The other bit about being down here is that it's all fun and games while we've got the biggest budget by a country mile due to parachute payments but ask Leeds, Forest, and Wednesday fans how much fun it is when the financial playing field is level.
Quote from: Ad@m on April 26, 2018, 05:15:14 AMThe other bit about being down here is that it's all fun and games while we've got the biggest budget by a country mile due to parachute payments but ask Leeds, Forest, and Wednesday fans how much fun it is when the financial playing field is level. Brentford and Fulham have shown in the past couple of years that you can have a good season on a relatively small budget.
It's not so much the winning games that has made it better for me. It's just felt more like 'old football'. It feels like anyone can do well in this league. Yes , there are teams like us and Wolves with a financial advantage (for now) but then there are many other teams that just get themselves in the frame by building a good team spirit and a 'style' of playing (good or bad) that gathers points and momentum.Sometimes you even get a team that comes from League 1 & goes right through to the Premiership in a single season. This league has a completely different way about it that makes it anybody's for the taking. It ebbs and flows, teams have good runs, fall way, come back. Wolves were pretty much run away winners this season but even they got hauled back to within a few points and there were moments when it wasn't so certain.I watch the odd Premier League game now and I have no sense of yearning for it at all. It looks plastic and distant. I want us to get promoted because a club with an infrastructure as big as ours would really struggle if we stay down too long, & a realistic chance of a trophy would be good, but if we go up, it wouldn't make me look forward to next season with any extra excitement.In many ways, it'll be a bit sad if we won the play offs because I think whoever we beat would be more excited to win than I would. I remember being at Cardiff with Preston when they got beaten by West Ham, & I remember that the West Ham fans didn't seem as elated as PNE would have been. Now I get why.
I'm still surprised at how many never miss a match supporters are at worst/best ambivalent and at best/worst want us to stay down because they're enjoying it more.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on April 26, 2018, 11:44:02 AMI'm still surprised at how many never miss a match supporters are at worst/best ambivalent and at best/worst want us to stay down because they're enjoying it more. I'm enjoying winning and us being the big boys on the block, but we've got to get out of here as soon as possible as there's a financial clock on that.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on April 26, 2018, 11:44:02 AMI'm still surprised at how many never miss a match supporters are at worst/best ambivalent and at best/worst want us to stay down because they're enjoying it more.How long will that enjoyment last though?At some point the playing field gets leveled to the extent of a half full ground and losing to the likes of Barnsley and their ilk becomes the norm.That sort of experience is available just down the road.
When Leicester were in the Championship when they were perennial playoff hopefuls, my mate knew several of their directors. They were more than happy to see them do well but not go up. Crowds stayed large because they were winning, whereas they knew they'd struggle in the top division and crowds would drop off. This was proven when they eventually did go up and came straight back down. Supporters of any club want to see them do well and if they are winning the fans will go, if they aren't they won't. We need to be able to compete rather than survive in the PL and I don't feel that this squad or manager are going to do that. I really do see us coming back down straight away if we get promoted without a serious injection of quality players and a quality manager. But who do we buy? Probably the best players from those clubs that have been relegated, and what quality does that add. As for manager, Steve has done a good job in steadying a ship that could easily have done a Sunderland, and he should take a lot of credit for that but as the man to take us forward into the PL I don't believe he is the man for that.