The play offs.

[QuintonVilla]

I get what some are saying, every game down here is winnable, home or away. If we go up, even games like Watford and Bournemouth away will be difficult and we'll do well to draw. Games at Man City, Liverpool etc will be write offs. However, we need to go up this season. If we don't I fear we'll be the next Leeds and be down here for years.

[AsTallAsLions]

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.

You had so many cautionary tales/examples of clubs to compare us to in order to support your point, and chose the one club who went up and won the fecking Premier League after 2 seasons back in the top flight!

[ironmaidenmania]

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.

You had so many cautionary tales/examples of clubs to compare us to in order to support your point, and chose the one club who went up and won the fecking Premier League after 2 seasons back in the top flight!

True but I was talking about them during the 90/00 when they didn't have the new stadium nor financial backing.

[dave.woodhall]

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.

You had so many cautionary tales/examples of clubs to compare us to in order to support your point, and chose the one club who went up and won the fecking Premier League after 2 seasons back in the top flight!

True but I was talking about them during the 90/00 when they didn't have the new stadium nor financial backing.

Remind me how much debt they wrote off when they went into administration then.

[SoccerHQ]

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.

We'll probably find that more out next season if we don't go up.

[SoccerHQ]

I get what some are saying, every game down here is winnable, home or away. If we go up, even games like Watford and Bournemouth away will be difficult and we'll do well to draw. Games at Man City, Liverpool etc will be write offs. However, we need to go up this season. If we don't I fear we'll be the next Leeds and be down here for years.

That's being a bit OTT I think (the Watford and Bournemouth bit). Premier league nowadays pretty rubbish below the obvious top 6 (with Burnley being a honourable expection).

Anyone below 7th struggles to get to even 50 points. Everton have had an o.k run under Big Sam (still not won many away games) and they've gone from just outside the relegation zone to eighth.

We would need a good transfer campaign but if we did we'd be comfortable as Brighton, Huddersfield and Newcastle have generally been.

A club like us needed to get relegated to sort out our problems. We've slowly but surely done that.

I want us to go up just to see what the Xia plans and backing would be. Difficult to see how we could execute his announcements on arrival with us being a year in year out championship club.

[Ad@m]

A club like us needed to get relegated to sort out our problems. We've slowly but surely done that.

I'm not so sure.  Most of our best performers are loanees - what happens when they all disappear?  The fundamental structure of the club, whilst undoubtedly better than it was, still seems to be built on a degree of quicksand.

[SoccerHQ]

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.

You had so many cautionary tales/examples of clubs to compare us to in order to support your point, and chose the one club who went up and won the fecking Premier League after 2 seasons back in the top flight!

True but I was talking about them during the 90/00 when they didn't have the new stadium nor financial backing.

They came up under MON in the 90s and were regular top half (and also a team we could never beat).

You must mean 2002,2003, 2004 when they were relegated, promoted and relegated again but they were about to move into the new stadium which impacted on their spending powers back then.

They'd be a proper buzz back being in the premier league again, we'd shift a whole load of season tickets I reckon particularly if we signed some exciting international players.

Of course the reality might be different once it all kicks off as we saw from August 2015!

[SoccerHQ]

A club like us needed to get relegated to sort out our problems. We've slowly but surely done that.

I'm not so sure.  Most of our best performers are loanees - what happens when they all disappear?  The fundamental structure of the club, whilst undoubtedly better than it was, still seems to be built on a degree of quicksand.

SB knows this season is his one chance to get us up so he's gone short term.

I think if we went up we'd have likes of Snodgrass, Adomah, Hourihane etc as squad players and hopefully make 3-4 signings to raise the quality level.

It wouldn't be different to say Newcastle going up and still having the likes of Diame, Matt Ritchie, Yedlin as regular starters or Brighton having Knockeart, Stephens as first choices.

Of course we then come back to the quality of the manager....

[amfy]

A club like us needed to get relegated to sort out our problems. We've slowly but surely done that.

I'm not so sure.  Most of our best performers are loanees - what happens when they all disappear?  The fundamental structure of the club, whilst undoubtedly better than it was, still seems to be built on a degree of quicksand.

If we go up we are keeping the loanees. Its only of we stay down thay the likes of Snodgrass & Johnstone have to go.

Rather than quicksand, that is financial.planning to have quality players who we aren't stuck with on contracts we can't afford if we stay down.

[Ad@m]

A club like us needed to get relegated to sort out our problems. We've slowly but surely done that.

I'm not so sure.  Most of our best performers are loanees - what happens when they all disappear?  The fundamental structure of the club, whilst undoubtedly better than it was, still seems to be built on a degree of quicksand.

If we go up we are keeping the loanees. Its only of we stay down thay the likes of Snodgrass & Johnstone have to go.

Rather than quicksand, that is financial.planning to have quality players who we aren't stuck with on contracts we can't afford if we stay down.

I get that, but it hasn't really sorted out our problems.  If we don't go up, we'll lose our best players, and as a result of the huge drop in parachute payments we'll have nothing to replace them with.

Bruce has helped to address the slide we were on (Sunderland was us in an alternate reality!) but we're a long way away from having sorted out our problems.

[sirlordbaltimore]

I'm puzzled as to why so many think we would struggle if/when we return to the Premiership. Take out the top six and you are left with 14 clubs trying to stay up and as only 3 clubs are relegated, that leaves a rump of crap we should easily be able to hold our own against.

Purely down to our squad

Goalkeepers :

We don't own any that are good enough. So we'd be looking to spend a fair bit on Johnstone (if available) but WE still have no decent back up to him.

Defence :

Chester - Good enough
Terry - Not premier league quality anymore
Hutton - hopefully be gone but nowhere near premier league quality
Taylor - Possibly good enough to be a back up
Bree - No idea, hasn't played enough for anyone to know if he's premier league quality
Elmo - Possibly good enough to be a back up
Samba/Richards/Elphick - HAHAHA
De Laet - Possibly good enough to be a back up, very hard to know

Midfield :

Whelan/Jedinak - Not premier league quality anymore
Hourihane/Bjarnason/Lansbury - Possibly good enough squad players
Grealish/Green - I reckon both could cut it
Adomah - Not sure he'd be a starter
Snodgrass - Not ours of course, dubious he's PL quality anyway

Strikers :

Davis - Unknown, could raise his game to PL level, could not
Kodjia - Unknown, could raise his game to PL level, could not
Hogan - Unknown, could raise his game to PL level, could not
Gabby - Bye!
McCormack - Not good enough
Grabban - Not ours, possibly could be useful in the PL
RHM - Unknown, could raise his game to PL level, could not

All IMHO of course

The amount of players and money we'd need to compete if promoted is quite scary

If we're still in the Championship then we MUST blood some of our own next season. We HAVE to see if they're good enough

[SoccerHQ]

Snodgrass was great for Hull in the prem just over a year ago, scored plenty of good goals.

Largely agree with the rest.

[Simon Page]

If we go up we are in a different ball park. The money and players available to Premier League Villa dwarfs what we have now. Pretty much every side that's been promoted this century has been in our position, but very few have had our draw. The right manager buying sensibly will see us alright. A shit or bust dodgy transfer policy will see us come down. But with football as it is, all bar the super rich have the same problem of keeping their half-decent players and making sure they have a bit more than three out of 14. The really good players in any of those 14 will be cherry-picked, then the 14 just shuffle the lower cards between themselves. It's why football's shit, but it's also why we have as much chance of finishing 7th as we do 20th.

[brontebilly]

Hutton is better than all other full backs mentioned above,  so we would certainly need two new ones.

The likes of Davis, O'Hare, RHM and Green would need extended loans away before being considered up to the level. The latter two have missed a lot of football already through injury.