After today...

[Maurice Maurice]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

 

[SUFCinks]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

I think this is the weakest top 4 I can recently remember at champ level. The fact we’re top and been fairly average but robust says it all.

Any of the teams who go up, without lots of money I believe will also require huge funding or very strong tactical management and strong style of play to get anything out of next season.

I don’t believe any of the top teams have a style that will work in the prem, and nowhere near the quality to compete so lots of funds required to give it a go.

In regards to our squad I don’t think we have even 1 player who is prem standards. Hamer is capable but for every good thing he does, he does 2 or 3 wasteful things.

I personally believe we are a long way off in terms of quality, style of play, tactics, and depth. Defensively is perhaps one area we can say we’re pretty good but the rest of it needs lots of work, money and a keen eye for talent acquisition and creativity.

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Only 80m?

Love your optimism. Even if stick another 1 in front we'll still be fighting relegation.

 

[Thrice]

It's tough to build a Premier League squad when you become a yo-yo club. Because you're bound to lose your best players on a regular basis.
It seems that clubs like United, Burnley, Southampton and probably Leeds are firmly in the too good/rich for the Championship but not rich enough for the Premier League bracket. It's a neverending cycle of pressure to fight relegation/get promoted again to keep parachute payments flowing.
On the bright side, it's probably a more exciting position to be in than say Bristol City or Preston who seem to be destined to forever be middle of the pack and never play for anything.

Nottingham Forest took a huge risk when they spent all that money on new players. It paid off after all, but if it doesn't you risk undoing years of groundwork and maybe even put the whole club in danger.

 

[wardonia_blade]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

It's tough to build a Premier League squad when you become a yo-yo club. Because you're bound to lose your best players on a regular basis.
It seems that clubs like United, Burnley, Southampton and probably Leeds are firmly in the too good/rich for the Championship but not rich enough for the Premier League bracket. It's a neverending cycle of pressure to fight relegation/get promoted again to keep parachute payments flowing.
On the bright side, it's probably a more exciting position to be in than say Bristol City or Preston who seem to be destined to forever be middle of the pack and never play for anything.

Nottingham Forest took a huge risk when they spent all that money on new players. It paid off after all, but if it doesn't you risk undoing years of groundwork and maybe even put the whole club in danger.

Yes I agree, unfortunately it seems it takes Nottingham Forest levels of lunacy to even get a foothold in the Premier league these days. But being a yo-yo for a few years does eventually work if managed correctly. Bournemouth Fulham are more recent examples of this, and although the likes of Southampton, Leicester, Wolves are struggling a bit now, but they’ve all had longer periods in the Premier league than us after being yo-yo clubs.

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

My overriding thought after the game was that we looked like a side who would struggle in the PL.
Not last time's level of struggle, but not far off.
I guess that's the issue with the out of control animal that is the PL

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

My overriding thought after the game was that we looked like a side who would struggle in the PL.
Not last time's level of struggle, but not far off.
I guess that's the issue with the out of control animal that is the PL

There's a trend developing when you look at the bottom of the Prem table and to a lesser degree the Championship table.

 

[NotFallowfieldBlade]

You can say all you want about the prem is hard etc , look at the champ that’s how it works Portsmouth / Oxford & Wayne Rooneys Plymouth 3 of the bottom 5 that’s how it works


What I will say with the prem is if you have a good manager a good budget and good signings you stand a good chance , the prem has never been so competitive 6 of the top 10 have been in the championship in the last 10 years

Once you get there it’s relatively even playing field if you are willing to spend the TV Money

 

[Newbury Blade]

I think this is the weakest top 4 I can recently remember at champ level. The fact we’re top and been fairly average but robust says it all.

Any of the teams who go up, without lots of money I believe will also require huge funding or very strong tactical management and strong style of play to get anything out of next season.

I don’t believe any of the top teams have a style that will work in the prem, and nowhere near the quality to compete so lots of funds required to give it a go.

In regards to our squad I don’t think we have even 1 player who is prem standards. Hamer is capable but for every good thing he does, he does 2 or 3 wasteful things.

I personally believe we are a long way off in terms of quality, style of play, tactics, and depth. Defensively is perhaps one area we can say we’re pretty good but the rest of it needs lots of work, money and a keen eye for talent acquisition and creativity.

Cooper and Arblaster aren’t Prem standard?

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Only 80m?

Love your optimism. Even if stick another 1 in front we'll still be fighting relegation.

£80m gets you 3 good players these days. Just need a budget for the rest of the squad

 

[JOEYDEE]

I think this is the weakest top 4 I can recently remember at champ level. The fact we’re top and been fairly average but robust says it all.

Any of the teams who go up, without lots of money I believe will also require huge funding or very strong tactical management and strong style of play to get anything out of next season.

I don’t believe any of the top teams have a style that will work in the prem, and nowhere near the quality to compete so lots of funds required to give it a go.

In regards to our squad I don’t think we have even 1 player who is prem standards. Hamer is capable but for every good thing he does, he does 2 or 3 wasteful things.

I personally believe we are a long way off in terms of quality, style of play, tactics, and depth. Defensively is perhaps one area we can say we’re pretty good but the rest of it needs lots of work, money and a keen eye for talent acquisition and creativity.

Sadly I agree with most of what you've said...

 

[ancientblade]

I think this is the weakest top 4 I can recently remember at champ level. The fact we’re top and been fairly average but robust says it all.

Any of the teams who go up, without lots of money I believe will also require huge funding or very strong tactical management and strong style of play to get anything out of next season.

I don’t believe any of the top teams have a style that will work in the prem, and nowhere near the quality to compete so lots of funds required to give it a go.

In regards to our squad I don’t think we have even 1 player who is prem standards. Hamer is capable but for every good thing he does, he does 2 or 3 wasteful things.

I personally believe we are a long way off in terms of quality, style of play, tactics, and depth. Defensively is perhaps one area we can say we’re pretty good but the rest of it needs lots of work, money and a keen eye for talent acquisition and creativity.

yes your probably right about the championship being weak this season and no doubt the gulf between premier league sides and championship sides is widening every season proves it imo when pigs are 9th but were still in a great position to finish top 6 at least january will tell us which way were heading 4 signings minimum possibly 5 now souttars out

 

[robbiez666]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

I think Leeds have the mist potential to survive in the EPL. Both on and off the pitch. They'd still need major investment but they'd get it. Their scouting system is really good as well.

Sunderland might be ok as they'll have huge support and the advantage of that excitement of going up for the first time in a while.They'd also spend though, but feels a bit like Ipswich.

Burnley showed yesterday how well organised they are but they don't have the players to hurt Premier League teams. . Not sure they'd get back either.

As Roy says elsewhere, we're in the middle of the rebuild. I'm not sure we'd do much better than last season, although I think we'd be defensively stronger. Also unclear how much investment they'd be. We'd need way too many new players to compete.

 

[CPB]

It's worrying trend to see all 3 promoted clubs currently in the bottom 3.

I have a feeling Leicester may just stay up. Although not convinced about Van Nistelroy as manager.

But I see these comments about players not being PL quality. I would say we have more capable of it than you think. However it's about adding to it well.

Last season, when you look at the squad it was overall just weak. There were a few players of quality but just not enough to lift us. And the signings were largely not good enough. Trusty, Traore and Slimane for 14m simply not good enough.

I would say as it stands right now Cooper, Anel, Burrows, Souza (This season not last), Hamer, T.Davies and maybe even Campbell assuming his form wasn't a blip. These could all be part of a squad and team in the PL. There are other players too with the likes of Arblaster and Peck. And even O'Hare who could also form part of the squad.

Then it's about signing either real quality of players that really fit the system.

If we were to go up, unless we do something special or the spending power is higher than expected then I'd be thinking we will be fodder again. But we might at least give it a fist of staying up...

 

[brownblade]

I think this is the weakest top 4 I can recently remember at champ level. The fact we’re top and been fairly average but robust says it all.

I think Burnley and Leeds currently have two of the strongest squads the Champ has ever had. Surely?

 

[bakeblade]

It's worrying trend to see all 3 promoted clubs currently in the bottom 3.

I have a feeling Leicester may just stay up. Although not convinced about Van Nistelroy as manager.

But I see these comments about players not being PL quality. I would say we have more capable of it than you think. However it's about adding to it well.

Last season, when you look at the squad it was overall just weak. There were a few players of quality but just not enough to lift us. And the signings were largely not good enough. Trusty, Traore and Slimane for 14m simply not good enough.

I would say as it stands right now Cooper, Anel, Burrows, Souza (This season not last), Hamer, T.Davies and maybe even Campbell assuming his form wasn't a blip. These could all be part of a squad and team in the PL. There are other players too with the likes of Arblaster and Peck. And even O'Hare who could also form part of the squad.

Then it's about signing either real quality of players that really fit the system.

If we were to go up, unless we do something special or the spending power is higher than expected then I'd be thinking we will be fodder again. But we might at least give it a fist of staying up...

Selling Ndiaye and Sander killed us last time

 

[Ron_Justice]

Unsurprisingly our squad depth is our Achilles heal. This will be the same if we're promoted. PL survival rests on quality in depth. For an established Championship level team to build enough quality in depth to achieve promotion AND sustain their presence you need YEARS of recruitment towards the singular goal of quality in depth. I said in the summer that we'd need at least 5 windows to build enough quality in depth to attempt a sustained PL experience.

I still think that's true. If we go up, even with 8 additions during the next 2 windows we'll still be too weak to hold onto PL status. We need 26+ players that are as good as Anel, Hamer, Blaster, Souza, O'Hare, Cooper, Soutar. Right now, we have those 7 and they're the baseline for survival. Like minimum quality, we need better.

 

[SUFCinks]

Cooper and Arblaster aren’t Prem standard?

I don’t think it’s a given. Both top end championship talent, in the prem i don’t know if they would get a start for any team outside the bottom 3, which don’t tend to be prem quality squads.

Even in the bottom 3 there is some talent in the midfield. I’m unsure if Arblaster or Hamer would start. Cooper i think maybe more so.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

The bottom line is, aside from the top 4 there are loads of crap teams we can beat, we just have to win all them games and up we go.

The new owners will back Wilder in Jan and when we go up.

 

[Keen Blade]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

The new owners would have to be daft buying us without knowing this.

 

[JohnDenver]

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that top championship sides are absolutely light years behind the bottom of the prem. It’s the story of the last four years.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

£80mil should be buying 4 players, 5 max. My worry is that Wilder will spend it on 8-9 players and we end up with quantity, not quality just like his last two disastrous spells with big money budgets. He signed nearly 20 players over two seasons last time and only McBurnie, Mousset and Berge played regularly (ignoring Henderson as he came up with us). Even then McBurnie was inconsistent and unreliable as a goal scorer and Mousset couldn't manage more than 60 minutes. I still don't trust Wilder with big money but let's see what happens. All of his signings from his last spell in the Premier League left for free or for losses except for Ramsdale and a minor profit on Bogle.

 

[Ron_Justice]

£80mil should be buying 4 players, 5 max. My worry is that Wilder will spend it on 8-9 players and we end up with quantity, not quality just like his last two disastrous spells with big money budgets. He signed nearly 20 players over two seasons last time and only McBurnie, Mousset and Berge played regularly (ignoring Henderson as he came up with us). Even then McBurnie was inconsistent and unreliable as a goal scorer and Mousset couldn't manage more than 60 minutes. I still don't trust Wilder with big money but let's see what happens. All of his signings from his last spell in the Premier League left for free or for losses except for Ramsdale and a minor profit on Bogle.

In defence of the current set-up, last summer's recruitment was brilliant. Maybe something (someone) has changed in the recruitment department, since last time, that means we won't be repeating the same mistakes.

 

[VictoryBlade]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

Totally agree for example with this squad we'd have another embarrassing season! The other thing is, Wilder, he doesn't seem to set his team right depending on who we're playing? I mean what was the game plan yesterday?

 

[McGrath]

We lost at Leeds when we were in turmoil after the passing of Furious and we lost today with a weakened team. We beat Sunderland after a bit of a struggle and there you have it, the top four and we're all at a similar level. My question is, does anybody seriously think that any of the top four gets more than 20 to 25 points in the Premier League? Burnley probably went home feeling full of it but come on, seeing how bang average they are, and after watching Wolves and Leicester in their respective games, both of them would beat the top four in the Championship at a cantor.

If we go up we'll need to be spending £80 million plus to get anywhere near Premier League standard, so will the others and even then it's a gamble. Not sure what the answer is other than that breakaway Super League because as it stands, the euphoria of promotion soon wears thin when you're getting beat every week and all you have to celebrate is maybe sneaking a 0 - 0 at the likes of Brentford.

Yep the journey is far better than the destination when it comes to the Premier League. Send the likes of Man City off to a Super League for me, they can play Real Madrid in Riyadh every other weekend and we can get our game back!

That first season when we went up under Wilder though, and finished ninth, we were in European places pre lockdown. That was fantastic. It felt like Wilder and his team had figured out how to break the matrix. I'd love that again, we stuck it to them. I'd take that over spending £80 million any day

 

[FlamingLip]

There's legit excuses re performance dip, and I'm not complaining - brilliant so far. but nigh on impossible to imagine this squad could make any real fist of stopping up.

 

[john Mathison]

We are light years away from a prem squad. Blaster, now Soutta out for season, Vinny, Campbell, struggling for fitness. We will need at least five players in January window, just to maintain a top four position.

 

[robbiez666]

I think Burrows and Cooper are Premier League quality.

Souza is but not how we play him. Not got the physicality for the Premier League in a role that Rice, Kante etc plays. If he played as a DM, then yes.

Arblaster might be but not after a year out.

That's it really. Anel is in a 3 but not in a 2. Hamer is decent at EPL level but again he's not really got the physicality. He can obviously score and create but he needs to have much more athletic players around him. Also more of the ball than we'll have.

Unconvinced O'Hare is. Like Tom Davies. Busy but flatters to deceive far too often. Also very lightweight.

If we play 4 at the back in the EPL then we need 1 x reserve keeper, 2 new CBs with PL experience and quality. 2 x RB. 2 x CM. 2 x ST. 3 x wide players. And a whole lot of luck just to compete to stay up.

 

[Latters]

Cooper and Arblaster aren’t Prem standard?

Arblaster isn’t. Yet.