Will we be competitive in the Championship next year?

[Whiston Blade]

Five people still yet to get over it. Grow up and move on.

 

[Ndlovu's Glove]

At the minute, no. As mentioned on other threads the L1 team would be competitive against the 11 we've been starting.

With the right appointment, Berge leaving and the money raised being used to invest in new players (particularly midfield), then possibly.

Without sounding like our swill neighbours, I think the Championship is a poor standard at the moment, besides Norwich.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

It's a YES from me.
I really don't understand all the doom and gloom from some posters they must spend lockdown watching Eastenders box sets or have suicidal tendencies.
While the squad needs major surgery we do have very good players for Championship level. The new manager will have a lot to work with even if as seems inevitable one or two of our best player could leave.
Two of the keepers need to go ideally we keep Ramsdale and Verrips.
The defence needs a huge clear out Stevens, Robinson, Lowe and Jags need to go for starters even so I think we would have enough with the players that remain plus RND back from Luton.
Midfield is the key area we have to improve. I expect Berge to go for sure, for me the only definite keep would be Fleck. Lundstram will be leaving hopefully with a good kick up the arse as he goes out the door along with Rodwell. I wouldn't lose any sleep if Norwood is on his bike too same for Freeman as I don't see Forest wanting him from what I hear. We need to bring in 3-4 solid performers at this level players not scared to run at defences, get forward and show a bit of flair.
In attack I think we will be OK with McGoldrick, McBurnie and Brewster have scored loads at this level no reason they can't do so again. I think Billy is done apart from 10mins off the bench get rid of Moose and Usain Burke yeah we lose a lot of pace but surely there are better players available with that pace.
As long has we get good replacements for anyone we lose we will be OK, you never know we may just hold on to our best players for next season, why the hell are some predicting a fire sale the club has never been healthier financially.

It's a YES from me.
I really don't understand all the doom and gloom from some posters they must spend lockdown watching Eastenders box sets or have suicidal tendencies.
While the squad needs major surgery we do have very good players for Championship level. The new manager will have a lot to work with even if as seems inevitable one or two of our best player could leave.
Two of the keepers need to go ideally we keep Ramsdale and Verrips.
The defence needs a huge clear out Stevens, Robinson, Lowe and Jags need to go for starters even so I think we would have enough with the players that remain plus RND back from Luton.
Midfield is the key area we have to improve. I expect Berge to go for sure, for me the only definite keep would be Fleck. Lundstram will be leaving hopefully with a good kick up the arse as he goes out the door along with Rodwell. I wouldn't lose any sleep if Norwood is on his bike too same for Freeman as I don't see Forest wanting him from what I hear. We need to bring in 3-4 solid performers at this level players not scared to run at defences, get forward and show a bit of flair.
In attack I think we will be OK with McGoldrick, McBurnie and Brewster have scored loads at this level no reason they can't do so again. I think Billy is done apart from 10mins off the bench get rid of Moose and Usain Burke yeah we lose a lot of pace but surely there are better players available with that pace.
As long has we get good replacements for anyone we lose we will be OK, you never know we may just hold on to our best players for next season, why the hell are some predicting a fire sale the club has never been healthier financially.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

Sorry meant to reply RND plays for Stoke.

 

[Bashamed]

Just outside the play offs at best I think. Which then means years of cost cutting wank while we slip away. Still at least we are shut of that shit manager.

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

Who would have predicted this season after last ?
It's in the lap of the Gods, ......

 

[beatific blade]

I think we'll get off to a dodgy start but then pick up and have the inconsistency of a "decent" top 10 championship side.

We simply won't win enough games to finish top 2.

My prediction is we'll finish somewhere between 5th and 12th.

Think Cardiff/Boro.

 

[Bobby b]

Weirdly I think next season's fortunes rely heavily on what we do in the remainder of this season, get some confidence back, get some points and be more adventurous going forward and then I would say we have a good chance of competing and get a top 6 finish, but if we carry on doing what we have for the majority of this season then all I can see is mid table, at best

 

[Badger Blade]

There are too many shit teams in there already for us to finish near the bottom.

A decent season considering this season's horror show would be somewhere between half way and the play offs as we know there are some players who are likely to go and we've got the beginning of a rebuild to do. Bristol City in the cup is a sample size of one but we were fairly comfortable for the first 70 minutes against a reasonable Championship team.

 

[SouthportBlade]

Only real barometer we have was the game vs Bristol City in the Cup. And consider we were/are a team devoid of confidence, system, quality etc. Also arguably not strongest 11, with Lowe and Sharp playing and JOC / Berge injured.

Whilst we weren't free flowing and the match had a red-card & penalty. Yet we dominated the game, both in terms of possession, territory and chances - both before and after the red card.

Bristol sit midtable in the Championship, and we were levels above them. Last 10 were a little dicey, but we really needed the result.


At the very least even without freshening the squad up, its a playoff push at bare minimum I think anyone would expect.

All the relegated team from last year are there or there abouts. Will we do a Norwich and run away with it? Doubtful.
Will we languish in the bottom half? Doubtful.

 

[robbiez666]

Only real barometer we have was the game vs Bristol City in the Cup. And consider we were/are a team devoid of confidence, system, quality etc. Also arguably not strongest 11, with Lowe and Sharp playing and JOC / Berge injured.

Whilst we weren't free flowing and the match had a red-card & penalty. Yet we dominated the game, both in terms of possession, territory and chances - both before and after the red card.

Bristol sit midtable in the Championship, and we were levels above them. Last 10 were a little dicey, but we really needed the result.

View attachment 109033
At the very least even without freshening the squad up, its a playoff push at bare minimum I think anyone would expect.

All the relegated team from last year are there or there abouts. Will we do a Norwich and run away with it? Doubtful.
Will we languish in the bottom half? Doubtful.

The riddled with injuries and poor form Bristol City? You can't compare a one-off cup game to how we'd perform in the league.

 

[jt64]

We've got the squad, after accounting for expected departures, that should be in the playoffs as a minimum - if the midfield is sorted, either by Norwood suddenly not being awful at the lower level, someone coming through who isn't in the first team picture, or bringing players in. Selling Berge and getting two players to replace should do the trick. Or loaning Berge and using the loan fee for someone.

 

[Revolution]

As things stand at the moment, we'd miss the playoffs with the squad we have., finishing about 10th.

It is too early to tell how it will actually go as we have no idea what the squad will look like. the only thing we can say for certain is that the squad is far too small for a 46 game season.

 

[CrookesBlade]

We could get the managerial appointment right, keep the majority of the squad together coupled with investing in few decent signings who hit the ground running you'd like to think we'd be threatening the top two.

Then again we could end up with a Bryan Robson style freakshow that ruins us financially for years to come (you'd hope this is less likely under the DOF model).

Or we could try out an inexperienced head coach and bomb like we did under David Weir and by October we are looking for a Pulis type manager just to keep us up.

Most likely for me we enter a transitional period replacing players we've lost with free transfers and youngsters which take a while to bed in and we finish mid table, maybe with a sniff of the play offs.

No way of knowing at the moment. We'll lose some key players in the summer but we've also got a few proven championship players who nobody will want which may work in our favour.

 

[SouthportBlade]

The riddled with injuries and poor form Bristol City? You can't compare a one-off cup game to how we'd perform in the league.

Against the riddled with injuries and poor form Sheffield United...?

Of course this match has no actual bearing on next season.
My point is more that's our barometer, as its an actual game against league opposition - obviously not perfect.

In truth its as valid as saying we beat Man Utd 2-1, HMS Piss The League sets sail soon

Tbf any thoughts on how we will perform next year is conjecture and opinion. That match amongst other things supports the view we'll be fine next year, maybe not spectacular

 

[Stewy]

Who do w want down with us, west brom seem certs, will probs lose Sam, should be top 10
SO
Fulham, plenty of there players are on loan, so they would need to rebuild still should be around top 10
or
Newcastle , club seems in freefall , but would be be a top 6 team certain

I think we should be ok... but need to keep core Egan, joc, Bash, Fleck, Didsy

presuming Berge goes, also gladly Lundstrum, maybe Robinson, Bryan, Stevens, Burke , Rodwell, Moore, Foderington

We should still have a dent team , with a few midfield additions and u23s coming through
Ramsdale,
Bogle, Bash, Egan, JOC , RND ,
Norwood , Fleck,
DIdsy
Mousett (if he can get his shit together) McBurnie -
bench of Osborn, Freeman ,Lowe, Brewster, Sharp, Verrips, Baldock,
maybe keep Jags for cover and experience , would love to see him stay at club in some capacity

 

[raul]

The fall out from the pulled thread tells me that, as of now, we appear to have a disjointed and disharmonious club, full stop. Into this, we need to find, integrate and support an entirely new Management structure, who will have to pick their way through a carpet-bombed squad of broken players, many of whom look like they never want to play football ever again.

I fear it will have to get worse, before it starts getting better.

 

[true99blade]

We’ll be competitive, but not for the top 6. Nowhere near.

 

[BushBlade]

Given we don’t know who the manager will be or who we’ll sign or sell, I don’t know why anyone thinks they can make predictions on what we’ll do. But, as it’s the Blades, we’ll probably find a way to fuck it up.

 

[ancientblade]

cannot see us not being in top 6

 

[Toronto Blade]

Some players will leave some stay.
If we have another nightmare season of injuries to key players without good standard replacements we will be in trouble again.

 

[Tezza1889]

How competitive we are will be defined by the managerial appointment, I'm now more angry with Chris Wilder than sad he's gone, a great many of us never lost faith in the man, sadly he lost faith in us or himself or the club, time will tell..

We all know the story, a sad procession of also rans, no hopers, dreamers and n borderline head cases came to an end when wilder and knill took charge...

It's about the next manager, the team will change no doubt, a few will leave (strikers won't get any attention as I've said elsewhere) but on the whole we have some cracking players coming through in RND etc, and Bogle hopefully stays..

He's left us a decent if a bit thin squad, the real problem is he's left, why when we never turned on him, that's the real question..

 

[Colombia Blade]

Assuming we keep all our players and they have permission to play, and if all players are in form/live up to the hype (a lot of caveats that absolutely will not happen!!), then I think this team would terrify most in the Championship:

-------------------Rambo----------------------

---Bogle-----Egan----O'Connell------RND---

-------------Berge-------Coulibaly------------

---Mousett---NEW/Academy---Brewster----

------------------McBurnie--------------------


However, this is probably the team that we will start with in the Championship:

----------------Rambo----------------

------Bash-----NEW-----NEW--------

--Baldock-------------------Stevens--

-------Norwood--------Fleck---------

------------NEW/Academy-----------

--------McBurnie-----Brewster-------

 

[Nagima]

How competitive we are will be defined by the managerial appointment, I'm now more angry with Chris Wilder than sad he's gone, a great many of us never lost faith in the man, sadly he lost faith in us or himself or the club, time will tell..

We all know the story, a sad procession of also rans, no hopers, dreamers and n borderline head cases came to an end when wilder and knill took charge...

It's about the next manager, the team will change no doubt, a few will leave (strikers won't get any attention as I've said elsewhere) but on the whole we have some cracking players coming through in RND etc, and Bogle hopefully stays..

He's left us a decent if a bit thin squad, the real problem is he's left, why when we never turned on him, that's the real question..

You are right. The next appointment as manager is the crucial piece. That person has to handle the fallout from relegation, ship some players out and bring some quality in. Then he has to get the squad to gel and play positively.
Assuming Lundstram and Berge goes, possibly Norwood too. Then that leaves 2 to 3 midfielders to buy. Add in that we have been light in back up in this area and Ampadu returning to Chelsea. That's a big piece of work to get right and will be key to next season's performance.

 

[toshack]

I would take a playoff place now.

Heavily depends on who they bring in but as we stand next season stinks of a mid table finish for me.

 

[Rodley]

I think you’ve got to be optimistic and say “Yes”

 

[Bladeinleeds]

As currently assembled I don’t think we have a top 6 championship side, or anything particularly close to it.

especailly if you factor in the departure of berge and probably a couple of key defenders. We don’t possess the attacking quality and we won’t score enough goals.

if we appoint someone who can get a tune out of £60m worth of strikers, and add in some flair and pace to the side we will be alright imo.

that said it’s all down to who we appoint in the summer. Get the right manager and that’s basically all that matters, appoint the wrong one and a drift towards league one wouldn’t be out of the question a la Sunderland.

 

[Bladezz]

We have to be top 2 with this side.

 

[MalmoBlade]

We'll finally break the Play-Off curse and get promoted in the Wembley sunshine in front of a full house.



"NURSE!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[jono_t2000]

After listening to the Prince's interview. I am 1000% more confident of a successful championship campaign than if we were going down and still had McCabe owning us