Davies Bree Roberts Mawson Smith/Williams ????? ????? Scowen ????? ????? Watkins Manager: ????? Defence doesn't look too bad, but loanees going back, (costly) contracts for Hammill and White ending, and speculation whether Conor and Sam will be sold, there's a lot of uncertainty in there. Not impossible we'd have another curate's egg of a season next term. At least Roberts and Mawson are looking a solid foundation to build on. Then again, maybe Digby will return a new man?
IF we managed to get promoted, i'm not sure how many of our starting XI are consistently championship quality. big step up
Neither am I. I genuinely believe that one more season at this level would do us good. Except of course there's a serious risk that the team will disintegrate if we don't go up. Conor and Sam have a year left - surely if we stay down we have to be looking at giving them an extension with a release clause if we don't go up in 2016/17.
It all depends on what league we are in. Get promoted and we keep Aidy Conor Sam and Adam and possibly sign Isgrove Brownhill and Long If not it then it'll be a lot of youth and loanees.
I know it may seem a bit odd, but I wouldn't mind going up this season and getting relegated straight away, if we keep the same group of players who can develop Like Burnley have done in Premier League and Championship
i doubt we'd keep either. i think we'd have another rebuild on our hands, unfortunately. sam, conor, hammill and all the loans have probably done enough to find a championship club. i also expect brownhill to get a new contract at preston.
Lads, we've Burton, Blunts and Wigan to play away. We're not going to be in the playoffs - get over it.
If we don't go up this season, what makes you think we'll go up next season even if our team doesn't disintegrate. We had all this last time we won promotion, 'we went up too early' League 1 teams with relatively young unknowns have gone on to do very well after reaching the Championship,Southampton for example, who was Adam Lallana? I bet our owner doesn't want to miss out on the £8 million Championship money. Then there's the money for winning the play- offs and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the millions from a John Stones sale either. The sooner we get out of this league the better.
That's your view, not everyone else's. I was very pessimistic about the Port Vale result given our missing players and our poor record there. Others were'nt,they were right. No reason why we can't reach the play-offs
And more to come, I think 3 home wins and 2 away wins to come. Chessie will battle for a draw and wins at Blunts and Burton. Hopefully all resolved before Wigan game.
My opinion (and it's only my opinion) Neither Townsend or Davies shouldn't be anywhere near the first team squad
The current side took a while to gel, but since they have we've only lost twice, drawn twice, and won all the rest. That suggests to me that the same side, a year older and more experienced, would stand a very good chance of winning the league. Basic logic really. Having said that, a) there are no guarantees; b) the team will probably be torn apart; c) I would much prefer us to go up this season. Which if we qualify for the playoffs, I think we will.
It's not the side as such, rather the squad. We haven't really had a settled side due to injuries and suspensions. to their credit the loan players haven't just come in and made the numbers up, Toney, apart, ( not knocking him) they've had an impact on games. We can't guarantee loaning same players back. Look at teams that have either narrowly missed on playoffs or lost in them and struggled following season, Leyton Orient and Swindon for example. Really hoping we get promoted, I would be more optimistic of us being at least OK in the Championship next season than being promoted out of this league next season.
A fair point mate, very well made. Having said that, we do have a reasonably settled system, so it's reasonably to hope that any replacements will be able to slot in without too much disruption.
Another point that doesn't seem to of been mentioned is the fact that if we do go up not only do you get an increase in revenue like we all know but more players are willing to join. People who get released from Premier League clubs are only dropping one tier and are looking to make their way in the game on very reasonable contracts. Our scouting system is a lot, lot better than the last time we were in the Championship. We were just getting old has beens who cared about their last pay day and not keeping our proud club in the second tier. I love Conor, Sam, Adam and Aidy like most other people but they aren't the only players in the world, we can recruit again as we have done before. They are onto a good thing here. They are all young, all getting good game time and are all very much appreciated by the coaching staff and us fans. It's harder to get that than you think. We have the stadium and the facilities of a Championship club and if we got promoted we would have a bigger gate obviously so it wouldn't feel like they were playing for a League One club in the Championship it would feel like they were playing in a Championship quality football club that is playing there. They only have to look at the likes of Bournemouth and Brentford to a lesser extent that have stuck with a lot of players from their League One days and look at them now. They have all been rewarded by staying loyal.
