The competition for the 23/24 season

[Sparkle]

1 hour ago, jimtastic56 said:

It’s been a very poor quality Championship division this season , and 3 of them going up with no money and likely to come straight back down with owners helping themselves. But three decent size clubs coming down from the Prem it will be a much better Championship.It’s hard to know how we will go on until we see some recruitment. But League one looks to be a weaker league 23/24.

All true - I can’t see Sheffield United spending hardly anything and similar with Burnley and there’s no chance with Coventry or Luton as they will fill their boots with the cash and not worry about being 20th - Forest will find it very hard to get relegated next season 😞

in league one we will have either Sheffield Wednesday or Barnsley to contend with plus a steady Bolton, Wigan are shooting themselves in the foot again and Reading should be trying to get rid of their high earners but they might have enough for a challenger status 

The championship May well be the best competition next season - until the points start being deducted as next season lots of clubs are in a spot of bother financially/ FFP

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

3 hours ago, Sparkle said:

All true - I can’t see Sheffield United spending hardly anything and similar with Burnley and there’s no chance with Coventry or Luton as they will fill their boots with the cash and not worry about being 20th - Forest will find it very hard to get relegated next season 😞

in league one we will have either Sheffield Wednesday or Barnsley to contend with plus a steady Bolton, Wigan are shooting themselves in the foot again and Reading should be trying to get rid of their high earners but they might have enough for a challenger status 

The championship May well be the best competition next season - until the points start being deducted as next season lots of clubs are in a spot of bother financially/ FFP

I wonder who will be in trouble with FFP though. One can only hope that Middlesboro aren’t amongst them as that would be a real crying shame. 

[ilkleyram]

9 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

I’m impatient, sorry. I’ve now been to Fleetwood - it wasn’t on my bucket list - and the novelty has worn off. And I have no desire to go to Stevenage because tho I have no idea what style of football they play I think I’ll find it even more tiresome than driving on the A1. 
 

I can’t remember exactly what words were used, but I wonder whether Clowes’ squidgy statement was off the cuff or premeditated. I’d say it’s purely an exercise in managing the expectations of the fan base, and it enables us to fail to get promotion soon and not regard it as what it is: failure. We should not be in this division and going to quaint grounds to sit in crickety stands to watch indifferent footie on a bad pitch in a cold wind loses its appeal quite quickly. MORE TO THE POINT, if we fail to get promotion soon, we risk being seen as a div 1 club by all and sundry, and we ourselves risk falling into that state of mind, and it is a state of mind that will keep us there. We lose our best players (bye bye Jason, Eiran) and we find it harder and harder to recruit anything but clodhoppers.

(It’s particularly irritating at the same time to see our noisy neighbours cling on in the PL - there is a prospect they may be there as long as we could be in div 1)

So putting aside whether Warne was the right choice - I think he’s just about OK, no more - imo the length of his contract was bat$hit crazy. 
 

So yes, Mr Clowes’ statement can be interpreted in different ways - that was his intention. But I wish he’d settled on a manager who would take a 3 year appointment and had said, in words of one syllable: our goal is to be back up in three (3) years

 

I don’t think any of us want to stay in this division particularly so no need to apologise for thinking that way. Having said that I enjoyed last season and I’ll more than likely enjoy the one coming too. There haven’t been too many over the last 60 years that I haven’t enjoyed.

But we are, whether we like it or not, a league 1 club and we will be for a least a season yet.  Other clubs with equal history, with good support have been in this division for several seasons - ipswich, Sunderland, leeds, the neighbours, Bolton, Wednesday if they lose at wembley, to name but a few.  All those are making their way back and so therefore can we. And prospective players will see that as well as the facilities and the crowd. We’ll be an attractive employer.  But current players will go just as they’ve always done. It’s the nature of the beast.
 It’s the reason I think a 4 year contract for Warne and team was right - it was a Clowes message saying this will take time. It might also have been all Warne would accept and Clowes wanted him enough, but none of us know that. It was also the message you wanted, effectively. He was appointed part the way through the season with the aim of getting us established in the championship. If we’d gone up this year we would have been slightly ahead of schedule. Go up in the next two seasons and we’re on schedule.

[kevinhectoring]

14 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

 It’s the reason I think a 4 year contract for Warne and team was right - it was a Clowes message saying this will take time. 

don't follow your logic. Nor do I understand why anyone would say it will take time when we might well have gone up this year if a red card or so had fallen differently 

Sooner the better   don't know how that can be debatable 

[ilkleyram]

5 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

don't follow your logic. Nor do I understand why anyone would say it will take time when we might well have gone up this year if a red card or so had fallen differently 

Sooner the better   don't know how that can be debatable 

I’m not sure I follow your logic either. Every season for every club since I first watched footy could have been different were it not for a ref decision here or there or a save or a missed open goal. Twas ever thus and ever will be.

The plain fact is that we weren’t good enough to go up this year. We challenged but fell short. The proof lies in the table. Lots of reasons for that chief amongst them in my view - you may not agree - the effects of the financial and disciplinary issues we’ve faced. Our club has been decimated from the academy upwards and Clowes, rightly i think, decided after his internal review that the issues on and off the pitch needed time to fix, thus the 4 year contract for his chosen manager and the 5 years to get established in the championship goal.  They go hand in hand.

I suspect that he runs his, very successful, business in the same way. Building (excuse the pun) it over time. He’s not the type, it seems to me (and I’ve never met him) to chuck a load of money at something for instant success, rather he wants to build a club on firmer foundations over time, thus 4 years and 5 years. Logical. And, in my view, sensible, especially given what went before him. But demanding patience from those of us that watch. If we go up next year then great; if it’s the year after then not as good but so be it.

[Ghost of Clough]

Realistically, we should be competing with the loser out of Barnsley and Sheff Weds for the title next season.

Bolton and Peterborough aren't anything special. I can't see them improving by 15 points.
Portsmouth, Wycombe and Charlton were too far off the pace last season and they would have to invest a lot to make up the ground.
Wigan will be in freefall. Who knows how many more points they'll be deducted, and they'll struggle to sign anyone with how things are there.
Reading have their P&S issues. Still no manager. Some of their fans are actually tipping them for relegation. I'd be surprised if they can't pull together a squad good enough for the playoffs.
Blackpool are stable now, so could pose the next biggest threat, but still have a much smaller budget than us.

[Caerphilly Ram]

25 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Realistically, we should be competing with the loser out of Barnsley and Sheff Weds for the title next season.

Bolton and Peterborough aren't anything special. I can't see them improving by 15 points.
Portsmouth, Wycombe and Charlton were too far off the pace last season and they would have to invest a lot to make up the ground.
Wigan will be in freefall. Who knows how many more points they'll be deducted, and they'll struggle to sign anyone with how things are there.
Reading have their P&S issues. Still no manager. Some of their fans are actually tipping them for relegation. I'd be surprised if they can't pull together a squad good enough for the playoffs.
Blackpool are stable now, so could pose the next biggest threat, but still have a much smaller budget than us.

Wigan to start on -8 points next season

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/wigan-athletic-efl-statement/

Edited May 26, 2023 by Caerphilly Ram
Added link to EFL statement

[Ghost of Clough]

6 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Wigan to start on -8 points next season

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/wigan-athletic-efl-statement/

That's if they don't get any more deductions before the season starts... Still 2 or 3 more pay days to go.

[ram59]

According to the local Portsmouth rag, their manager thinks that players will prefer to play at Fratton Park in front of 18,000 to 20,000 crowds every other week.

[Premier ram]

12 hours ago, ram59 said:

According to the local Portsmouth rag, their manager thinks that players will prefer to play at Fratton Park in front of 18,000 to 20,000 crowds every other week.

 

 

                                   

[Caerphilly Ram]

Portsmouth having a big squad refresh this summer. Regan Poole was one I hoped we’d be in for, offset now by the signings of Wilson and Ward I’m not upset we missed out on him but the noise seemed to be he’d end up in the championship and he now could prove to be a very solid addition for a divisional rival. 

Good luck to them in their pursuit of second place….of course finishing behind the mighty Rams 🐏 

[Carnero]

4 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Portsmouth having a big squad refresh this summer. Regan Poole was one I hoped we’d be in for, offset now by the signings of Wilson and Ward I’m not upset we missed out on him but the noise seemed to be he’d end up in the championship and he now could prove to be a very solid addition for a divisional rival. 

Good luck to them in their pursuit of second place….of course finishing behind the mighty Rams 🐏 

Poor Bolton fans seem to be having a bit of a meltdown after missing out on Kane Wilson, and now Pompey getting Poole + Dabo set for Charlton.

Apparently they should just hand us the league now 🤣... if only it were that easy!

Bolton, Portsmouth, Barnsley, Peterborough, Charlton, not to mention any wildcards (Oxford?) and the relegated Championship clubs.. there'll still be plenty of tough competition this season even if we are rightly feeling confident.

[Caerphilly Ram]

4 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Poor Bolton fans seem to be having a bit of a meltdown after missing out on Kane Wilson, and now Pompey getting Poole + Dabo set for Charlton.

Apparently they should just hand us the league now 🤣... if only it were that easy!

Bolton, Portsmouth, Barnsley, Peterborough, Charlton, not to mention any wildcards (Oxford?) and the relegated Championship clubs.. there'll still be plenty of tough competition this season even if we are rightly feeling confident.

Agreed, I don’t prescribe to the idea some do that the league will be in any way “easy”. Theres clearly a difference in quality at this level, but there are still 46 games to be played against other teams scrapping for their own success, some of whom will represent a challenge, just got a quiet confidence we’ll be up there with the better teams come the end of the season. 

[Scott129]

I'm yet to be wowed by anyone else's transfer dealings tbh.

Portsmouth look like they've bought some decent players in. Peterborough, Burton, and Charlton have made one or two good moves as well.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Scott129

[Premier ram]

5 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Portsmouth having a big squad refresh this summer. Regan Poole was one I hoped we’d be in for, offset now by the signings of Wilson and Ward I’m not upset we missed out on him but the noise seemed to be he’d end up in the championship and he now could prove to be a very solid addition for a divisional rival. 

Good luck to them in their pursuit of second place….of course finishing behind the mighty Rams 🐏 

Agree mate think Pompey will be up there with us , Charlton are my dark horses