dangermows
Striker
Where does the winning the league fit into that? Genuine question as interested to see, as can't remember, where those three finishes sit in terms of timescales.
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Becoming an Established Premier League Club
- Thread starter The Situation
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Mackem00
Striker
The top and bottom of it is that we are absolutely class now and some of our support don't know how to handle it. I'm just letting it soak into my every pore.
Inside Forward
Winger
Ale taster
Striker
...and everyone should be too.
Red
Striker
Thats some fall from grace.
We’ve been able to really hit the ground running this season largely thanks to a perfect storm of everything being in place from the infrastructure (Stadium and training ground, club store even), Financial situation (low cost base and surplus from player sales) and a management structure that from the top down on both the business side, recruitment and first team has been excellent.
KLD and I’m assuming Satori is involved deserve huge credit for what’s been achieved, the people they’ve put in place to run the club have done an excellent job.
How far we go now depends on what they can manage to grow the revenue to IMO, if we want to be a long term top 10 club we’ll need a top 10 income.
KLD and I’m assuming Satori is involved deserve huge credit for what’s been achieved, the people they’ve put in place to run the club have done an excellent job.
How far we go now depends on what they can manage to grow the revenue to IMO, if we want to be a long term top 10 club we’ll need a top 10 income.
tunstallhill
Striker
As if going to Anfield, the Emirates, Old Trafford as opposed to the Kassam stadium, Deepdale, KCOM stadium could ever define staleness
i bet you £100 that next season if we go out of both cups early on, and are hanging around mid-table with no threat of relegation but no consistency to challenge the top 8, that by February there'll be a decent amount of fans that start getting tetchy, restless and impatient. and that will transfer into the SoL on a matchday. its the modern world, we see it up the road and with most clubs in the premier league, the fans start booting off the second things aren't exciting
dangermows
Striker
And won it 15/16 iirc. Canny ol plummet that.
Johnny Gently
Central Defender
On the other hand we might just do even better next season and I can't see any reason to be unduly worried. I for one will cut KLD and Sartori some slack they deserve our backing even if we finish the season with a whimper, which I don't think we will.
Father Jack Hackett
Striker
Our next step is competing with top half sides at the other end of the pitch. We are statistically as good as any defensively but the big money is usually reserved for goalscorers and creators. If we could get that right within our budgets then, the sky really is the limit.
I'll quite happily take 2nd season syndrome to mean that we're in a steady mid table position without the threat of relegation. That to me would make us more stable, and we could actually then start to look upwards towards the 3rd season to see where we can improve.
The thing that gives me some hope for the future is that our board is full of knowledgeable football people, who've been around big clubs in Europe with good contacts. Players who may have not wanted to jump aboard last summer will have now had a chance to see how we've conducted ourselves this season and will be more willing to take the path Xhaka and Co have.
Morny
Striker
This is spot on.
I'm not saying it's right or fair - but it is reality. People scream about wanting mid-table obscurity, but they'll quickly become bored and complain it isn't good enough.
For example - start of last season, people would have killed to make the playoffs, would have been delighted. But because we started well and went stale second half of the season, the overwhelming mood was one of anger and fury because we didn't go up automatically.
It'll even happen this season - if we hit a bad run from now until May, and finish about 15th you'll see a lot of comments wondering if Le Bris is really that good, found out etc....
It isn't at all right, but football fans have veey short memories, they are very quick to get bored on success and they aren't even a little bit patient. Pretending that isn't the case is foolish.
Johnny Gently
Central Defender
Not all football fans have short memories even though at times when things are going badly for the club it seems like it's loads, i don't think it is. We have by and large a very loyal fanbase with a vocal minority of negative nellies who will always find something to complain about.
Fred
Striker
In all honesty, this season has almost felt like a perfect storm for us.
We have played really well on a consistent basis
We have had a few week patch where we lost quite a few players to AFCON, but other than that our injury record has been really good
It looks like a lot of the top teams are dropping off this season, or the midtable pack have finally caught up, leading to a much tighter league (take your pick).
We have invested in leadership which makes a massive difference.
Everything seems to have woven together seamlessly for us, but the chances of that happening again next season are slightly shorter, so its a case of what do the club do to mitigate that.
Do we buy a few star players at higher prices or do we get rid of quite a lot of players who will get less game time and buy more players in the £10m-£15m range and improve our strength in depth?
All I know is that I would only want to be losing one of our star players in the summer because once you get rid of more than one, a lot of others will probably start asking questions and might want to leave themselves.
We have played really well on a consistent basis
We have had a few week patch where we lost quite a few players to AFCON, but other than that our injury record has been really good
It looks like a lot of the top teams are dropping off this season, or the midtable pack have finally caught up, leading to a much tighter league (take your pick).
We have invested in leadership which makes a massive difference.
Everything seems to have woven together seamlessly for us, but the chances of that happening again next season are slightly shorter, so its a case of what do the club do to mitigate that.
Do we buy a few star players at higher prices or do we get rid of quite a lot of players who will get less game time and buy more players in the £10m-£15m range and improve our strength in depth?
All I know is that I would only want to be losing one of our star players in the summer because once you get rid of more than one, a lot of others will probably start asking questions and might want to leave themselves.
dangermows
Striker
The ponder remains if we are so good defensively due to everyone in the eleven playing to a formula rather than it just being the defence and some of the midfield. If it really is the former then you'd have to accept the potential for creators/scorers coming in possibly not having as much to support that side of things, and the defensive side becoming a little more exposed/vulnerable. Or alternatively you get others in at the top end who are as good at fitting the system as the current lot, but will simply be more clinical and creative in the moments we do get in and around the box.
Brobbey is a prime example. He fits the team/formula and it's current set up perfectly as a lone forward. He is a release, strong, can play back to goal, can hold the ball up, bring others in, draw fouls etc. He has shown he can score a few too but I don't think he's the type to get 20+ goals. Certainly not the way he is being used now. And if you replaced him with a more out and out striker, then we lose some of what he gives to the team and how we are set up, which in my opinion is all part of what is making us so solid/hard to beat.
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I looked the other day at who we finished above in our first 7th place finish in 1999/00 - nine of those teams are no longer in the Premier League:
8th Leicester; 12th Boro; 14th Cov; 15th Southampton; 16th Derby; 17th Bradford City ; 18th Wimbledon (now MK Dons); 19th Sheffield Wednesday; 20th Watford.
In other words the churn outside the established sides is huge and becoming truly 'established' will take years I think. That being said Citeh weren't even in the Prem that year, just goes to show what chucking billions of dodgy dosh gets you.
But ManUre, Arse, Liverpool, Chelski were all there of course, as were that lot up the road, Dirty Leeds, Villa, WHU, Spurs - in many ways Everton are the interesting one, somehow managing never to be relegated despite flirting with it repeatedly. No sign of Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, Fulham.
If we can keep the recruitment team, the owner and the coaching staff I firmly believe we can become established, to some degree the players can come and go - that is The Model after all.
8th Leicester; 12th Boro; 14th Cov
; 15th Southampton; 16th Derby; 17th Bradford City ; 18th Wimbledon (now MK Dons); 19th Sheffield Wednesday; 20th Watford.In other words the churn outside the established sides is huge and becoming truly 'established' will take years I think. That being said Citeh weren't even in the Prem that year, just goes to show what chucking billions of dodgy dosh gets you.
But ManUre, Arse, Liverpool, Chelski were all there of course, as were that lot up the road, Dirty Leeds, Villa, WHU, Spurs - in many ways Everton are the interesting one, somehow managing never to be relegated despite flirting with it repeatedly. No sign of Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, Fulham.
If we can keep the recruitment team, the owner and the coaching staff I firmly believe we can become established, to some degree the players can come and go - that is The Model after all.
Mackemansj1
Striker
I honestly think we will get at least one more season out of those players unless and absolutely mental bid comes in like £100m we won’t need to sell unless it makes complete sense to do so.Saw an interesting statistic the other day which outlined that 47% of newly promoted teams end up getting relegated in their first PL season.
Of the newly promoted teams that do stay up in their first season, only 11% subsequently get relegated in season 2, which shows you've got a very strong chance of getting to season 3 and well on your way to establishing yourself as a feature at that level given the advantage you have over the upcoming promoted sides at the very least.
Still early days in the Championship and a lot to play for, but at the moment the 3 coming up could be Coventry, Boro and Ipswich who would obviously start a million miles behind us in terms of squad talent, finances, ability to attract players, etc.
There's teams like Palace and Bournemouth who have lost key players and/or a manager, and sides like Leeds and Forest who (if they stay up), with respect, are probably going to be in the mix at the bottom half of the table too.
My only slight concern is that players like Roefs and Sadiki will already attract serious interest in the summer based on their performances this season. We'd obviously bring in massive money if they were to go and you'd be foolish to back against us replacing them well, but if we could hold on to our core 15-ish players and add 2-3 players of next level quality, the sky could be the limit.
Not to take anything for granted mind as we're all long enough in the tooth to know how quickly things can go wrong, but it just feels like everything is lining up really nicely for us to become a real fixture at this level. God knows we deserve it!
Can't believe we're looking ahead to next season, in January mind. What an unreal season we have had
tunstallhill
Striker
excatly.
it won't be all of the fans. might not even be the majority. but it will be a loud sub-section of our support who say things like
'i know we are safe with 20 games to go, but we can't just keep saying that we have over-acheived due to us being in the championship a year or two ago, now is the time to kick on not consolidate due to X, Y, Z reasons... KLD needs to put his hand in his pocket or sell to someone who will, we have an opportunity to challenge the top 4 here''
whilst we are sitting in a boring 11th place
Father Jack Hackett
Striker
Completely agree mate, we currently defend in. 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 as a team and that certainly doesn’t lend itself to an Isak type striker. That’s the fine balance between the top sides and everyone else, they don’t generally need to sacrifice anything in order to improve at one end of the pitch.
Wingers with a little bit more quality could possibly be the answer?
Absolutely. The crowds would likely go down a bit, if that was the case as well.
Those who didn’t attend in L1 or The Championship are riding int he crest of a wave at present but have shown they aren’t really up for anything less.
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