[Football] The Championship

[Lower West Stander]

JESUS......the negativity shown by some lately beggars belief. You really want Championship football? This is called being a Brighton supporter. By all means change your religion and go somewhere else if you want success. I posted elsewhere that we are in for the long haul. It's always going to be work in progress. Take the highs, which many of us did when we sitting pretty in 7th and dreaming of Europe and now take the lows. If you consider this being a low point then you were not around when the Goldstone was all but gone and our league status was also all but gone!

Get a life!

I'm not interested in what happened 25 years ago - I'm interested in what's happening at the moment.

As far as lows go, this is our worst run since 2006. I don't think we'll go down but I'm getting a bit bored with all the work in progress, TB knows what he's going stuff. Getting to where we are has been a massive achievement but wallowiing in this will not prepare us for the future.

The club have made some serious missteps this season, both on and off the pitch. I'm not going to blindly defend them just because they are my team. I think I'm right in saying we are the only promoted team from the Championship, never to have been relegated (apart from Brentford who only came up last year) and we need to make sure we preserve that. Relegation would be a massive step backwards - regardless of what the "I was at Priestfield" gang say.

 

[albionalbino]

No relegation for us this year.
If we don't pick up another point.... which we will, we've probably got enough already.

 

[pb21]

"Definitely far from safe ??"

We are in a shit run of form, but we are currently 150/1 to go down with the bookies. 3 (THREE) of those junk teams at the bottom would basically have to mount Champions League form, without us picking up another point to overhaul us. And they'll be taking points off each other. If you're still THAT convinced, then stick a fiver on us to go down, and get your next years ST paid for, plus plenty of beer tokens in with the bargain.

I mean christ.

You're fully right, and I wonder just how much of factor this is having on our recent form, are the players mentally on the beach?

 

[Live by the sea]

Being in the PL massively increased your global exposure - in the championship it makes barely any difference. Take for example the clubs Twitter account , when we first went up to the PL we had just under 240,000 followers , today we have 500,000 !

 

[Cheshire Cat]

What's peoples thought on the prospect of Championship football next season?

We are definitely far from safe and would be ultimate BHA to drop from outside europe hopefuls to relegation fodder.

Had some of our most enjoyable seasons and certainly home and away experiences in the Championship. Reduced amount of plastic non-fans in the amex home end. Sat & Tues fixtures in rapid fire succession. Anyone can and does beat anyone!

But how many years would it take to go back up (if ever)? No more MotD coverage and no more one sublime season that could land you in a euro place!

No.

 

[Bombardier]

No-one in this thread has said they "want" Championship football

Really?

 

[BBassic]

Really?

Yes, really.

 

[Withdean11]

It's funny, because the Championship is a better league.

- More competitive games
- You never know who is going to be top 6.
- More games for your season ticket. Better value.
- Much less virtue signaling and politics
- No VAR (yet)

But, when you're in it, you aim to get out of it. The most enjoyable part of it is chasing the PL dream.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Gorgeous day out

 

[nwgull]

We're not going down this year.

I do enjoy the Championship though so wouldn't mind if we did end up back there at some point.

PL journey much more fun than the destination for me.

I don't want us to get relegated but agree with all your three points:

- Firstly, relegation is very unlikely. If anyone is worried, stick a tenner on at 150s and it'll lessen the blow by paying for you Championship ST for the two seasons I reckon it'd take to bounce back (plus a few beers as well).

- The fun thing about the Championship is that the standard is still very good, but far more competitive. Even though he's not been our best player in the Amex era, Knockout in that season and a half in the Championship has easily been the player I've got most pleasure from watching.

- The two seasons where we finished 3rd and 2nd were the most exciting I can remember. The team having the realistic goal of actually winning something makes supporting a far more positive experience. Although bizarrely I enjoyed 15/16 more as it was such a surprise after the previous season. 16/17 got a bit tense towards the end knowing that FFP meant that this would probably be our last serious challenge for a few seasons.

 

[RandyWanger]

Too many midweek games from memory, I was often missing the last train home and having to spunk £40 on a taxi. I'd rather we stayed in the EPL, Potter get backed and we finally get this 'top 10 team' we've been promised.

 

[nwgull]

I'm not interested in what happened 25 years ago - I'm interested in what's happening at the moment.

As far as lows go, this is our worst run since 2006. I don't think we'll go down but I'm getting a bit bored with all the work in progress, TB knows what he's going stuff. Getting to where we are has been a massive achievement but wallowiing in this will not prepare us for the future.

The club have made some serious missteps this season, both on and off the pitch. I'm not going to blindly defend them just because they are my team. I think I'm right in saying we are the only promoted team from the Championship, never to have been relegated (apart from Brentford who only came up last year) and we need to make sure we preserve that. Relegation would be a massive step backwards - regardless of what the "I was at Priestfield" gang say.

Preparing for the future is one of the reasons we haven't made more improvements in the short term. We've spent something like 60-65m on transfers fees for young players this season (depending on which reported fee you believe), of which about 30m has been spent on players that we've loaned straight out. Could've paid big loan fees for one of Chelsea's young stars to go straight into our first 11, I suppose, but I'm more comfortable with giving our own players a chance rather than the short-term option where you have to give the player back at the end of the season.

 

[Hugo Rune]

No relegation for us this year.
If we don't pick up another point.... which we will, we've probably got enough already.

If we get lucky and score the sort of deflected goal spurs did first, we can hang in against most sides without being caught in the break and sneak a win.

 

[jamie (not that one)]

Not popular opinion, but I honestly wouldn't care if we were a yoyo team. Under the current model we've more or less hit as high as we are likely to go, nobody sane would like us to become a Saudi plaything and fighting for promotion in the Championship was more exciting than fighting for 17th. We can still continue to develop players for selling on but have a winning season every year or two instead of lower mid table purgatory.

Oddly enough, I had this exact conversation with a Stoke fan in the pub last night.

 

[jamie (not that one)]

Being in the PL massively increased your global exposure - in the championship it makes barely any difference. Take for example the clubs Twitter account , when we first went up to the PL we had just under 240,000 followers , today we have 500,000 !

Half of those asking where Percy is.

 

[Ravids]

"Definitely far from safe ??"

We are in a shit run of form, but we are currently 150/1 to go down with the bookies. 3 (THREE) of those junk teams at the bottom would basically have to mount Champions League form, without us picking up another point to overhaul us. And they'll be taking points off each other. If you're still THAT convinced, then stick a fiver on us to go down, and get your next years ST paid for, plus plenty of beer tokens in with the bargain.

I mean christ.

Yeah this - think our odds of going down are less than 1%, would take basically an unprecedented set of circumstances/results for it to happen. 150/1 is about right.

 

[The red pepper kid]

we wont go down !

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I’d rather watch competitive football where everyone can compete, top sides backed by heads of state with infinite resources are far too powerful now.

Every team outside the top is begging for a decent striker, Liverpool have stockpiled five, with their sixth choice likely to join Milan on a free in the summer. You look at the benches of City, Chelsea & Liverpool and it’s tilted far too much in their favour.

Realistically teams like us Southampton & Palace will be in our own mini league and competing for the heady heights of 12th but might get sucked into a relegation fight in the odd year.

Ultimately though the gap between Premier League & The Championship is widening and we should finish above every promoted side, now we’re established.

Our 33 points now must give us a 50% chance of safety based on today’s league table.

Having no VAR in the championship makes it appealing too.

I don’t want Brighton to go down, it’s not all about me and the club deserves top flight football. From a personal point of view though the Championship is a better league in terms of being competitive and would be far more enjoyable.

As you think that the Championship was a level playing field? definitely seems like a case of rose tinted glasses

There are always teams in there who are only realistically looking to survive in that division and know they can't really compete at the top (especially against teams with parachute payments)

I'm referring to teams like Burton when they were in there, ourselves when we were at Withdean (like when Coppell / McGhee were our managers) and most other clubs that are financially unable to compete as they aren't being funded by a rich owner or by parachute payments

Losses trying to compete also put clubs futures at serious risk too as it's unsustainable in the long term

Our ambition for the PL is to slowly transform into a top 10 side, where we will win more and score more, but we have started in this division like those who just look to survive in the Championship and it will take time for the academy to produce results and mean we can improve the squad to the levels it will take to compete far higher up the table as it's the only viable financial option open to us to achieve this

 

[Pavilionaire]

What's peoples thought on the prospect of Championship football next season?

We are definitely far from safe and would be ultimate BHA to drop from outside europe hopefuls to relegation fodder.

Had some of our most enjoyable seasons and certainly home and away experiences in the Championship. Reduced amount of plastic non-fans in the amex home end. Sat & Tues fixtures in rapid fire succession. Anyone can and does beat anyone!

But how many years would it take to go back up (if ever)? No more MotD coverage and no more one sublime season that could land you in a euro place!

1. "Definitely far from safe" would be 5 or 6 points above the bottom 3, not the 11-point cushion we currently enjoy.
2. Enjoyable seasons in the Championship equates to finishing top 6. Anything else would be forgettable / depressing.
3. Any well-run football club benefitting from parachute money should be able to bounce back to the Prem within 1-2 seasons.

In a worst-case scenario that we go down and lose Webster, Lamptey, Bissouma, Cucurella,Trossard, MacAllister and Maupay, Lallana retires and we make no signings we would still be looking at a side of: Scherpen, Veltman, Van Hecke, Dunk, Clarke, March, Caicedo, Moder, Mwepu, Khadra, Undav and Welbeck.

I think we've almost Championship-proofed our squad and put clear blue water between our club and 3rd in the Championship. Certain, in terms of ability we should be able to bounce back and it would be the most attractive job outside of the Prem too.

 

[Swansman]

Not going down this season.

Nothing wrong with the Championship though. Funny league.