Is the Championship THAT much better?

[Slim Man]

Keep hearing this shite from that lot, now they've accepted that we are probably going to go up they've resorted to ticket prices and how much better the championship is than when we were last in it.

Undoubtedly it is stronger, but there are still some average teams who spend next to naff in comparison - all who are doing pretty well. Ipswich, Birmingham, Preston, up until recently Bristol City - they've hardly spent fortunes. You look at last year Barnsley came up and they took the division by storm very much holding their own. It's about building a good team with a good gaffer in charge - you don't need to spend silly money. There's probably a gap between the top 6/7 and the rest but I wouldn't say it's a huge one by any means.

They'll cite Wigan as an example of a side who ran away with the league then struggled - but they tore the team up and sacked their managed so that's why their struggle is apparent. Burton were always going to struggle.

With the right signings and improvements there is no reason we won't be able to consolidate and even push for the play offs as Barnsley have done. Get a top class centre half and centre forward - plug another couple of gaps and get rid of some deadwood and we'll do just fine. No overhaul needed - it'll be the worst thing we could do.

 

[Esablade]

Well t'pigs have spent shit loads and look shit...hopefully find out this August

 

[Boxer Blade]

Keep hearing this shite from that lot, now they've accepted that we are probably going to go up they've resorted to ticket prices and how much better the championship is than when we were last in it.

Undoubtedly it is stronger, but there are still some average teams who spend next to naff in comparison - all who are doing pretty well. Ipswich, Birmingham, Preston, up until recently Bristol City - they've hardly spent fortunes. You look at last year Barnsley came up and they took the division by storm very much holding their own. It's about building a good team with a good gaffer in charge - you don't need to spend silly money. There's probably a gap between the top 6/7 and the rest but I wouldn't say it's a huge one by any means.

They'll cite Wigan as an example of a side who ran away with the league then struggled - but they tore the team up and sacked their managed so that's why their struggle is apparent. Burton were always going to struggle.

With the right signings and improvements there is no reason we won't be able to consolidate and even push for the play offs as Barnsley have done. Get a top class centre half and centre forward - plug another couple of gaps and get rid of some deadwood and we'll do just fine. No overhaul needed - it'll be the worst thing we could do.

Cite Wigan if they want Danny how about villa? How much have they spent? More than anyone else I reckon and without checking where are they in the league, below halfway?

 

[Fulwood Blade]

The big gap used to be between Champ and Prem - I think the big gap is L1 and Champ, with not a lot between bottom of Prem and top of Champ.

Top Prem is an entirely closed shop now.............................well, it should have been, but ask Leicester. How strange is the Leicester story. We may well be playing them next season!

UTB

 

[snootyfenooty]

As usual there's a load of bollocks being talked about the perceived "quality" in the championship. I suspect most of it emanates from those idiots over at S6 (and people on here talk about us getting ahead of ourselves).

Consider this. Lets assume that the standard in the premiership and league 1 are the same as 6 years ago. So if we listen to those talking up the championship then its approaching a quasi-premiership level. Is it fuck. Any promoted champ side is always going to struggle in the prem. If the quality level is that good, then any promoted league 1 side is going to struggle in the champs. Are they fuck. Look at Barnsley, Preston, Brentford.

From what I've seen this year, any champ side has the ability to beat any other on their day. That's always been the case. I've also seen some games where the quality has been shit. Just because clubs are chucking millions at players doesn't make them better players, it just makes them more expensive players. They're still championship players.

So up to now, we've got a section of our fans who are berating those of us who see promotion a a near certainty, and probably the same section shitting themselves at the prospect of going up to the championship.

 

[Grecian2000]

and probably the same section shitting themselves at the prospect of going up to the championship.

Care to name any of these mythical "shitting themselves" types?
I've seen people saying we will need to recruit some more players should we go up, does that count or is it just a made up statement from the btl school?

 

[snootyfenooty]

Care to name any of these mythical "shitting themselves" types?

Anyone talking-up the myth about the championship being at a different level to when we were last there. Look through a few recent threads yourself, there's loads. I couldn't be arsed.

 

[YES Blade]

I wouldn't say the standard has vastly improved since we were last in the Championship, but the budgets of a lot of clubs have gone through the roof! We also need to factor in that we currently have a League One squad where a fair few players won't be good enough at Championship level.

No one would spend much more than £10m in transfer fees on an entire squad when we were last there and now that is spent on one striker! Yes, we could compete by finding some gems from League One and Two, but in all likelihood we'd have to spend a fair bit to give us more of a chance to get near the play-offs.

 

[Grecian2000]

Anyone talking-up the myth about the championship being at a different level to when we were last there. Look through a few recent threads yourself, there's loads. I couldn't be arsed.

Ahh, that'll be a no then.

 

[snootyfenooty]

I wouldn't say the standard has vastly improved since we were last in the Championship, but the budgets of a lot of clubs have gone through the roof! We also need to factor in that we currently have a League One squad where a fair few players won't be good enough at Championship level.

No one would spend much more than £10m in transfer fees on an entire squad when we were last there and now that is spent on one striker! Yes, we could compete by finding some gems from League One and Two, but in all likelihood we'd have to spend a fair bit to give us more of a chance to get near the play-offs.

Can't argue with any of that. Yes, it's the budgets that have increased, not the footballing standards, and that's something we will have to address. However, there are other pro's and con's you have to throw into the mix besides money, the manager to name but one.

 

[LE3blade]

The big gap used to be between Champ and Prem - I think the big gap is L1 and Champ, with not a lot between bottom of Prem and top of Champ.

Top Prem is an entirely closed shop now.............................well, it should have been, but ask Leicester. How strange is the Leicester story. We may well be playing them next season!

UTB

agree i think theres a massive gap between L1 and the champ, theres many a club able to splash 5 mill plus on players, most of the clubs promoted have struggled badly.
would really look forward to playing leicester, and hope they go down, maybe then it would put a stop to vardys gobshite missus being in the local rag all the time

 

[JohnGannonsPerm]

I've had the pleasure(?) of visiting the New York Stadium a few times this season - including on Saturday - and I have to say that nothing I have seen has made me worry about our fortunes should we go up.

 

[pommpey]

The Championship is better than where we are, and have ben for six seasons.

Let's not kid ourselves. We'd all rather be duking it out in the league above and playing those cunts twice a season. Add 5-7k per game on the gate as well for big matches and the much vaunted investment McCabe is sticking in and we should be there to stay.

All we have to do is recruit and retain talent.

pommpey

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

The championship is more expensive since we were in it.

Doesn't necessarily mean it's better.

That means you need to spend big to complete if you have a limited manger, can't think of any examples off the top of my head.

If you're not going to spend £20m on 4 players you need a manager who can get the best out of his team and knows how to find young up and coming players.

If only we had a manager like that.........

 

[bornablade]

Interesting dilemna facing our owners next season should we achieve our goal. Chris Wilder's reputation will be as high as any manager probably outside the top 4 of the Premier league. The owners will be astutely aware that if they don't back him financially then we could return to league one in less time than it took to get out.

Wilder will be ambitious. If the board don't back him and he has a number of seasons of Championship mediocrity then his stock value falls, we get upset and he gets the sack. All his hard work at Halifax, Oxford, Northampton comes to mean nothing.

So Mr McCabe and Mr Prince find the money, back him or lose him. Come the end of the season it's not how many balls there are at BDTBL it's how big they are.

 

[Stretch]

The short answer is no, it isn't.

Don't believe the propaganda spouted by that lot in S6. It's all part of their strategy to try and make us feel inferior to them. Well after seeing them play numerous times this season I can honestly say that top 6 Championship does not look a world away from where I am sitting.

 

[BushBlade]

I'm going to summarise my previous replies to the other threads on this topic.

It's harder to get promoted but we shouldn't find it too hard to stay up and build.

 

[8lade]

No. There are 2 runaway squads in the Championship one of which cost in excess of £100m to assemble and the other was built costing less money than we've spent. Of those in the play offs:
Huddersfield -spent next to nothing
Reading - one marquee signing this year £4m
Wigan - next to nothing
Wednesday - 2 biggish signings (£3m) in the last 2 years.

So the standard may be better (I doubt it) but it comes down to the managers getting teams to play that way rather than buying it. Now with this revelation on board should we get promoted I have faith in the man in charge to get us playing at the right level, to establish and then push on.

 

[maidmarion]

I hope it is.....some of the teams we have played over recent seasons have been really bad. I'm hoping the football will be better in the Championship and it will be interesting to see the difference in the teams that have had the benefit of parachute payments over the last few years and those that haven't.
We will need to buy wisely.

 

[grafikhaus]

Watching the Championship highlights, some teams are piss poor. Leeds v Cardiff were pathetic, pigs v Brum - pathetic. Like in the PL, there's enough shite to keep United safe. Tomrrow, the pigs are at home (again) versus another shit team in Blackburn. Throw in Wendy's luck and that's why they're up there. The so-called 'chasing pack' - Norwich, Derby, Fulham etc. are inconsistent.

Teams that are seriously minted from stays in the PL - Villa and QPR suffer from having crap managers. Others like Birmingham shoot themselves in the foot by getting rid of a manager (Rowett) who was doing well and replacing him with a cunt. Ditto Barnsley who demolish their team for little gain. Burton, Wigan and Rotherham are punching above their weight and will be perennial relegation fodder.

 

[mattbianco1]

Cite Wigan if they want Danny how about villa? How much have they spent? More than anyone else I reckon and without checking where are they in the league, below halfway?

Newcastle have spent the most. However, they have also made >£70m in transfer sales.

 

[SteveBlade]

It's not stronger, players are just more expensive.

I blame brexit.

 

[SwissBlade]

Make no mistake, League 1 is fucking shit, there is a huge gulf in quality, but i think the biggest difference will be in tactics, most teams play with the intent on winning. In League 1, most sides don't play to win, they play to stop the opposition winning first.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Well judging by the Wed v Birmingham game. Brum were plucky but lacked any quality, just looked like a half decent league 1 team.

Wednesday looked much better quality individually but the team looked disjointed and were negative happy to hold on to their early lead. They only scored from rare break away attacks.

A day later I watched the Arsenal v Hull game and it was a massive step up in standard. Was quite impressed with Hull who were taking the game to Arsenal for periods with Arsenal happy to sit back and hold on.

The Championship has loads of teams that are inconsistent. If we play them on a good day it's much higher than league 1 standard. If we meet them on a bad day then we can easily beat these teams.

 

[Ricky]

The money has increased. The standard has increased. But the standard increase doesn't reflect the spending increase.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Well judging by the Wed v Birmingham game. Brum were plucky but lacked any quality, just looked like a half decent league 1 team.

Wednesday looked much better quality individually but the team looked disjointed and were negative happy to hold on to their early lead. They only scored from rare break away attacks.

A day later I watched the Arsenal v Hull game and it was a massive step up in standard. Was quite impressed with Hull who were taking the game to Arsenal for periods with Arsenal happy to sit back and hold on.

The Championship has loads of teams that are inconsistent. If we play them on a good day it's much higher than league 1 standard. If we meet them on a bad day then we can easily beat these teams.

It's highly likely that by this time next season we'll have a different look about our starting eleven, the assumption being that we'll see an improvement in the standard of play and our ability to cope with the demands of the Championship.

 

[I should coco]

No. There are 2 runaway squads in the Championship one of which cost in excess of £100m to assemble and the other was built costing less money than we've spent. Of those in the play offs:
Huddersfield -spent next to nothing
Reading - one marquee signing this year £4m
Wigan - next to nothing
Wednesday - 2 biggish signings (£3m) in the last 2 years.

Some interesting stuff there.

I didn't realise Wigan were in the play offs, but I must have missed the new rule change of .30 points for a win'.

I think Wendy spent £4m on Reach so their other 'biggish' signing must have a negative value. I know we are biased, but is he really that bad?

 

[seanbeenstattoo]

Thought the pigs had just chucked £10m at Rhodes. Can't see us emulating that kind of spend.
IF we get there we'd need at least 4 to 6 players as some of ours would IMO be squad only and some would need shipping out.
Biggest issue would be in the boardroom not on the pitch.
I'm not holding my breath for the "Liverpool type investment" the Prince will make available.

 

[Chali 2na]

The money has increased. The standard has increased. But the standard increase doesn't reflect the spending increase.

THIS!!

 

[Baw Heid]

I hope it is.....some of the teams we have played over recent seasons have been really bad. I'm hoping the football will be better in the Championship and it will be interesting to see the difference in the teams that have had the benefit of parachute payments over the last few years and those that haven't.
We will need to buy wisely.

I agree with you there but our manager will add wisely so we need to back him. I'm hoping to see a few of our Academy lads breaking through as well