[Football] Would you rather be consistently near bottom of the PL or near the top of Championship every season?

[Hovegull]

A pundit was suggesting that most fans would prefer to be at the top end of the Championship in winning ways, rather than suffering defeat after defeat in the PL. Talking about Leicester, Burnley and Southampton etc and that it’s a relief to get relegated, if you can guarantee that you don’t then tumble down the next league.
As a fan which would you prefer?

 

[Badger]

Somewhat flawed poll.

If you were in the top 4 of the Championship EVERY season, it means you'd lose in the playoffs every season.
If you were in the bottom 4 of the Premier League EVERY season, you'd finish 17th every season.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Yes, I agree with the pundit. I was not coping very well with us being near the bottom each year and found it was having quite a negative effect on my mental health. Ridiculous, I know! But I expressed my preference here, there and everywhere for top championship football rather than the stuff we were serving up, mostly in a very uncompetitive manner.

 

[Simster]

I'd rather yoyo than be either.

That said, the holy grail should be to get to the Premier League and assure safety before Christmas. That is the reward for making up the numbers in a league until now dominated by a big 6, and the reason it is a reward is that it gives the club a platform on which to compete in the FA Cup by playing a full strength team.

There is a reason 7 of the 8 quarter finalists are between 3rd and 12th in the Premier League

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

You've got to aim for the highest league position you can possibly get. Isn't that the point of a league system?

Being the 15th best team in the country is a much prouder boast than being the 25th. Luckily, we're currently even better than this.

 

[jcdenton08]

The aim in sport is to win. In an association football league system, the “winner” is the team closest to the top of the overall rankings.

If you’d have asked this question when we were mid-table in the Championship you’d get a very different outcome in your poll.

It is shit to have a bad season like, say, Leicester or Southampton, but they’re in a better position than Macclesfield.

Seems to me those voting for success at a lower level are f***ing stupid - to be reasonable.

 

[nickjhs]

There is a major advantage to the PL for me. I get to see my team play every week. Before the PL I was really just keeping up with the news and the results, there is not a lot of fun getting up at 2am to listen to commentary. So it's the PL for me every time, especially (as has been pointed out) the way the Poll is worded would mean we would just fall short of promotion season after season which would be horrible, successfully fighting to stay up has some celebration to it.

 

[Justice]

Football is football whatever league we are in has never really bothered me. One of my favourite seasons was under Barry Lloyd in the old Division 3.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Somewhat flawed poll.

If you were in the top 4 of the Championship EVERY season, it means you'd lose in the playoffs every season.
If you were in the bottom 4 of the Premier League EVERY season, you'd finish 17th every season.

But, over the course of the season, you'd get more wins in the championship, whereas in the PL they would be few and far between.

 

[Han Solo]

But, over the course of the season, you'd get more wins in the championship, whereas in the PL they would be few and far between.

Indeed. If we only look at the fun/joy aspect, being a top team in the Championship is simply better. If there's a decent way to measure happyness, I think supporters from any top 6 team in the Championship has had a lot more fun than eg Wolves fans.

 

[Hovegull]

Somewhat flawed poll.

If you were in the top 4 of the Championship EVERY season, it means you'd lose in the playoffs every season.
If you were in the bottom 4 of the Premier League EVERY season, you'd finish 17th every season.

That was the point, you do well in the Championship and see lots of winning games but don’t ever get promoted - but try every season.
Or you lose most games at top tier, and have relegation looming over you all season but just about stay up.

 

[schmunk]

It has to be lower reaches of the PL.

There's far more joy in nicking a hard-fought point against Chelsea or Man Utd, than an easy win at QPR.

 

[Nicky Rust Fan Club]

My mate supports Southampton and he would have rather lost the play off final to leeds and built for another couple of years than get promotion and potentially returm the least points ever knocking Derby off. He believes promotion was too early for them.

 

[Brovion]

That was the point, you do well in the Championship and see lots of winning games but don’t ever get promoted - but try every season.
Or you lose most games at top tier, and have relegation looming over you all season but just about stay up.

Both options sound a bit shit TBH, I wouldn't want either (and haven't voted).

As was mentioned earlier being a 'yo-yo' club would be better than either of those two options - and back in the dim and distant past (2017) that's what I thought we'd be. (But I'm delighted we're not).

 

[Mellotron]

Prem, but...

...if you offered me the chance to go back to Withdean or Goldstone for ONE season to watch us in League One/Second Division, then back to the Prem and normal service resumed the season after?

I would snap your hand off. Genuinely.

 

[pb21]

If its a case of 17th every season or constant relegation to Championship then promotion to PL, then I suppose the latter.

 

[RandyWanger]

Interesting one. During a season, it's better to be top half championship for entertainment but I remember how frustrating it was to be just missing out on promotion each time. Vs just hanging on in the EPL, over the season it's not as enjoyable, but ultimately at the end of the season, you'd rather survive the prem than not get out of the champ.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

My mate supports Southampton and he would have rather lost the play off final to leeds and built for another couple of years than get promotion and potentially returm the least points ever knocking Derby off. He believes promotion was too early for them.

Sadly, Southampton are only one win away from beating Derby's total, and surely even THEY will manage to turn somebody over before the season is out, probably around mid April against a team whose players are mentally on the beach.

 

[Weststander]

These days, a million miles away from the Championship, so in the PL. That’s after watching a first half of awful football on Sunday … hoofball from Pompey played long into the channels, when not in possession in their opponents faces. 46 games a season of a great deal of that, yuk.

Stylistically, skill and tactics, crikey we’ve come along way under these last three managers.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I suppose, to rephrase the question, would I prefer to repeatedly watch the CH team that lost in the play offs the first year, or watch the CH side that was utterly abysmal in the first two seasons of the Premier League?

For me, it’s an easy choice, and I’m going for that Championship side. Primarily because I’d have kept wanting to go every week. Whereas that Premier League side that we watched for 2 years was some of the worst football I’ve seen live and I think I’d have stopped my ST if we’d kept that up for much longer.