the top. It's about being organised, strong and lucky with injuries.

[Mobley]

We have proven it’s not easy and how if you don’t know what you are doing you can bust your club. All those clubs that have succeeded on a shoestring have had brilliant experiences managers, as do we now. Just goes to show rather than showboating bringing in prima Donna “name” players we’d have been better off getting a decent manager in years ago

[NorthernOwl]

6 hours ago, Leaping Lannys Perm said:

A big part of the Championship's appeal is that it is so competitive.

 

On the day, anyone can beat anyone which can't be said for most top European leagues. If Norwich had lost to Rotherham yesterday, and by all accounts they had a very tough time beating them, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as big a surprise as Man City losing to say Cardiff or Fulham.

 

Having said that, it's hardly like the 3 relegated sides wee wee the top 3 the next season so it's not like the Championship is a low standard.

 

The standard is poor if you are comparing it to the premier league. It's getting harder and harder for teams to go up and stay up. I'd say whoever goes up this year will be straight back down. Well Villa might stay up if they win playoffs I suppose.

 

I know what you are saying about the teams coming down. But I think that is more a mentality thing than a quality thing. It's so hard going from losing every week in the prem to suddenly being in a position where you are expected to win week in week out. 

[NorthernOwl]

1 hour ago, prowl said:

At the start of every season posters say how hard it is going to be, the relegated clubs are going to walk it because of parachute payments an X,Y and Z clubs are really strong. Every year it doesn't turn out that way.

 

If you are a strong organised team it's a relatively easy league every year, if you aren't then it's a hard league. It throws up strange results every week but the cream always rises to the top. It's about being organised, strong and lucky with injuries.

 

Can't emphasize this enough.The reason we didn't go up under Carlos was because our best players kept getting injured. 

 

Thankfully a few of our crocks will be gone this summer. Hopefully we don't end up relying on the likes of Hutch and FF next year or we will inevitably fall short again.

[TrickyTrev]

16 hours ago, Blue and white said:

We have been shambolic for half a season and looked nailed on to go down at one point yet we find ourselves 2 points outside the play offs, granted we have had a massive turnaround under Bruce.

The unclean currently sit 2nd, don't have a penny to scratch their filthy piggy arses with, have hardly spent a penny yet look world beaters.

Huddersfield went up a couple of seasons ago in much the same fashion as the grunters and at our expense.

So my question is, do we honestly think the Championship is really as difficult as people would have us believe.

Well it's taken us 19 years and we've still not managed to get promotion from it so in that sense I'd say yes it is a difficult league.

[Mrmason69]

It's difficult because there are so many very average teams. And it's average at best. The majority of teams can all beat each other. 

Every season there's always at least one team much better than the rest. This year there are the top three who are a long way ahead. West brom have been badly managed. The rest of the teams in contention aren't very good but they don't have to be in a low quality league 

[Guest LittleG]

On 17/03/2019 at 14:39, TrickyTrev said:

Well it's taken us 19 years and we've still not managed to get promotion from it so in that sense I'd say yes it is a difficult league.

We're probably making it look more difficult than what it is!

[stocksyuto]

On 16/03/2019 at 22:06, Bouncing Owl said:

Worst league in years. Standard is appalling. We’ve been garbage for half a season and yet we still have a chance of a playoff place. 

Crazy isnt it yet when we was in the play offs we had to fight all season to stop in it 

[wednesdaywizard]

I predicted this (check me out) at the beginning of the season.

 

This is a particularly bad league this year and any team who shows some persistent form can make it out.  Look where we are after the season we've had.  Incredible.

 

United had a run of 7 or so games of poor results and never dropped any lower than fourth.  If you can get out of the league this year then good but i'm not sure it will be any tougher next year either.

 

Say Fulham, Hudds and cardiff came down (for example).  I don't see any of those 3 mounting a challenge as they have all had a demoralising season this time around.  That doesn't usually bode well.  Go straight back down after battling and only just lose out then you go down with at least some confidence that you're capaable.  Take a battering and your squad falls apart.  Then you've got clubs like Villa who have (finally) ran out of parachute payments if they don't go up this year.

 

If we can keep momentum and build on what SB has started then we're in with a real chance for me next year.

[TheEnchanter]

Disagree with most comments. In my opinion its harder this year because there is a lot less between many of the teams. 

 

As for people saying it was tougher 2 years ago... what the year an awful Reading side finished 3rd,we scraped ourselves into 4th despite playing some terrible defensive football and Huddersfield were 5th with a minus GD? 

 

 

[Minton]

On 16/03/2019 at 21:51, Blue and white said:

We have been shambolic for half a season and looked nailed on to go down at one point yet we find ourselves 2 points outside the play offs, granted we have had a massive turnaround under Bruce.

The unclean currently sit 2nd, don't have a penny to scratch their filthy piggy arses with, have hardly spent a penny yet look world beaters.

Huddersfield went up a couple of seasons ago in much the same fashion as the grunters and at our expense.

So my question is, do we honestly think the Championship is really as difficult as people would have us believe.

 

The P&S rules have started to have the desired effect. Teams that have dominated in recent years have generally been ones who spent vast sums on building a lower-end premiership squad (Newcastle, Brighton, WBA, Bournemouth, QPR, Watford, Wolves, Leicester, Hull, Middlesbrough, Fulham). There are obvious exceptions to this (Cardiff and Huddersfield) but now that clubs aren't able to spunk £70-£100m in a season to get promoted it has meant that tactics and managerial nous are almost more important than your squad.  When you have effectively 12 teams still in the promotion mix with 8 games to go this season (which doesn't include 2 of the 3 relegated sides who had parachute payments, I might add) the league has become a more level playing field.

[shezzas left peg]

On 17/03/2019 at 11:37, sternlad said:

Think the quality of this division suffers from the premiership gleaning off all the players that could brighten up this league and paying them a fortune to sit on the sidelines most of the season. Look what a difference Hector, Lazaar and Aarons have made and think how many others like them there must be still loitering on the fringes of Premier League clubs. The Championship would be a much better quality league if more of these type of players were playing in it week in week out, IMHO.

You've hit the nail on the head bud, Liverpool used to do it in the 80's,Man utd in the 90's, then arsenal, Man City and Chelsea.

Chelsea especially at the moment do it. They hoover up any young starlet that looks promising and then just send them out on loan year after year. I'm sure someone had quoted from somewhere they had "42" players out on loan this season, 42 how can that be right and /or fare, when championship sides are hampered by FFP, yet teams from the Premier can do and spend whatever they want in that way. 

[shezzas left peg]

On 17/03/2019 at 14:33, NorthernOwl said:

 

Can't emphasize this enough.The reason we didn't go up under Carlos was because our best players kept getting injured. 

 

Thankfully a few of our crocks will be gone this summer. Hopefully we don't end up relying on the likes of Hutch and FF next year or we will inevitably fall short again.

Carlos failed becouse he lost his bottle and had been found out tactically on both occasions including the Wembley final. If we came up against a physical, rough, rough athletic side we struggled and /or failed under Carlos. 

Pretty sideways and backwards inverted triangles, that's what we were about. 

[Earlsfieldowl]

On 16/03/2019 at 21:58, Stoop said:

If you’ve got a good manager then your 90% of the way there in this division. Cardiff, Huddersfield, Brighton, probably the pigs have all been successful without spending vast sums of money

 

It’s a big help - consistency the other key pillar and a core of players who can play 35+ games a season doesn’t hurt ..

[sherlyegg]

On 17/03/2019 at 13:29, prowl said:

At the start of every season posters say how hard it is going to be, the relegated clubs are going to walk it because of parachute payments an X,Y and Z clubs are really strong. Every year it doesn't turn out that way.

 

It doesn't always turn out that way granted, but they have a huge advantage imho

 

Prem League Immediate Return
Norwich, burnley, newcastle twice, crystal palace, birmingham, west brom, west ham, leicester, bolton, sunderland, qpr, notts forest, charlton, man city...plus ones I've missed

 

Plus quite few make it back within 3-yrs...as Norwich look like doing, west brom in with a chance.

Loads make it back if not first attempt soon after..

The present parachute system came about in 2016, the previous system was similar but spread over 4 yrs...so it's all relative

 

[Socialist_Owl]

On 16/03/2019 at 14:51, Blue and white said:

We have been shambolic for half a season and looked nailed on to go down at one point yet we find ourselves 2 points outside the play offs, granted we have had a massive turnaround under Bruce.

The unclean currently sit 2nd, don't have a penny to scratch their filthy piggy arses with, have hardly spent a penny yet look world beaters.

Huddersfield went up a couple of seasons ago in much the same fashion as the grunters and at our expense.

So my question is, do we honestly think the Championship is really as difficult as people would have us believe.

It is.

[Westfield Owl]

14 hours ago, TheEnchanter said:

Disagree with most comments. In my opinion its harder this year because there is a lot less between many of the teams. 

 

As for people saying it was tougher 2 years ago... what the year an awful Reading side finished 3rd,we scraped ourselves into 4th despite playing some terrible defensive football and Huddersfield were 5th with a minus GD?

 

You're overthinking it.

 

There isn't a cluster of dominant teams at the top of the Championship, like there has been in the past few years.  That surely means every fixture this season has been more winnable than any equivalent fixture in years gone by.

 

With the way that the Championship has gone this season, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went to both Ellend Road and Carrow Road and won at both grounds.  You could never say that we would be capable of doing that at Molineux or Cardiff's ground, at this stage of the season, 12 months ago.

 

And yes, I'm aware that we did win at Craven Cottage in 17/18 but that was right at the start of the season when teams were still finding their feet.  Well before Fulham went into full-on beast mode in the second-half of 2017/18.

 

This time last year, we had a Sunderland team at the bottom of our league with many ex-Premier League stars amongst their ranks.  When was the last time that a squad as strong as that finished bottom of the Championship?

 

Do you really think that the likes of Ipswich Town & Bolton Wanderers are going to be coming straight back up from League One next season?  Not a chance IMO.

 

So basically, the top of the Championship is weaker than it was 12 months ago and the bottom of the Championship is weaker than it was 12 months ago.  So how the hell is this year's league any 'stronger' than in 2017/18, or any other recent year?

[Swiss Toni]

On 17/03/2019 at 07:55, Lincs Owl said:

If the championship isn't difficult, what have we been doing for the last 20 years?   

 

Trying to master League One for some of it 

[alanharper]

5 hours ago, The Captain said:

 

You're overthinking it.

 

There isn't a cluster of dominant teams at the top of the Championship, like there has been in the past few years.  That surely means every fixture this season has been more winnable than any equivalent fixture in years gone by.

 

With the way that the Championship has gone this season, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went to both Ellend Road and Carrow Road and won at both grounds.  You could never say that we would be capable of doing that at Molineux or Cardiff's ground, at this stage of the season, 12 months ago.

 

And yes, I'm aware that we did win at Craven Cottage in 17/18 but that was right at the start of the season when teams were still finding their feet.  Well before Fulham went into full-on beast mode in the second-half of 2017/18.

 

This time last year, we had a Sunderland team at the bottom of our league with many ex-Premier League stars amongst their ranks.  When was the last time that a squad as strong as that finished bottom of the Championship?

 

Do you really think that the likes of Ipswich Town & Bolton Wanderers are going to be coming straight back up from League One next season?  Not a chance IMO.

 

So basically, the top of the Championship is weaker than it was 12 months ago and the bottom of the Championship is weaker than it was 12 months ago.  So how the hell is this year's league any 'stronger' than in 2017/18, or any other recent year?

 

We were one of only three teams to keep a clean sheet away at Wolves last season, and they weren't on the beach in their final home game as they were chasing the 100 point mark which they just missed out on. We also dominated at Cardiff until they scored an equaliser at about quarter past five, won at Fulham as you say (early season maybe but they'd been in the playoffs with us a few months earlier, and were unbeaten until they played us)

 

We've actually got a decent away record against the promoted teams, since we came up in 2012 we've only lost five of our twelve away games against the teams who won automatic promotion with three of those being under Carlos in the seasons we made the play offs oddly enough. We've already been unbeaten at the pigs this season and have the chance to do so at both Leeds and Norwich.

[squonk]

This division gets harder year on year