Is promotion over-rated?

[Champagneblade]

Hear me out.

Would you rather see your team winning or losing?

We play lovely football and on our day are the best team in the division.

Same could have been said of Fulham.

They sit on a lowly 5 points in the first week of November.

They have an owner far richer than ours.

My concern is that we’d have no idea how to push the boat out enough to be successful. As such we’d be facing a miserable season.

I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have a go in the Wilder sense but those above just have no clue.

Even now, when other owners are splashing the cash, Wilder is self funding with the Brooks sale.

Meanwhile our two owners are dicking around at the High Court.

Now promotion might be the silver bullet that beings it all together but you can imagine as a PL club the added scrutiny and off field problems overshadowing infield efforts.

We just don’t seam to have the wherewithal in the Boardroom to see this through properly.

 

[Topplayersleave]

£190 million would help
Both owners can recover their losses and foxtrot Oscar
Parachute payments if we get relegated
Wilder gets us promoted again
We strengthen further
We finally become a Premier League club, part of the furniture

 

[Davalon]

Bit like sex is over-rated?

Depends what you've got to work with, how engaged and enthusiastic your work mates are, as well as how skilled.

 

[Bladesman]

Fulham have made the mistake of changing their squad too much. They didn’t need to, just one or two signings to improve what they have. They went and signed a whole new first team almost.

Complete overkill and has disrupted the balance of their squad. It showed tonight against Huddersfield.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Unnecessary hyphens are overrated.

 

['Doc' Pace my hero]

Hear me out.

Would you rather see your team winning or losing?

We play lovely football and on our day are the best team in the division.

Same could have been said of Fulham.

They sit on a lowly 5 points in the first week of November.

They have an owner far richer than ours.

My concern is that we’d have no idea how to push the boat out enough to be successful. As such we’d be facing a miserable season.

I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have a go in the Wilder sense but those above just have no clue.

Even now, when other owners are splashing the cash, Wilder is self funding with the Brooks sale.

Meanwhile our two owners are dicking around at the High Court.

Now promotion might be the silver bullet that beings it all together but you can imagine as a PL club the added scrutiny and off field problems overshadowing infield efforts.

We just don’t seam to have the wherewithal in the Boardroom to see this through properly.

The Premier league was created to facilitate the top six sides of English football,the other fourteen sides which make up the twenty club league are insignificant.If you really believe the 'trickle down' of wealth from the Premier league coffers would benefit us in the long term if we were promoted are kidding themselves,eventually the second class upstarts would end up back where they came from,only to be replaced by clubs with similar ambitions.The lower leagues are littered with clubs that briefly flirted with Premier league status and in truth we know that the likes of Burnley,Huddersfield,Cardiff and Fulham will eventually go the same way.However,for all of this we all covert the ultimate chance of life in the top league and the short term wealth and prestige that goes with it,but over rated,yes it certainly is.

 

[KiwiBlabe]

Yes

 

[Houston_Blade]

There are 3 schools of thought on this:

1) The Premier League is the devil and should be avoided at all costs as it will corrupt our football club and we'll have a bunch of wankers in Lamborghini's and Ferrari's as players instead of the ones we have now.

2) Let's just get up there, grab the cash, don't spend much money and secure the financial future of the club for years to come.

3) We are the mighty Sheffield United and should be competing with teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and other such English footballing giants.

Personally I'd like us to get promoted, keep most of the players we have and invest wisely so that if we were relegated we'd have a sound base to have another go.

Too many teams (Sunderland, Bolton and Portsmouth come to mind) start to believe that they are part of the furniture and therefore overspend. When they do end up back in the Championship it's a slippery slope to League One given the vast amounts of money and small amounts of motivation that their players have.

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

Unnecessary hyphens are overrated.

I hate having to use punctuation at the best of times mate, but hyphens between words? That's where I draw the line.

 

[grafikhaus]

The PL is all 'Emperor's New Clothes'. Just like the SPL, only two teams have a chance of winning it and most football supporters don't give a shit about over half the teams who just make the numbers up. The days of Sky over-hyping 'Fabulous Friday', 'Super Saturday' etc. are over (as are pubs being packed out for live games). How many were glued to Huddersfield v Fulham last night - just two more teams delaying the inevitable?

Take away the more glamorous 'also-rans' like Spurs, Man. Utd., Chelsea and Arsenal and the rest is pretty dire - that's why the authorities are shitting themselves about a Super League, the PL bubble would have burst.

FFP exists (ostensibly) to prevent clubs overreaching themselves financially. Yet 'parachute payments' actively encourage clubs to overspend on transfers and wages. That way, they might buy themselves a couple of extra seasons in the PL but - if they go down - they will have an immediate 3-year advantage over most of their rivals as they seek to re-enter the private members club that is the PL. It all stinks.

This isn't about 'do I want United to go up'? as that isn't the question in the OP. I just hope the Super League happens and the PL is exposed for what it is (to continue the sartorial metaphor ) - all fur coat and no knickers.

 

[finlaytheblade]

There's a phrase in football ,stand still and you go back woulds,which means continued improvement has to mean promotion ,nothing else to say on the matter ,sport is about winning or trying to win)

 

[Solihull Blade]

I hate having to use punctuation at the best of times mate, but hyphens between words? That's where I draw the line.

Not sure you’re right. I think there’s a fine line between hyphenated words.

 

[super_pig]

Hear me out.

Would you rather see your team winning or losing?

We play lovely football and on our day are the best team in the division.

Same could have been said of Fulham.

They sit on a lowly 5 points in the first week of November.

They have an owner far richer than ours.

My concern is that we’d have no idea how to push the boat out enough to be successful. As such we’d be facing a miserable season.

I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have a go in the Wilder sense but those above just have no clue.

Even now, when other owners are splashing the cash, Wilder is self funding with the Brooks sale.

Meanwhile our two owners are dicking around at the High Court.

Now promotion might be the silver bullet that beings it all together but you can imagine as a PL club the added scrutiny and off field problems overshadowing infield efforts.

We just don’t seam to have the wherewithal in the Boardroom to see this through properly.

what it does show is that dumping the entire team and spending 100 million on new players isn't a guarantee of success ..

 

[Dkc]

I think United are the biggest club in Europe never to have played in a major European competition. I'd love to follow the Blades away in Europe, and promotion would make a League Cup or FA Cup win more likely, and you never know, we may sneak into the Europa League through fair play rules or a 7th place finish.

 

[blade too long]

Fulham gone about it all wrong . The team that got them up has been decimated . Far too many new faces. It's a lesson to us not to buy too many at once . Their feel good factor and momentum has been utterly squandered . Spent a truck load on big names but lost all the team ethos.
Those who say we need 8 new players if we go up just look at Fulham on how not to do it

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Bournemouth have managaged to maintain their style and identity despite having players sold year in year out on crowds of 13K. It can be done with the right attitude and the right people in charge. They also kept the core of their team initially which made a massive difference IMO, something else we would probaly do, it's a risk if the players aren't good enough but I think the way we play would give us an excellent chance of getting enough points from the bottom half of the League in that 1st season.

 

[grafikhaus]

There's a phrase in football ,stand still and you go back woulds,which means continued improvement has to mean promotion ,nothing else to say on the matter ,sport is about winning or trying to win)

There ought to be a phrase in boxing - 'Don't let a lightweight get in the ring with a heavyweight.' But that's what's happening in the PL.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

FREE SKY MONEY - the amount is immaterial - it's free.

The aim of ANY game is to try and win - win enough games in football and you get promotion.

Try and stay a Championship club will end up one season getting relegated - Ipswich?

Finally - I have heard many, many, many fans and forum posters talk/write about "lack of ambition" - we must always strive to be better.

UTB

 

[BLADES1988]

The attendance last night for that "Premier League/EPL Franchise League" was just over 17k? We got more at the bottom of League 1 against the likes of bloody Colchester

 

[Houston_Blade]

The attendance last night for that "Premier League/EPL Franchise League" was just over 17k? We got more at the bottom of League 1 against the likes of bloody Colchester

What does that matter? It's about the quality of players on the pitch and not the number of fans in the stands. Teams like Forest, Pigs and Sunderland with 35k fans turning out week in week out without fail would be where their fans think they should be if it was down to the number of fans.

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

The best thing about being promoted to Premiership is the summer before the season starts.

 

[BLADES1988]

What does that matter? It's about the quality of players on the pitch and not the number of fans in the stands. Teams like Forest, Pigs and Sunderland with 35k fans turning out week in week out without fail would be where their fans think they should be if it was down to the number of fans.

Well it doesn't really matter how many people go and i'm not saying the biggest crowd pullers deserve to be there, just a bit of a sign to me that its overrated. If it was that captivating surely more people would be arsed to go?

Bottom feeder games in the Premier League are far less entertaining than the Championship top hlaf and basically pointless.

 

[lakedistblade]

Burnley model would suit me fine. Not overspending, maybe a bounce down and back but secure financial future, good link with fans, down to earth manager. Envy and hate them in equal measure.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Well it doesn't really matter how many people go and i'm not saying the biggest crowd pullers deserve to be there, just a bit of a sign to me that its overrated. If it was that captivating surely more people would be arsed to go?

Bottom feeder games in the Premier League are far less entertaining than the Championship top hlaf and basically pointless.

I suspect it'll be Prem 1 and Prem 2 soon or even an elite European League which they're phasing in under the guise of the Champions League. As I keep saying, enjoy it now folks

 

[Stretch]

Yes it is kind of perverse that we are even having this debate, as promotion has always been seen as the ultimate goal. But the PL is so far out of kilter with every other British league that in many cases it will trample over any kind of reasonable spending and wage structure.

It would be fascinating, and also a bit scary to see how this huge injection of cash would change the hugely successful and sustainable formula that Wilder and Co have already put in place. A few quality additions to the squad and substantial wage increases to the existing players deemed good enough for that level would seem like the most sensible approach. I would trust Wilder to get that part right, but as others have said how on earth all this would impact on his relationship with the ownership is anyone's guess, should relegation start to look likely.

Despite any supposed risks, the financial prize is so significant that it could set us up for years, if used wisely. So go for it, grab the cash and take it from there I say.

Oddly enough, the thing that would irk me the most about PL football is the lack of Saturday 3pm fixtures. Sunday tea time is no fucking time to play a match and I seriously struggle to get enthused by 'Monday Night Football', all midweek matches should be Tuesday, or at the very worst Wednesday evenings. Saturday would certainly start to lose it's magic, and that would be hard to take.

 

[SwissBlade]

I have no desire for us to be in the Premier League, however i accept that if you're a top ten side in the Championship, then the only way you can be competitive long term in the Championship is to have either a super rich owner or get the Premier League money. One years worth is enough.

The ownership issue doesn't really concern me, it will be what it will be.

I think you can also flip the coin here as well Champagneblade : Can we afford not to go up?

1. Dean Henderson - Number 1 Keeper won't be here next season if we're not in the premier league
2. Fleck and Coutts may well want a move to the Premier league before its too late
3. Billy, Leon and McG will all be a year older and once Billy retires (no idea when that will be), we'll lose one of best goal scorers that this club has seen.
4. Wilder will get a better reputation the longer he's flirting with the top end of the Championship.

 

[Liverpool blade]

I was talking to a Southampton fan the other day and he said currently you have 14 teams out of 20 that are trying to stay up!!!. I hate to say it but he’s right!!!. Of course I’d love us to get promotion but not sure I’d want to see us hovering around the bottom of the table TBH. The PL is so overrated and in a few years there will be a 6 team super league!!. UTB

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Hear me out.

Would you rather see your team winning or losing?

We play lovely football and on our day are the best team in the division.

Same could have been said of Fulham.

They sit on a lowly 5 points in the first week of November.

They have an owner far richer than ours.

My concern is that we’d have no idea how to push the boat out enough to be successful. As such we’d be facing a miserable season.

I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have a go in the Wilder sense but those above just have no clue.

Even now, when other owners are splashing the cash, Wilder is self funding with the Brooks sale.

Meanwhile our two owners are dicking around at the High Court.

Now promotion might be the silver bullet that beings it all together but you can imagine as a PL club the added scrutiny and off field problems overshadowing infield efforts.

We just don’t seam to have the wherewithal in the Boardroom to see this through properly.

'No' is the simple answer. I can't remember a promotion that didn't feel good. No need to worry about us cocking-up in the Premier League, as we are just as capable of cocking-up in the Championship.

 

[SwissBlade]

I suspect it'll be Prem 1 and Prem 2 soon or even an elite European League which they're phasing in under the guise of the Champions League. As I keep saying, enjoy it now folks

Once that happens i think i will enjoy football more.

It would be great if the top end of the premier league did disappear off to the European Super League as i think it would end up becoming so out of reach that people would turn off.

Watching Football on "TV" is becoming more and more tailored to the viewer. TV being the generic term i'd use for watching it at home.

People knock sky, but they just bid and put football on TV for the price they wanted to.

Now you have Sky, BT, Amazon, BBC, Quest and online for watching games. Saturday night's late game was just at a daft time and it shows that the TV companies are running out of ideas for when to show games. Spurs v Wolves was never going to compete with Arsenal v Liverpool, so they put a later game on.

I think that the greed of the Football Authorities will mean that the rest of football benefits and fans will want their side to play in Premier League 2 because it will be competitive

 

[Westran]

Bit like sex is over-rated?

Depends what you've got to work with, how engaged and enthusiastic your work mates are, as well as how skilled.

You have sex with your workmates? Sounds like an interesting job..!