Standing Still or Falling Behind? (1 Viewer)

[SkyBlueGuy]

Question: Does the Championship (or Second Division, as it was) actually get better each year? Are the players, tactics, and overall standard genuinely improving season after season?

I ask because I've been reading a few threads about signings lately, and there seem to be two schools of thought. One is that we had a top-six side last year, kept the group together, and added players in key positions—so we should be about the same or better. The other view is that standing still means falling behind—that unless you strengthen, you'll slip backwards because the league keeps improving.

I'm not sure how you'd objectively measure improvement across the league. It's certainly changing—the game today is very different from the 80s or 90s with new rules, better fitness, sports science, data analysis, and so on. There's evolution, no doubt. But is it improvement in the purest sense?

I'm not trying to start an argument—genuinely curious what others think. Is the bar being raised every year?

 

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[stupot07]

It's too difficult to say really. What we do know for a fact is the gap between the Premier League and the Championship is getting bigger.

 

[andrew.roberts]

My opinion is that we have gone neither forward or backwards at this stage. Our business over the next few weeks will be paramount.

 

[fernandopartridge]

The standard of the league is better than it was between 2001 and 2012.

I don't think the league improves every year because it just doesn't have the collective spending power to keep bringing in better players. Most teams are trading rather than adding.

 

[Ashdown]

Check out the bookies, they’re usually pretty close for predictions.

 

[Skybluecol]

The league does gets better over time but not necessarily by each year imo
I think we're moving forward as we're continuously improving our squad and giving it more depth as well as having less loan players. Reducing the need to bring in more players during transfer windows....think it was Grimes that pointed out recently that our turnover this summer has been next to nothing with a few additions. Yes we've all got our views on where we need to add, my own view a CB, but we've not been this stable as a squad with this quality for donkeys (90's?)

 

[skybluecam]

The standard improves over time but that is mostly big picture factors like better knowledge of sports science (training, nutrition, recovery), better coaching, the use of data etc.

When people talk about strengthening they generally mean getting new players in the door, in that sense the league is generally pretty consistent season to season in terms of the average level of players.

 

[Lamps]

The standard improves over time but that is mostly big picture factors like better knowledge of sports science (training, nutrition, recovery), better coaching, the use of data etc.

When people talk about strengthening they generally mean getting new players in the door, in that sense the league is generally pretty consistent season to season in terms of the average level of players.

This season looks very different than before. All at the same time we have somewhere around 1/4 of Championship teams in serous financial difficulties. Then we have others not replacing players sold/released like for like before they get into worse financial difficulties. Add to this the smaller clubs that just have the aim of survival. That's already over half the clubs accounted for.

 

[Hincha]

When people talk about standing still I think it is more about how you get worked out tactically and the environment gets stale

Top level examples but Pep & Fergie have both said even when you’ve reached the top you need to refresh the squad

We haven’t even reached the top yet so ideally the outfield starting 10 gets a couple new faces. The links show the club are trying tbf

 

[SkyBlueGuy]

When people talk about standing still I think it is more about how you get worked out tactically and the environment gets stale

Top level examples but Pep & Fergie have both said even when you’ve reached the top you need to refresh the squad

We haven’t even reached the top yet so ideally the outfield starting 10 gets a couple new faces. The links show the club are trying tbf

I think this is spot on tbh. That said, I'm not sure the squad has been together long enough to go "stale" yet. We could definitely do with a couple of extras, and with that you'd hope to address the issues you raise.

There are a couple of players we would like to move on to allow one or two in. Rudoni is a great example of how getting the right player in can change the dynamic of a team. His delivery alone was a huge improvement from what we had, particularly for set pieces.