Teams coming down...and coming up to the Championship.

[derfblade.3]

Not giving up yet as owt can still happen, but the teams coming into the Championship next season give me optimism for next year.

W Brom are in free fall
Saints could be the hardest
Stoke will lose Shakiri and a couple of others.

Should Palace go down, again Zaha, Benteke Townsend would probably go...along with Hodgeson

Wigan are becoming a bit of a yo yo club
Blackburn are crap
Shrewsbury or anyone else around the top of league 1 look ill equipped to be a force.

Some are saying if we miss out on the play offs then we have lost a glorious chance to get in the Premiere league.
Well i reckon we will be even better next season and don't see a lot to fear from who will be coming into our division.
Our Manager said yesterday he wants to improve every season and i really do believe what he says.

Good times ahead for us i'm sure.

 

[Ricky]

None of the relegated teams worry me too much but West Brom will go up if they get McCarthy.

Can't see any of the promoted teams being a threat. Looking forward to going to Blackburn again, it's been a while.

 

[Stretch]

As long as we keep hold of Wilder and he is happy to be here with a reasonable budget, then I am confident that we will continue to compete at the top end of the division , no matter who comes into it.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

McCabe v Prince bog roll will decide if we are a threat or not next season. I fear the worst.

 

[Ricky]

It should be simple really. Don't sell anyone and back Wilder just a little bit and we'll be really strong, and highly likely to finish top 6.

 

[Bashar Al Asaba]

Bit a boring prospect next season.

No enticing fixtures there really. Every club pretty nondescript.

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

As long as the teams coming up are expecting a la liga quality championship they will be ok.

 

[robbiez666]

I think Blackburn and Wigan could do fairly well in this league. The bottom 7 clubs are all rubbish. Wigan have shown they can punch above their weight. Both teams will get decent investment.

I can see WBA going into free-fall and Stoke being fairly solid after a bad start. Southampton will be around the top.

 

[jt64]

I want Plymouth up just to have a proper bigger Blade away day mission

 

[Fraggle Blade]

McCabe v Prince bog roll will decide if we are a threat or not next season. I fear the worst.

I assume from that you mean that if McCabe stays in charge we will be investing very little in the team for next season?

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

It should be simple really. Don't sell anyone and back Wilder just a little bit and we'll be really strong, and highly likely to finish top 6.

Ricky, I'll happily give you £100 if United finish in the top 6 of the championship next season. No counter stake from yourself required.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It should be simple really. Don't sell anyone and back Wilder just a little bit and we'll be really strong, and highly likely to finish top 6.

We backed Wilder a little bit in January and it made no difference. We need to back him a lot.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Can't see any of the promoted teams being a threat.

Do people never learn?

This is exactly the kind of thing Wednesday fans were saying at the end of last season.

 

[Fanny magnet]

Its hard to see us doing as well as this season .its highly unlikely we will have the barnstorming start to the season we had this time

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Form wise over the last x games we are 43(9th), 30(11th), 25(13th), 20(10th), 15(11th), 10(10th) and 5(13th).

If Villa & Boro don't go up this season, we'll have at least 9 teams on parachute payments next season.

Wednesday won't be this shit again.

Wigan & Blackburn are no mugs and will strengthen.

 

[Punk Blade]

I think when looking at our prospects for next season people are underestimating what improvement we can expect from within the current squad. Based on their age and/or their lack of previous Championship experience we should see more from:

Baldock
Stevens
Fleck
O’Connell
Lundstram
Leonard
Freeman
L Evans
Brooks

We should also expect similar levels from:

Basham
Stearman
Coutts (pending good recovery)
Duffy

We may also see the likes of Thomas, Heneghan and academy graduates push for the first team squad.

There are two major problems to address in the summer: we need at least one goalie in (would be very happy if that was Blackman returning) and we need to start replacing our aging strike force. I’d like to see one steady all rounder mid-late 20s at a lower Championship/top League One price (no I don’t have any suggestions), and a teenage/early 20s loanee from the Premier League who is all raw pace. Treat Brooks as a striker.

I think we can push on again next year with Wilder and Knill without needing to break the bank.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Ricky, I'll happily give you £100 if United finish in the top 6 of the championship next season. No counter stake from yourself required.

Screen shot the shit outta that!

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

The problem could be that there were a lot of the underachieving teams this year who were expected to be pushing for promotion (Birmingham, Hull, Reading, Forest, Pigs, Leeds etc), that could get their act together next year.

 

[SteveBlade]

Fuck knows. We'll be alright, we tend to dominate most games and pick up points. At the worst, as we are we'll be average as fuck throughout, like the second half of this season.

If we shaft ourselves, sell our best players and don't adequately replace them. You know how we generally make a shit load of chances and finish a small percentage? Imagine not creating much and finishing a small percentage of fuck all. That could be a grim scenario.

Coutts coming back will be a big boost, but without a good level of investment, this is what we are.

 

[Ricky]

Do people never learn?

This is exactly the kind of thing Wednesday fans were saying at the end of last season.

Luckily I'm not completely conditioned by "what Wednesday fans say".

Wait and see. Blackburn and Wigan won't be higher than mid table.

 

[Bladesince59]

I can't see us doing any better next season than this with the present team. We need to get some younger, hungrier players up front.
If we were to get promoted as things stand, we wouldn't last 5 minutes in the op flight,

 

[super_pig]

Ricky, I'll happily give you £100 if United finish in the top 6 of the championship next season. No counter stake from yourself required.

it's a trick Ricky .. Nico thinks we'll be in the Prem. so we can't possibly be top 6 of the champ.. eh lad??

 

[super_pig]

Do people never learn?

This is exactly the kind of thing Wednesday fans were saying at the end of last season.

yeah .. but they are a bunch of twats. please factor this in in future comments.. thanks

 

[Robby Blade]

I can't see us doing any better next season than this with the present team. We need to get some younger, hungrier players up front.
If we were to get promoted as things stand, we wouldn't last 5 minutes in the op flight,

38 games last a lot longer than 5 minutes . I genuinely think this team would do better in the Premier than our last one did.

 

[Ricky]

Looking at the line up of teams in this division next season, I'm not too worried actually. I don't see many outstanding teams emerging at all.

As I've said the relegated 3 don't look convincing, and there are very few currently in the division who strike me as highly likely to kick on and challenge for promotion. Maybe just any who stay down from Villa, Boro and Fulham. After that, I don't see much to worry about. Although obviously there'll be a few surprises, as always.

Big chance for us if we don't fuck up in the summer.

 

[Danny_Blade]

Obviously it depends what we can do in the summer transfer window which will be a pointer to how we'll fare next season.

Something to bear in mind is that next season all championship teams bar 6 of the newly promoted/relegated teams will be much more familiar about us having played us twice this season, so we'll no longer have that unfamiliar element as we did this season. So regardless of how much we improve the team we will find it harder to a certain degree as they know how we play.

In the scenario where we hardly improve the team for next season we'll be nowhere near competing for a P/O spot, in football if you fail to strengthen you won't even stand still - instead you go backwards and I think we could be mid table at best. Pigs finished inside the P/O twice in a row and its still by and large the same team that CC assembled, now look at the season they've had and they were even one of the favourites for automatic. Reading are another example, got to within touching distance of the PL with a penalty shootout but have almost been in the fight for survival this season.

Even in the scenario where we are able to improve the team fairly significantly, we still might not be up there. The most urgent priorities being a couple of good strikers - how are we going to afford strikers that are more clinical (even if the ownership issue were to be resolved?). Although CW has a very good record of signing players I'll be pleasantly surprised if we can even get one prolific striker in.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Looking at the line up of teams in this division next season, I'm not too worried actually. I don't see many outstanding teams emerging at all.

As I've said the relegated 3 don't look convincing, and there are very few currently in the division who strike me as highly likely to kick on and challenge for promotion. Maybe just any who stay down from Villa, Boro and Fulham. After that, I don't see much to worry about. Although obviously there'll be a few surprises, as always.

Big chance for us if we don't fuck up in the summer.

I must admit, I find your positivity quite disconcerting. Are you self medicating?

 

[Ricky]

I must admit, I find your positivity quite disconcerting. Are you self medicating?

Pay attention to that 'if' in the last sentence. It's a fucking huge one.

 

[DronnieBlade]

We backed Wilder a little bit in January and it made no difference. We need to back him a lot.

Not wishing to knock CW, who has performed miracles, but this has to be a concern going forwards.

Only Evans of the recent signings has had any real impact. Wilson has been a disaster, Holmes has clearly not done enough during the week to force the gaffers hand (odd signing given we had Duffy and Brookes for this position) and Lenny has basically filled in occasionally when circumstances dictate.

I hope backing him a lot would turn out much better than backing him a bit !!!

UTB

 

[Ricky]

Something to bear in mind is that next season all championship teams bar 6 of the newly promoted/relegated teams will be much more familiar about us having played us twice this season, so we'll no longer have that unfamiliar element as we did this season. So regardless of how much we improve the team we will find it harder to a certain degree as they know how we play.

This is a big factor and will be big part of the challenge we face.

But teams have known how we play for a while. It's not stopped us dominating lots of games. It's logical to think that if we play the same way but add quality we'll start to get the results our performances deserve.

Imagine us with better attacking quality from wing back and pace up front for example.

I definitely agree that we'll struggle if we hardly improve the team though. We'll be closer to the bottom than the top, especially when the age of certain players is considered.