[Albion] Does anyone want to go down to The Championship?

[southstandandy]

No - but if we do then we do. I'll support the club whatever division we are in. It would be sad to drop after the efforts over a number of years to get up but it did seem to me last night that the players had one eye on Saturday's game at Wembley. Hopefully when the weekend is over the lads will knuckle down and get the 3 wins we need to stay up and just surpass last seasons points tally.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

If it means people start singing the proper version of GOSBTS again then yes

You are probably fishing but we were singing the 'proper' version in the championship.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Probably get to more games in the championship or lower but not sure how we can sustain losses of 20 to 30 million each season? BEST STAY UPI SUPPOSE

 

[chaileyjem]

Curious really. Looks like us and cardiff are main contenders for the dreaded drop. !!

Burnley have fewer games to go, shorter odds and a tougher run in.

 

[Falmerfourtickets]

Our bank balance might a little bit.
£20 at 40/1 last December
£25 at 33/1 last Friday
Rather cash out for a few quid and maintain Premier League status though.

 

[chaileyjem]

. There seems to be little aspiration. .

So the £30 or so million (with more to come) on the academy and training facilities, the stadium, hiring the most sought after director of football in the country, the millions spent on new players, the cup run, paying for (whether you like it or not) the most sought after executive in the Prem, and Bloom literally taking them from Withdean to Wembley shows er, no aspiration. ?

(You can believe all that which thankfully most fans do AND still be frustrated /pissed off about Saturday/last night but to be blind to the clubs aspiration under Bloom in the last 10 years is ridiculous. )

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Perhaps it would herald Mr Barber leaving and the ridiculous Flask and bottle top bans will be overturned.

 

[chaileyjem]

You're right, just a shame the football seems to have regressed this season despite the millions spent. That is the worrying thing for me

Was last season that different in terms of football. ? I’m struggling with this view that it was vastly different - when exactly was all those games where we and it was some high watermark ? We won the same amount of games (9) and ideally will win a few more this year, but lost a lot of miserable ones, a lot. Remember West Brom away ? Leicester at home ? And Chelsea/Liverpool at home ? Murray’s goals kept us up and at least this year we beat Palace twice, a cup semi final , And Man Utd again.

Of course get back to me in a few weeks if we lose the last 7 and Cardiff nick it.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Pretty sure that 'dipping back into the championship for a bit' doesn't form part of TB's masterplan.

 

[Bladders]

Was last season that different in terms of football. ? I’m struggling with this view that it was vastly different - when exactly was all those games where we and it was some high watermark ? We won the same amount of games (9) and ideally will win a few more this year, but lost a lot of miserable ones, a lot. Remember West Brom away ? Leicester at home ? And Chelsea/Liverpool at home ? Murray’s goals kept us up and at least this year we beat Palace twice, a cup semi final , And Man Utd again.

Of course get back to me in a few weeks if we lose the last 7 and Cardiff nick it.

Yes there was a lot a rubbish last season too but I do believe the football this latter half of the season is the dullest by far .


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[LVGull]

Burnley have fewer games to go, shorter odds and a tougher run in.

If Burnley do not get anything from their next toe games, they are going down. Cardiff still have three wins in them I think. We need four points.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Most of my watching BHA has been in the lower divisions it's nice to have an excursion into the top but all I want is to do is bowl up and see some attacking football with a bit of flair and some guts. I don't care what division it's in. I understand TB's position might vary from mine!

 

[Klaas]

Already said no doubt, but I don't want to go down. However, if we were relegated I'd probably be more excited for the upcoming season come August in the Championship.

 

[darkwolf666]

I’ve said it it on here before, I cannot stand PL football. The championship is much better and we are a Championship team.
Nobody wants the actual relegation but the Championship is better and it’s where we fit. Financially it would be a worry though.

Why? Why is the Championship where we fit, is it because the belief is we will never be a top 6 side? To be honest, if you take away the obvious teams then no-one "fits" the Premier League - we are all also rans to the big money boys whose bench often contains more talent and value than our whole team!

Does that mean we shouldn't aspire to more - if not, then we might as well have let the big boys have their way with no promotion or relegation from the Premier League - how sad would that day be?

Make the most of it, wherever we are, don't wish for negatives, as you never know where that will end up - you only have to look at the likes of Coventry and Bolton to see how badly things can go wrong once you drop out of the top flight, or at least stop aspiring to be in it!

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I did not want to come up as I thought the Premiership money was ruining the game and I thought we would be in Cardiff's position for the two years.

I have loved it, the players we have signed, the AMEX alive every game and loads of new young fans getting to enjoy what I had when I was younger.

Chris has kept us out of the bottom three for all but all of two seasons, and against the quality and expensive squads of our opponents. while we establish ourselves, it is a fantastic achievement.

So I do not now want to go down, however, Tony has spent multi million pounds investing in an U23 academy that is probably only bettered by the top six in the Premiership.

So with some sales we would be left with a young and competitive squad that would be able to play more attacking football in a more even league. So that would be the main benefit for me, seeing the development of players .

 

[Rugrat]

Only financially, shame there is such a massive difference between the leagues in terms of income. If there wasn't then i'd expect more attacking football from relegation battling teams because they knew that should they drop, the impact isn't as drastic as it is with whats at stake nowadays.

Sadly most teams have to play the percentages game, and that means more negative football, especially against a top 6 side in order to try to preserve their top flight status

Championship clubs wouldn't have to gamble as much (or at least the financial incentive wouldn't be as great) if the incomes were much, much closer to that of the PL (but it will never happen)

The answer for me is that the top 6 quickly bugger off to their Euro League. Yes they would take a bunch of TV money (more than 50% I imagine) but there will still be enough splosshing around to create a good, competitive PL1 and PL2 (because the differentiation between the two would be negligible). The threat of relegation/prize of promotion wouldn't have such a massive financial impact, wages would align with revenue, clubs could manage their finances much better and the product would be a whole lot more satisfying.

 

[swindonseagull]

So testing ourselves against some of the best players in the world in one of the top leagues in the world, where the owner doesn't have to continually pump in millions of his own money every season to keep the club alive isn't something we should want because we have gone from being a top team in a lower league to a smaller team in a higher league and therefore some are disappointed we are unable to match teams like Chelsea and alike, teams who have had billions invested in them and have had multiple years in the division, with the wealth to invest that it brings, allowing them to evolve

Some would seemingly prefer us to go down to a division where clubs with massive debts (like we have) have ended up in serious financial trouble (Leeds, Bolton, Sunderland, Wolves, Southampton, and others) and whose to say that we don't do what several other clubs have done, and suffer relegation to League 1, like Wolves, Sunderland, and many others.

A lot of clubs have had to yo-yo between the Championship and PL in order to build to try to get to a stage where they can stay in the division, and even then many have gone down and are currently in the Championship despite investing far more than we have in players.

The league we are in is very difficult for most teams, getting promotion to that league from the Championship is very difficult. Those who want us back there seemingly value their own entertainment needs from our games higher than the desire for the club to be as successful as possible and battling out against the very best in the highest domestic division we can reach.

It's like they want us to give up because it's too hard and therefore not enough fun. It's like they seem to think that the opposition standard in the PL should be the same as the standard of the Championship and therefore it's our tactics that mean we are unable to produce the same exciting football we had in the Championship, and that a change of manager would somehow restore that attacking prowess. They seemingly can't see things what what they actually are.

We may get relegated at some point in the future, we may not,but all the time we are hanging in there, it raises our profile, making it more likely we can sign better players, we can continue to evolve the team and try to turn ourselves into a side looking like achieving a top half finish and surviving with relative comfort.

Most teams are not safe in this division, and one bad season can see most teams fighting against relegation regardless of how good their previous season(s) have been showing how hard it is to become established. (Burnley qualify for Europe last season and are in a relegation battle this)

100% Agree

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I would enjoy watching us compete on a level field again. Getting spanked by teams backed by multibillionaires and middle eastern countries doesn’t seem entirely fair.

On the flip side Palace would love us getting the drop.

 

[Brovion]

I don’t want us to go down, but I’ll really enjoy it whenever we inevitably do.

Hmmm. Will you? I know it was great fun last time: little Brighton mixing it with the big boys like Leeds, Forest, Villa, Wednesday, Derby etc - but that's because it was all shiny and new. This time we'll be treading a well-trodden path, and with hightened sense of expectation. We will expect to win every game (yes we will), as after all we used to be a Prem team, and when we inevitably don't the mood will turn ugly - which despite the fact we're deep in the relegation shit it hasn't done yet. I don't think 'enjoy' is going to be quite the right word.

 

[doogie004]

Not doing too badly are we really.

Southampton was disappointing but that's football.

2 wins out of Bournmouth, Cardiff and Newcastle and we are set, jobs a good un

I just can’t c us winning another game the way we play at the moment that’s the problem


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