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We have massively underestimated The Championship

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Mainze said:
Like Barnsley? Even Norwich battered us, that was the fluke result of the season. Make no mistake we are in a for a relegation ba...in fact I'm not even going to say battle because that indicates a team willing to fight.
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I take your point mate but I mean in general, like from now till May I think we'll probably have more joy on the road than at home.

I respect your view but I honestly don't think it'll come to that. I think, not getting in a proven goal scorer and putting our eggs in 1 basket (Rhodes and McCormack) only to fail miserably was naive of the club and a f***ing terrible decision.

Having said that, we've kept hold of N'Dong and we're only 2 or 3 players away from a relatively strong team (For this level).

I think we'll address our lack of attacking options up top in January and if we can get Cattermole back up to his best, McGeady and Watmore to hit form we'll be fine. My concern is defensively as we look all over the place at the moment. I don't know what we're doing in training to improve this but it's not working.

Like I say I'm not naive, I say how bad we were on Saturday but I think we'll turn it around. I think there's at least 6 worse teams than us.

I hope I'm right as it's easy to get dragged in a relegation battle. Need to really start improving like, Barnsley & Sheffield United matches were totally unacceptable from us.
 
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Mainze said:
Like Barnsley? Even Norwich battered us, that was the fluke result of the season. Make no mistake we are in a for a relegation ba...in fact I'm not even going to say battle because that indicates a team willing to fight.
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I know everyone has a downer on us, but they really didn't like. It wasn't a fluke, we deserved to win the game and could have had more. We haven't built on it and teams have wised up to our long ball tactics.
 
We haven't underestimated it at all.

Our last 6 seasons at this level (last one 10 years ago with totally different owners, players and manager) have seen us finish 1st four times and 3rd twice, so it is impossible for us not to at least finish in the top 3.
 
frot said:
I know everyone has a downer on us, but they really didn't like. It wasn't a fluke, we deserved to win the game and could have had more. We haven't built on it and teams have wised up to our long ball tactics.
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They had the ball for 3/4 of the game. They could have easily scored 5/6 I'm going fluke. Results since back up that argument.
 
Lanchesterredandwhite said:
The outpouring of theories on what is going wrong is weird. It isn't about team selection, it isn't about tactics, it isn't about the manager, it isn't about formation, it isn't about where the away fans are in the ground, it isn't about fans leaving early, it isn't about interviews in the Echo.

And it isn't about underestimating the Championship.

It's about the financial mess that Ellis Short has put this club in, and the way he is recovering as much of the cost of his mistakes as possible, so that he can sell the club, no matter what the consequences are.

He didn't give the manager £1.25m to spend on 10 players (out of the best part of £60m we have generated in 2017) because he thought the Championship would be easy.

He did that because he doesn't give a fuck what happens to SAFC, but he wants to take as much money out of it as he can.

He has long since passed the likes of Vincent Tan in a league of shite owners. This bloke is on a par with Venky's, and heading into Oyston territory the way he is destroying the club for his own personal gain.
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Sadly, this is the truth and it's the sole reason we went down in the first place. I'm sure he gave a fuck at one point but seeing vast amounts of money wasted on the likes of Jack Rodwell has meant he's decided to pack it all in. Maybe we'll get taken over next season instead. Maybe we won't.

That said, we're playing a lot worse than I expected us to. It was obvious for everyone blessed with the gift of eyesight that we needed a striker. We didn't get one. Thinking we were going to get McCormack after such a long transfer window was purely delusional. The whole reason he didn't come is because Villa had no intention of loaning him out to us. They played us like a fiddle and you could see it happening all summer. Embarrassing.
 
Defoe to Vaughan. Just about sums up the massive kick in the nuts we have suffered after being bummed by relegation.
 
It's a poor league but, the simple fact is, we've brought ina whole new team of freebies and £100k signings. That doesn't get you very far.

kick in the quinn said:
Defoe to Vaughan. Just about sums up the massive kick in the nuts we have suffered after being bummed by relegation.
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Pickford to Steele and Ruiter as well
 
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Do we have the physical capacity/presence to compete in this league? Looking at our midfielders and attackers there are few if any over 6 feet. Whilst we might have players with ability there is a tendency for them to be muscled out or fouled (e.g.Williams on Saturday). It also appears that more physical contact is let go in this league.
 
No we haven't. Its a shit league and the highest standard of a few teams is that of premier league canon fodder. What we have underestimated is the paucity of quality in our squad and the overwhelming aura of failure that hangs over the club after 5 years of failing to learn lessons and getting progressively weaker.

Anyone who arrogantly thought we even had a whisper of going back up was a numpty with an almost mag like superiority complex.
 
Only a few dopey twats on here underestimated it, with their "we'll piss it" remarks, they'll remain dopey twats.
 
I think the Championship is a poor league but I think a lot of people underestimated how bad of a side we were / are and also the effect carrying a losing mentality into a new season

We have none of the things that can get you out of the contract. We don't have a solid defence, we don't have enough goals in the team and we aren't a team that is hard to play against. At the moment we look like a team that will be in a relegation battle but it is still very early in the season, hopefully SG can find something that works

I'm still baffled by the decision to sign Grabban and Vaughan but no target man. Even someone like Clayton Donaldson who destroyed us on Saturday would make a massive difference to the side
 
Don't think we're definitely going down, but I've mentioned previous that we're 100% a worse team than Burton were fielding last season, and they only just scraped it.
 
The main reason is mismanagement by the owner. Top and bottom of it, we're skint we're in deep shit and he done it. He hasn't ruined us on purpose but his decisions on a boardroom level have fucked us big style.
 
Said when we got relegated we shouldn't underestimate the Championship. While the standard is poor you needto have some fight and desire to get stuck in.

Crazy the way some people were talking about winning the league at a canter. Bragging about how N'Dong would be the best midfielder, even on this thread people talking about getting Cattermole back to his best. He's a crock, we were wrong to rely on him in the PL and we are wrong to depend on him now. Rodwell continues to be an utter coward, struggling to think of anyone else who has actually hid behind players so they don't receive the ball.
 
Keawyeds said:
Here's a number of factors:

Grayson apparently knows how to deal with The Championship. So far you'd wonder considering the way we've been playing.
I would probably say that's down to the players as much as him to be fair.

Speaking of the players, we were quite optimistic when a new bunch came in - eager to make their mark on the game and on the club - good stuff.
However, what seems to have happened is that collectively as a club, from Ellis Short and Martin Bain, right down to the manager and players, is we have completely underestimated the championship.

The majority of teams currently in the Championship have at one point been in the Premier League.

Cardiff City
Leeds United
Wolves
Ipswich Town
Sheff Utd
Middlesbrough
Derby County
QPR
Sheff. Wednesday
Nottm Forest
Fulham
Hull City
Barnsley
Reading
Norwich City
Aston Villa
Sunderland
Birmingham
Bolton

These are the only ones which haven't.

Bristol City
Burton
Brentford
Preston
Millwall

It is a notoriously hard league to get out of. Some former Prem teams have fallen further than this. Blackpool, Wigan, Portsmouth etc.

I don't want soundbites about how the players are hurting, I want to see results.
We've just been relegated. That means for every club in the Championship, we're one of the teams to beat because we still have relegation hangover.
We need to come out swinging against Notts Forest tomorrow or I can see there being an absolute shitstorm from the fans against Hull next weekend
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I didnt.
started a thread welcome to the Butcher, Buxton era. The night before the Derby game because that is exactly where we are no prospect of promotion and looking down at the wrong end of the table.
We have little or no hope until we are shot of Short and Bain.
 
The championship is a shit league with shit teams.

The problem is we're shit ourselves so are performing shit in this shit league.
 
How can people say the Championship is a crap league??? full of ex premiership teams apart from a few, bloody hard league which we all knew and now rather than spend 5 - 10million to get out of it you have to spend 30 - 50million unbelievable Jeff, we need Watmore, Maja and McNair back asap, we need to sign at least 1 free striker, even if he gets us 10 goals better than nowt
 
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