The play offs.

[Ayup]

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.

Can we have this in a sealed envelope please?

[adrenachrome]

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.

Can we have this in a sealed envelope please?

£30 Million according to Wiki.

Several millions to construction companies an many local enterprises fucked. They didn't even pay the Ambulance Service, if memory serves. ****s.

[dave.woodhall]

They had an arrangement whereby if they got promoted they'd pay back something like 70 per cent to creditors but if they stayed down it would be 10 per cent. The number of former Premier League clubs going into administration around then was disgraceful - as Walsall secretary Roy Whalley said, "We have to compete with clubs who get four times our crowds and break even yet they can just write off tens of millions."

What was particularly galling was that almost every club that went under owed money to St John's Ambulance, including most unforgivably Bradford. It wouldn't have hurt either them or Leicester to have made a donation from their recent windfalls.

[brian green]

A good friend of mine with a printing business lost his house to a bank due to Leicester City walking away from their debts.

[wittonwarrior]

They had an arrangement whereby if they got promoted they'd pay back something like 70 per cent to creditors but if they stayed down it would be 10 per cent. The number of former Premier League clubs going into administration aroune then was disgraceful - as Walsall secretary Roy Whalley said, "We have to compete with clubs who get four times our crowds and break even yet they can just write off tens of millions."

What was particularly galling was that almost every club that went under owed money to St John's Ambulance, including most unforgivably Bradford. It wouldn't have hurt either them or Leicester to have made a donation from their recent windfalls.

Don’t talk daft - football, morals and common sense don’t form a sentence and it only get worse as clubs chase their holy grails with foreign owners who don’t believe in mediocre state of affairs

[ChicagoLion]

that Football creditors get preferential treatment under the Insolvency Laws has never sat comfortably with me.
If they were treated the same as St Johns ambulance for example it might  force the Authorities to start cleaning up the game.

[ChicagoLion]

So it is the Saturday Tuesday Semis?

[Richard]

Yes Sat then Tues

I can still see Cardiff only drawing next week as Reading are battling relegation

[Ad@m]

Yes Sat then Tues

I can still see Cardiff only drawing next week as Reading are battling relegation

Reading are the worst team I've seen at Villa Park all season. Cardiff will win that at a canter. Fulhams chance of automatic went today.

[Jon Crofts]

Yes Sat then Tues

I can still see Cardiff only drawing next week as Reading are battling relegation

Reading are the worst team I've seen at Villa Park all season. Cardiff will win that at a canter. Fulhams chance of automatic went today.

It's all getting really interesting now, Fulham Derby is very hard to call and Fulham have never won a play off game I'm told?

Reading were play off finalists last year as well and arguably should have won the final, now they potentially face relegation. That's the Championship.

[Ad@m]

Having seen Derby today, Fulham should absolutely destroy them.

[garyshawsknee]

Play offs really are a lottery. If Fulham miss out on automatic, they could be deflated by the time the two leg games come around. It happened to Brighton two years ago,missed out on automatic promotion by a goal then lost in the two legs.

[SoccerHQ]

League games this season:

Fulham 1-1 Derby
Derby1-2 Fulham

Fulham will be favourites but if Derby can defend like they did today they have a shot.

Of course Rowett could always become a proper DVB by throwing the game v Barnsley and sending SHA down.

[PaulWinch again]

Realistically we should have been mentally preparing for the play offs for a while now.

[andyh]

Realistically we should have been mentally preparing for the play offs for a while now.

I think we have.