I'll be honest, I forgot Stoke appointed Mark Robins. That makes me think they'll be alright. Only hope I have is they seem to be a bit of a poisoned chalice.
This league has become ridiculous since we got relegated before in 2016. It's a mini Premier league with some of these wage bills. Stoke spend 28k on one player alone. Some Serie A players are on those wages.
Mammoth task ahead, every game is going to be massive, can't bloody wait. Proper underdog season.
To stay up just would be good. But the club will need a big revamp of the squad, lets be honest our regular starting eleven will struggle in the Championship.
I think we are in a decent place to build from. Not many loans, few players under contract who won't step up/have the potential to step up to at least be squad players, relatively small squad and core of them good enough to see us through the transition to the league above.
We need a bit more quality in key areas particularly midfield and probably out wide and up top.
The key thing for me is we will need a much bigger squad. Last time out this is what killed our momentum. Great 11 no depth. Few injuries and we were playing Ben Dempsey in CM. I don't mind using the youth players but they should be there as a bonus if they do step up rather than relying on them as cover in losts of positions.
Stay up and keep building on the foundations we have in place over next few seasons. Happy to get back to our 'perceived natural level' of mid table/ competing at top half of championship in next few seasons after the reality of our actual deserved level the past few years in League One. Don't ever want to go back there.
Hopefully we can have patience with Joes and the owners the next few years and have realistic expectations. There is potential there when you look at what Palace, Brighton, Brentford and Fulham etc have done but a lot of things have to go right for it to crystalise so need to be pragmatic.
A few seasons of playing the Millwalls, Sheffields, Norwichs, Birminghams etc in the second tier will be welcome after the past 12 years of half empty grounds in league one will be more than welcome.
Want us to do enough this first season to comfortably not drop back down which is doable but will require substantial investment in the squad.
Really can't wait for next term and hopefully Wembley and Wycombe semis will get more bodies back at the Valley regularly as there's clearly enough of us out there to fill the ground regularly.
Feels like we're on the cusp of something very good and different from before when Cash pulled out of the club the summer we got promoted and the post 2019 covid and ownership turmoil.....great to see the current owners there Sunday and seemingly embracing it all and hopefully will cement their commitment into helping us continue the momentum of the past 18 months since Nathan Jones came in.
Another expectation would be our current owners can find another extremely wealthy owner to join their consortium so they can fund the large losses that will be necessary to keep us up.
Stolen from Reddit - an early look at our wage bill and incomes compared to other clubs' finance reports.
Wow! We’re going to have to increase our wages from £12m to £25m just to compete with other lower table teams. How do you become an established Championship side when most teams lose £20m a year. Saying that, If there’s a manager to get the best out of a cheaper squad it’s NJ.
Am I right in saying, Chalton only had one shot on target against them after the 23rd minute of the semi final first leg? If I am remembering that right, that is absolutely phenomenal…exceptional.
Orient has a shot on target yesterday. i don't remember it but the match stats i saw showed them with 1.
Also whilst they don't technically get counted as shots on target (which i think is stupid), Ramsay's brilliant two blocks v Wycombe denied them a certain goal in my opinion.
Comments
This league has become ridiculous since we got relegated before in 2016. It's a mini Premier league with some of these wage bills. Stoke spend 28k on one player alone. Some Serie A players are on those wages.
Mammoth task ahead, every game is going to be massive, can't bloody wait. Proper underdog season.
He doesn't want the expectations next season to just be about staying up. He wants more than that and a more competitive attitude for bigger things.
That mindset is healthy and it will help.
I love this squad, they play as a team and they work hard.
We need a bit more quality in key areas particularly midfield and probably out wide and up top.
The key thing for me is we will need a much bigger squad. Last time out this is what killed our momentum. Great 11 no depth. Few injuries and we were playing Ben Dempsey in CM. I don't mind using the youth players but they should be there as a bonus if they do step up rather than relying on them as cover in losts of positions.
Btw... you play cribbage?
Hopefully we can have patience with Joes and the owners the next few years and have realistic expectations. There is potential there when you look at what Palace, Brighton, Brentford and Fulham etc have done but a lot of things have to go right for it to crystalise so need to be pragmatic.
A few seasons of playing the Millwalls, Sheffields, Norwichs, Birminghams etc in the second tier will be welcome after the past 12 years of half empty grounds in league one will be more than welcome.
Want us to do enough this first season to comfortably not drop back down which is doable but will require substantial investment in the squad.
Really can't wait for next term and hopefully Wembley and Wycombe semis will get more bodies back at the Valley regularly as there's clearly enough of us out there to fill the ground regularly.
Feels like we're on the cusp of something very good and different from before when Cash pulled out of the club the summer we got promoted and the post 2019 covid and ownership turmoil.....great to see the current owners there Sunday and seemingly embracing it all and hopefully will cement their commitment into helping us continue the momentum of the past 18 months since Nathan Jones came in.
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Would settle for a similar start.
The other half of me remembers the fact that we nearly survived with Bonne, Leko and Williams as our main attacking options in 2019/20.
Get a few strong additions in and I think Jones can have us pushing for mid table.
Gutted seeing some of those late results. Didn't Birmingham score some scrappy deflected goal in the 93rd minute against us?