[Football] The Championship is Brilliant

[Nigella's Cream Pie]

Even worse if, like some clubs, the decline continues to League 1

Lot of excitement now at Sunderland, 46k there for Boxing Day game

 

[Weststander]

We were a strong Championship team for years, excepting the Hyppia season, which is why it was so frustrating. Even our promotion, we managed to throw away the league title.

The Albion team we have now is the best in my lifetime that's for sure. The quality of our defence - Ryan, Montoya, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo - is awe inspiring. Our midfield - Bissouma, Propper, Gross, Andone - even if some of them aren't having a great season, it is a priviledge to see such quality players wear the stripes.

If we get relegated, it would be a struggle to keep most of them. We would have to go back to signing what seem to be decent second tier players, or fringe top division players from here and abroad - hoping that we create the right formula to somehow grind ourselves to the top... again.

I'd take what we have now 100 times out of 100 - a team full of top quality players, playing against the best in the world... maybe not winning most games, but improving season upon season, until eventually we exceed expectations and make it to Wembley or even Europe.

I’m desparate for us to stay up, to get another £100m slug to further build the squad, to see what CH can do with better players, and so that TB doesn’t have to keep putting his hands in his pockets.

But I get no excitement as an Albion fan from watching Hazard and Willian take us apart. Albion fans that do are strange.

Should we go down, I won’t cry and will look forward to other positives. Life and health is precious, football isn’t on a par with that.

 

[Acker79]

There are many, many good things about the Championship and I won't shed a tear if we go down, so long as we keep Hughton who I think would get us back up again within two seasons.

However, that's not a view that chimes well with the owner's bank balance or the long term ambition of the club (or its facilities for that matter). We need to be PL, though as [MENTION=21158]Weststander[/MENTION] correctly points out, that's far from a God given right.

I think that pretty much sums it up for me. I would like us to stay in the premier league, but am not scared by the potential for relegation. Relegation would definitely be a blow to the business side of the club, but it isn't an all encompassing disaster (where we go in the seasons following that relegation, though...).

 

[BBassic]

I’m desparate for us to stay up, to get another £100m slug to further build the squad, to see what CH can do with better players, and so that TB doesn’t have to keep putting his hands in his pockets.

But I get no excitement as an Albion fan from watching Hazard and Willian take us apart. Albion fans that do are strange.

Should we go down, I won’t cry and will look forward to other positives. Life and health is precious, football isn’t on a par with that.

With you 100% on this.

Mates of mine have said "oh it's amazing watching players like Hazard / Salah etc etc play"

No, no it's not because invariably they're making us look like toilet. F**k 'em.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Not so brilliant losing £500k per week to be competitive. Funded in season 1 by Dunk sale, of course.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Paris]

From Jan 15 to April 17, I witnessed so many home wins, countless goals, brilliant counter attacking football, the destruction of teams such as Derby, Leeds and Norwich. Thank you CH.

My favourite time to be an Albion fan, along with Mullery up to May 79.

Great memories.

Agree.

Edit: I think the Norwich 5-0 mauling was pre-Christmas.

 

[Weststander]

With you 100% on this.

Mates of mine have said "oh it's amazing watching players like Hazard / Salah etc etc play"

No, no it's not because invariably they're making us look like toilet. F**k 'em.

Some NSC’ers think it’s just LFC or Chelsea visiting. I saw the Leicester coach arrive, with Albion fans screaming for Vardy, holding out programmes for autographs. Grown men and women.

We did the Amex stadium tour in January, when most people in our tour group admitted a thing for Arsenal, with a mad dash for free Arsenal programmes above those for all other opponents.

Perhaps the definition of a big club, is a fanbase not licking other clubs star players?

 

[Mellotron]

Villa have won 1 game in their last 10, a scrappy 2-1 home win against rock bottom Ipswich, so I'm not so sure they're 'utter flair' at all.

Uh oh. Do we need [MENTION=1349]turienzo's lovechild[/MENTION] for a crash course on the definition of flair? Reminder - it's nothing to do with how successful you are.

 

[Weststander]

Agree.

Edit: I think the Norwich 5-0 mauling was pre-Christmas.

Wrong Xmas, Hyppia doesn’t get the credit for that one

 

[AmexRuislip]

Always said the "best league in the World" nonsense that Sky perpetuate about the Premier League, in actually far more justifiable when talking about The Championship, which is regularly an absolutely fantastic League to watch and follow.

I do miss the atmosphere and drama of the Championship, it seems so real compared to the botox ridden falseness of the PL.
But the Albion have made it to the Billy bollox big boys league now, so let's stay there.......

 

[AmexRuislip]

This is real

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

From Jan 15 to April 17, I witnessed so many home wins, countless goals, brilliant counter attacking football, the destruction of teams such as Derby, Leeds and Norwich. Thank you CH.

My favourite time to be an Albion fan, along with Mullery up to May 79.

Great memories.

I am probably of a similar age to you, and I would concur, both the Mullery team's and the Hughton team's football was imo the pinnacle of near to 50 years of supporting the club.

 

[Weststander]

Not so brilliant losing £500k per week to be competitive. Funded in season 1 by Dunk sale, of course.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Huge parachute payments in season 1, etc.

 

[Arthur]

The other Saturday I'd been away for business and got back to mine about 4ish so it would have been a faff to get down for the Burnley game so I gave it a swerve and watched it telly. When I got in I stuck my IPTV on which has all the 3pm games in the prem and quite a few in the championship. I started watching Palace West Ham which was pretty dull, so gave Liverpool Bournemouth a go just as they went 3 up so gave Southampton Cardiff a go. I was keeping my eye on the scores and I noticed that QPR had been 4 down and got it back to 3-4 against Birmingham, so I switched over to watch the last 10 of that. It was being shown on something called QPR+. It appears they offer live streams for folk for most games (not on TV). Guessing due to licensing laws we couldn't do similar in the prem?

Its £45 for 12 months which seems pretty decent.

https://www.qpr.co.uk/news/club-news/whats-available-on-qpr-plus-in-february/

 

[SUA Seagull]

This is real

Thanks for that memory AR. I haven't seen Poco's wonder goal vs QPR from that angle before.

That is one of my favourite Albion moments of all time and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I see it. I remember every moment of that experience and it will live with me forever.

I was right behind the goal with my son and when Poco scored it was joyous pandemonium amongst the Albion fans, man hugs all round, and we knew - we all knew - that we really were "on our way".

I love the PL and the way we've held our own and not been put to the sword as many predicted we might. I also recognise that TB fully deserves his financial reward after all he's done for the club.

But a little bit of me undeniably misses the combative spirit of the Championship and the fact that a play off place is often within grasp of 10 or so clubs until quite late in the campaign, which gives the fans hope that "this might be our season". That's so very different from the "Sky 6" versus the rest in the PL.

We're in the fantastic position of being in the PL with our fallback being the Championship should we ever lose our PL status (which I don't think we will this season). I'm very pleased with that and long may it continue.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Thanks for that memory AR. I haven't seen Poco's wonder goal vs QPR from that angle before.

That is one of my favourite Albion moments of all time and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I see it. I remember every moment of that experience and it will live with me forever.

I was right behind the goal with my son and when Poco scored it was joyous pandemonium amongst the Albion fans, man hugs all round, and we knew - we all knew - that we really were "on our way".

I love the PL and the way we've held our own and not been put to the sword as many predicted we might. I also recognise that TB fully deserves his financial reward after all he's done for the club.

But a little bit of me undeniably misses the combative spirit of the Championship and the fact that a play off place is often within grasp of 10 or so clubs until quite late in the campaign, which gives the fans hope that "this might be our season". That's so very different from the "Sky 6" versus the rest in the PL.

We're in the fantastic position of being in the PL with our fallback being the Championship should we ever lose our PL status (which I don't think we will this season). I'm very pleased with that and long may it continue.

Was a great night for all.
We were up in the restricted view section of the away fans enclosure.
Saw the run up, then that awkward silence, then absolute joy.
My QPR mate was three rows back from the bald chav in video

 

[nwgull]

Not so brilliant losing £500k per week to be competitive. Funded in season 1 by Dunk sale, of course.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Huge parachute payments in season 1, etc.

Fag packet calcs:

Income in 16/17 and 17/18 were approx 30m and 140m, so 110m difference.

Parachute payment in season 1 makes up for 45m of that, and assuming a 20% salary cut from relegation clauses that would be another £15m, meaning profits down by 50m.

Account for 12m profit made last year, this gives a loss of 38m. So we'd probably have to sell Lewis Dunk plus one other to break even. There may be players that have release clauses, in which case I'd be confident that Barber has set the trigger fee fairly high, so the recruitment team would certainly have options to replace.

@elpresident will probably come along and give reasons why my fag packet calcs are a load of crap now.

 

[nwgull]

Thanks for that memory AR. I haven't seen Poco's wonder goal vs QPR from that angle before.

That is one of my favourite Albion moments of all time and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I see it. I remember every moment of that experience and it will live with me forever.

I was right behind the goal with my son and when Poco scored it was joyous pandemonium amongst the Albion fans, man hugs all round, and we knew - we all knew - that we really were "on our way".

I love the PL and the way we've held our own and not been put to the sword as many predicted we might. I also recognise that TB fully deserves his financial reward after all he's done for the club.

But a little bit of me undeniably misses the combative spirit of the Championship and the fact that a play off place is often within grasp of 10 or so clubs until quite late in the campaign, which gives the fans hope that "this might be our season". That's so very different from the "Sky 6" versus the rest in the PL.

We're in the fantastic position of being in the PL with our fallback being the Championship should we ever lose our PL status (which I don't think we will this season). I'm very pleased with that and long may it continue.

I was in the lower tier, half way back adjacent to the corner of the six yard box and it's my favourite ever memory too. My shins still get sore at the thought of the mental celebrations behind that goal as Poco's shot went in.

 

[Simster]

This is real

"Hurry up!!!"
"Boooooooo!"
.
.
.
.
THRIKE
*huge celebrations* "WE ARE GOING UP" etc etc


Lovely stuff.

 

[Weststander]

Fag packet calcs:

Income in 16/17 and 17/18 were approx 30m and 140m, so 110m difference.

Parachute payment in season 1 makes up for 45m of that, and assuming a 20% salary cut from relegation clauses that would be another £15m, meaning profits down by 50m.

Account for 12m profit made last year, this gives a loss of 38m. So we'd probably have to sell Lewis Dunk plus one other to break even. There may be players that have release clauses, in which case I'd be confident that Barber has set the trigger fee fairly high, so the recruitment team would certainly have options to replace.

@elpresident will probably come along and give reasons why my fag packet calcs are a load of crap now.

Excluding an ad hoc post promotion costs, we made a loss of £30m in 2016/17.

Shirley £45m of parachute money plus the sale of Dunk would prevent a “£38m loss” in 2019/20 if we dropped.
[MENTION=31]El Presidente[/MENTION]’s input would be great as you say.

A benchmark might be the post relegation season accounts for sensible clubs such as Burnley and Norwich. Very similar to BHAFC in not buying a load of internationals like Wolves and Fulham on big wages.