Championship thread 25/26! (89 Viewers)

[shmmeee]

I don't see us buying a whole new team.
Not just for the financial implications but also because of the upheaval it will cause in a club whose success has been built on stability.

I think we'll see 5 or 6 in in addition to maybe making a couple of the loans permanent.

Just checking but I think that would be by far and away the lowest number of signings any promoted club has made including Luton. I think you’re wildly underestimating.

 

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[AOM]

I don't see us buying a whole new team.
Not just for the financial implications but also because of the upheaval it will cause in a club whose success has been built on stability.

I think we'll see 5 or 6 in in addition to maybe making a couple of the loans permanent.

Also can't see us completely revamping the team.
Think one of the reasons we started so well this season was due to having a fairly settled squad

 

[Major Tom]

A rebuild will be required. Do we honestly believe we could hold our own without bringing in new players across all positions with current key squad as back up. Our defence especially is really leaky and lacks pace against championship sides, i'm not sure apart from Rushworth that any would hold their own in a promoted side.
After 50 years of watching city I don't get emotionally attached to any players and I just don't want to be embarrassed if we go up.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

A rebuild will be required. Do we honestly believe we could hold our own without bringing in new players across all positions with current key squad as back up. Our defence especially is really leaky and lacks pace against championship sides, i'm not sure apart from Rushworth that any would hold their own in a promoted side.
After 50 years of watching city I don't get emotionally attached to any players and I just don't want to be embarrassed if we go up.

We’ll need to be pragmatic
But yep lots of change will be required as the team would be nowhere near good enough to stay up without significant improvement individually

 

[clint van damme]

Just checking but I think that would be by far and away the lowest number of signings any promoted club has made including Luton. I think you’re wildly underestimating.

Maybe. We'll see.
I'd imagine how many bodies we can off load will be a factor

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Maybe. We'll see.
I'd imagine how many bodies we can off load will be a factor

We’d need a robins season first time in championship

lots of teams have failed to stay up so we can see what works

not there yet though

 

[Skybluefaz]

I’m not saying we’re anti football. Just we do what’s needed to win games. We aren’t Burnley but we aren’t a Leeds. Were Lampards Coventry. I think the Mourinho comparison is a good one.

We've scored 2 more goals than Leeds last season at the 36 game mark.

16 more than Boro.

 

[shmmeee]

We've scored 2 more goals than Leeds last season at the 36 game mark.

16 more than Boro.

OK?

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

One of the things I’ve thought we do well when playing well, is adaption. I genuinely think this season we have been the jack of all trades.

Press us high, we’ll go long. Low block we’ll play around you. We’ve given teams like Wednesday the ball just so we can press it of them in dangerous areas and we’ve thrown bodies behind the line like a Boro and countered very efficiently.

I don’t think Lampard is wed to any tactical philosophy apart from hard work and “forward”.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

Also can't see us completely revamping the team.
Think one of the reasons we started so well this season was due to having a fairly settled squad

The PL is a different animal to the Championship though. I do think in many ways those that get promoted do have to work from a blank canvas and for the most part start afresh.

The majority of our squad isn't PL standard so if we're to be promoted a significant amount of investment is going to be required for us to stay up.

I wouldn't want to compromise on improving the squad simply to preserve continuity when it's highly questionable how much weight that would actually have on our survival prospects in all honesty.

If the money is there we have to be ruthless.

 

[shmmeee]

Maybe. We'll see.
I'd imagine how many bodies we can off load will be a factor

Yeah just checked and only two teams in the last five years have made fewer than ten summer signings: Bournemouth in 2022 - 8 (who still spent close to £100m) and Leicester in 2024 - 9 (who had been a PL team for a decade prior to relegation).

So five plus Onyeka would be by far the lowest.

The average over the last 5 years is 13.9.

I’d expect around 10.

Allen and Collins will be OOC. Lats, Bidwell, Wilson will have a year left and be told they can go, maybe Simms as well. BTA, Woolfenden, Brau probably also told they can go. Leaves us with 15 including Onyeka, 10 short of a squad. Maybe 8/9 if not all of those named leave.

 

[Grendel]

It doesn't discredit you in the slightest. It won Chelsea numerous titles, Mourinho was hailed as a master tactician and their attacking players regularly and rightfully got plaudits.

Not my fault you can't take a bloody compliment!

As for the Hoodoo that doesn't detract from your performance either, there are different ways of a Hoodoo being borne out. We have the exact same Hoodoo over Brum, but likewise it shouldn't detract from our performance on that day, like yourselves against us, we found another way to win, thereby fulfilling the Hoodoo.

Personally I don't know what fans of other clubs have said on here in the past, but I suspect you're tarring me with the same brush and assuming that almost everything I say is some kind of dig for whatever reason. It's not. I don't mind a bit of craic, that's all good fun, but persistently making digs isn't my style at all.

There's similarities between Carrick and Hellberg, but there's also major differences in their setup. What we have now is more fluid, with each player having less nailed down positions. Subs will also be made as soon as they're needed, rather than waiting until 75 minutes to get "even fresher legs" which Carrick would not deviate from and above all else if we went off the boil for a few games, Hellberg mixes it up and does the unexpected. Carrick had little in the way of a Plan B.

 

[Lamps]

A rebuild will be required. Do we honestly believe we could hold our own without bringing in new players across all positions with current key squad as back up. Our defence especially is really leaky and lacks pace against championship sides, i'm not sure apart from Rushworth that any would hold their own in a promoted side.
After 50 years of watching city I don't get emotionally attached to any players and I just don't want to be embarrassed if we go up.

If we can keep Rushworth it will mean we will have spent about 20m with Onyeka. How much money do you think we will have to spend in our first season up without risking our future?

What we do have is are squad of players that are close and would run through brick walls for each other. Spending money doesn't guarantee a chance of staying up. It will be a case of keeping our best players and adding quality to them.

We would need to look at the defence more than anywhere else. MVE deserves his chance and Thomas on the bench, but not leaking goals will be important. That's why Rushworth would be an important signing.

The rest? Grimes with Onyeka at CM. EMC, Rudoni, Torp and Sakamoto as players in front of them and Wright up front.

With already spending about 20m we would only have 10 players that I would be happy with either in the team or on the edge of it. We would have a few squad fillers like Eccles and BTA. We would bring in some money for the players sold but that won't bring much quality in.

There's a few clubs in financial difficulties so won't be as strong as normal. Our aim would be 17th place. If we came straight back down with an affordable wage bill with the parachute payments we would have a good chance of an immediate return. This would give us another 100m approx to spend on players. Somehow stay up? Time to strengthen again but with a guaranteed extra year's parachute payment.

There's going to be a lot of people expecting too much if we go up. Prem quality players are not cheap. We might get a free or so and a couple of cheaper players in. But it still won't stretch very far.

 

[biggymania]

If we are recruiting for the Premiership, assuming no ownership change or significant investment - Doug will be smart enough I think to plan for the season after in the Champ. I think that puts a lot of pressure on scouting - we'll be using the same approaches and network we have, but a level up. There's a lot of risk here because I doubt we'll sign many actual Premiership level players.

Doug will have to bid really high to get Rushworth, I imagine we will go for that - but it's not guaranteed. We should also be going back for a CB like Hughes. Which ever teams miss out of the playoffs, we might look there at a few who we think can step up.

I don't see us bankrolling the entire TV money on staying up, it's just not the way Doug is likely to work.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

If we can keep Rushworth it will mean we will have spent about 20m with Onyeka. How much money do you think we will have to spend in our first season up without risking our future?

What we do have is are squad of players that are close and would run through brick walls for each other. Spending money doesn't guarantee a chance of staying up. It will be a case of keeping our best players and adding quality to them.

We would need to look at the defence more than anywhere else. MVE deserves his chance and Thomas on the bench, but not leaking goals will be important. That's why Rushworth would be an important signing.

The rest? Grimes with Onyeka at CM. EMC, Rudoni, Torp and Sakamoto as players in front of them and Wright up front.

With already spending about 20m we would only have 10 players that I would be happy with either in the team or on the edge of it. We would have a few squad fillers like Eccles and BTA. We would bring in some money for the players sold but that won't bring much quality in.

There's a few clubs in financial difficulties so won't be as strong as normal. Our aim would be 17th place. If we came straight back down with an affordable wage bill with the parachute payments we would have a good chance of an immediate return. This would give us another 100m approx to spend on players. Somehow stay up? Time to strengthen again but with a guaranteed extra year's parachute payment.

There's going to be a lot of people expecting too much if we go up. Prem quality players are not cheap. We might get a free or so and a couple of cheaper players in. But it still won't stretch very far.

There’s two unknowns though: a) if the club’s owner sells up and b) if we get big offers in for any of this season’s regulars.