Serious post alert...

Do certain members of this board believe we have just been promoted to the Premiership?</p>

Fair enough there are some 'big' teams in this division. Well when I say big I mean big fan bases but all in serious debt apart from maybe Palace and Birmingham.</p>

The reason why all the sides including us are in this division is on merit nothing more nothing less. All the teams deserve to be in this division. It has always been like this from the year the leagues were formed to now. Fair enough money talks and we could have made a few more signings but lets get it in perspective, the year we got promoted to the premier league we were far from Favourites were we?</p>

We made a few signings in the summer - Matty Appleby from Darlington (3rd division), Clint Marcelle from the Portuguese 95th division. Bosancic from the maltese league. The list goes on.</p>

Lets be positive about our chances. Get behind the lads, it might work wonders.</p>

 

No, no, no.

Expect the worst. That way, anything better is a cause for celebration.

There's method in our madness.

I bet my head explodes in five minutes. No, make that three minutes.

 

My head has already exploded...

from being serious for approximately 4 minutes.</p>

Is that tanni grey thomson doing the long jump?</p>

 

I feel we were better equiped to deal with the big boys in the prem when we went up than we are now in this division. </p>

We have no strength in our squad, we have players who struggled in league one last year and we have lost our best player to a rival team. We haven't signed 1 player with championship experience or a player with a proven track record for scoring goals.
In response to look at the players we signed when we went up, this is alot harder a division now than it was then and we already had division 1 players at the club not lower league ones.</p>

 

Why is this a stronger league than it was before?

Evidence?</p>

Reason?</p>

I can't understand the argument about this being a stronger division than before. Palace, sunderland and birmingham are in this division because they weren't good enough to be in the premier league. We were in the top 3 sides in league 1 hence our promotion. Teams like Washday, Burnley, Stoke etc are all beatable.</p>

Put it in perspective, if we'd have drawn any of them clubs last year in the cup at home, would you have fancied us to beat them?</p>

 

RE: Why is this a stronger league than it was before?

You seriously don't think its a harder league for us to be playing in now?</p>

Most teams in our league have got players with premiership experience, players who are used to championship football and who are of far better ability than the ones we have.</p>

Teams have moved on massively since we were last in this league, we are now a league one club in the championship.</p>

 

RE: Why is this a stronger league than it was before?

yep - all this worry that this is a stronger league than it has been for years is a load of tosh. footballs a team game - and we have got a good team with great spirit. that will be enough to keep us up - just.

still, we do need another striker if we are going to push on. we should also have kept shuker i think

 

Premier League experience?

What has that got to do with it?</p>

They have premier league experience in teams that got beat every week. That is why they were relegated. Since the game was invented there has been promotion and relegation. The teams that come down have all had experience in the league above. It was the same in 96/97 it was the same the year after and the year after that.</p>

This division is no stronger than it was when we got promoted. I will go back to my previous post. When we were promoted to the prem, we weren't in the top 12 favourites to go up. We signed about 6 players, all with no top division experience, most of them from divisions below what BFC were playing.</p>

 

"We haven't signed 1 player with championship experience"

Togwell was signed from Palace and played 4 games for them.

 

RE: Premier League experience?

I think the argument is that the share of money in the leagues is a lot more disproptionate now than it was even ten years ago. Increased investment in the Premier and Championship leagues has allowed teams to strengthen more readily than those in lower divisions. Hence, they should, theoretically, have better players than us.

I think there are some weak teams in this league, and you're right - we do stand a chance of beating quite a few. However, even some of the weaker teams will have players that have long been beyond our means to buy. This gives them a head start on us. When people talk of weak teams in this league, we're one of them.

 

I agree with your point...

and yes other teams have a head start and yes we will be one of the favourites to go down.</p>

The point is that all the teams in this division are there on merit. It has always been the same. I can remember when Wolves were relegated to Division 2 in the early 80's and aparrently the division was tyhe strongest ever and the big clubs had too much money for the likes of us to compete. Wolves found thnemselves in Division 4 not long after.</p>

This division is NOT as strong as 'some' people on here make out. The bottom half of this division's teams are not not much better then the top few teams of the division below.</p>

 

RE: I agree with your point...

It's not a strong league, agreed. There are two or three stand out sides, but the difference in standards between mid-table and the bottom isn't as drastic as some are making out.