Championship thread 25/26! (50 Viewers)

Lamps · 2026-03-09T18:09:23+0000

KenilworthSkyBlue said:
We wouldn't really be left with a massive wage bill though?

All contracts would have relegation clauses inserted in them which typically amount to around 40-50% upon relegation.

I would've thought similar to Ipswich there would be a player or two that we'd be able to move on for sizeable fees as well which should cover any operating costs we're stuck with - plus we'd receive a couple of years of parachute payments on top of that.

Spurs is a bit of a backward comparison. They'll be in huge trouble because they've deployed such a conservative approach and didn't heed the warnings of last season.

Also their situation is far more complex and unique. They lost around £130m last year and much of their income is quite literally dependent on them remaining in the PL and/or Europe - e.g. sponsorships.

If they get relegated you're also possibly looking at a massive drop off in attendance.

Sorry but this is nonsense.

Spurs are a fully integrated Premier side. They have gambled big time on making the top 6 and it's gone wrong. Their expenditure on wages well goes against their income. We're hitting the point where the better run clubs have the advantage. All we have to do is keep being a better run club to take advantage of all the gambled that have gone wrong.

Leicester from Premier champions to League One within 10 years? Just run us within our means and we will benefit.

skybluecam · 2026-03-09T18:22:04+0000

shmmeee said:
Markelo who have struggled to make the team at this level.

He's been here a month ffs

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T18:25:15+0000

skybluecam said:
He's been here a month ffs

Maybe you can name players we’ve signed who had played eight minutes after a month and then went on to become a regular.

Hincha · 2026-03-09T18:25:23+0000

shmmeee said:
Where you getting that transfer data from? Wiki has Brentford signing a lot more than that;

2021–22 Brentford F.C. season - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

TransferMarkt and cross-referencing appearances

Most of those are teenagers signed for Brentford B. Similarly, our wikipedia transfers for 25/26 include Oscar Varney & Shay Dunn

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T18:28:54+0000

KenilworthSkyBlue said:
Spurs won't go bust, no.

But I don't think we'd ever seen a club of this magnitude go down, not one with an operational infrastructure their size. Last year they had the third-highest operating costs in all of Europe

So it would be interesting to see how that would pan out. They'll likely lose £250m overnight and that becomes a massive black hole for Joe Lewis to plug one top of the initial losses.

I do agree this perpetual myth pushing of high levels of spending = Armageddon is a bit ridiculous.

It obviously comes with its risks but trying to achieve financial sustainability along with wanting to achieve success is a bit of a contradiction. For the most part one doesn't really come without the other.

Also, fans need to stop seeing football clubs as normal businesses when they're not. Out of the 92 pro clubs in English football I would wager between 80-90% made a loss last year. No normal industry could operate like that and survive.

Yeah it’s not nice. But I doubt being Luton and getting double relegated was nice either. Football finances are fucked and we aren’t going to change that by holding back £20m when we lose more than that in a season at this level.

Terry_dactyl · 2026-03-09T18:32:00+0000

shmmeee said:
Maybe you can name players we’ve signed who had played eight minutes after a month and then went on to become a regular.

Josh Eccles was here for years before becoming a regular.

skybluecam · 2026-03-09T18:32:59+0000

shmmeee said:
Maybe you can name players we’ve signed who had played eight minutes after a month and then went on to become a regular.

Just not relevant though is it. We're in a title fight with plenty of other options in that position, and he'd not played much football immediately prior to joining. Lampard said from the start he would be eased in and it wasn't a signing for immediate impact.

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T18:37:55+0000

skybluecam said:
Just not relevant though is it. We're in a title fight with plenty of other options in that position, and he'd not played much football immediately prior to joining. Lampard said from the start he would be eased in and it wasn't a signing for immediate impact.

I’ll put you down as a “no”

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T18:39:52+0000

Terry_dactyl said:
Josh Eccles was here for years before becoming a regular.

Eccles was younger than Markelo when he first played a significant role for us.

Terry_dactyl · 2026-03-09T18:45:25+0000

shmmeee said:
Eccles was younger than Markelo when he first played a significant role for us.

You’re moving the goal posts.

Evo1883 · 2026-03-09T18:47:28+0000

I know @CCFCAnalysis is on here .

Mate i cant understand this mindset , this is why we follow countrywide to see them get back to the top .. without this whats the point in going ?

This will be incredible for us , our kids and our city

skybluecam · 2026-03-09T19:21:15+0000

Evo1883 said:
I know @CCFCAnalysis is on here .

Mate i cant understand this mindset , this is why we follow countrywide to see them get back to the top .. without this whats the point in going ?

This will be incredible for us , our kids and our city

It's true though, personally I think VAR is an absolute killer.

Even before Torp's goal at Wembley was ruled out it ruined it for me as I thought it might be disallowed.

England games haven't quite been the same either.

Obviously still want to go up and the first season will be great because of the novelty, but I do think the Championship represents a better match going fan experience all round.

skybluecam · 2026-03-09T19:22:23+0000

shmmeee said:
I’ll put you down as a “no”

Mason Clark didn't play at single minute for us in his first month, he's turned out all right.

HuckerbyDublinWhelan · 2026-03-09T19:23:55+0000

Evo1883 said:
I know @CCFCAnalysis is on here .

Mate i cant understand this mindset , this is why we follow countrywide to see them get back to the top .. without this whats the point in going ?

This will be incredible for us , our kids and our city

Yeah small time loser mentality. Sport is about reaching the pinnacle. Becoming a household name. Being the best

It’s why Britain struggles as a sporting nation in general. Prefer being a plucky underdog. Glorious losers. It’s why people prefer the likes of Frank Bruno

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T19:27:05+0000

skybluecam said:
Mason Clark didn't play at single minute for us in his first month, he's turned out all right.

Yes when loaned back to Peterborough he didn’t play at all.

Evo1883 · 2026-03-09T19:27:59+0000

skybluecam said:
It's true though, personally I think VAR is an absolute killer.

Even before Torp's goal at Wembley was ruled out it ruined it for me as I thought it might be disallowed.

England games haven't quite been the same either.

Obviously still want to go up and the first season will be great because of the novelty, but I do think the Championship represents a better match going fan experience all round.

Its not true at all , when i was younger going to watch coventry city against the best teams i had butterflies going to the stadium

How can watching teams like oxford united at home be better than watching us compete in the premier league against the worlds best players

I know its edgy to pretend the championship is peak football .. but its not

thekidfromstrettoncamp · 2026-03-09T20:14:19+0000

Sky Blue Pete said:
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

If i've worked it out right 8 teams who have gone up in the last 10 years are still there.Although Bournmouth and Fulham have done a down and up in that time.One of those will drop out this year(Wolves) but every chance 2 who went up last year will stay up.Nearly half the table not as bad as I thought

wingy · 2026-03-09T20:18:07+0000

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:
Yeah small time loser mentality. Sport is about reaching the pinnacle. Becoming a household name. Being the best

It’s why Britain struggles as a sporting nation in general. Prefer being a plucky underdog. Glorious losers. It’s why people prefer the likes of Frank Bruno

Yeah but it's no good when it gets expanded to whatever number of teams can still go for it,var will invade the second tier soon enough as well, it's not so great when it's going to increase the expenditure you'll need to follow a team, certainly in this climate.

Liquid Gold · 2026-03-09T20:29:09+0000

Never did I think I’d see posts saying they don’t want premier league football or if we do get there to barely spend any money.

HuckerbyDublinWhelan · 2026-03-09T20:57:49+0000

wingy said:
Yeah but it's no good when it gets expanded to whatever number of teams can still go for it,var will invade the second tier soon enough as well, it's not so great when it's going to increase the expenditure you'll need to follow a team, certainly in this climate.

That’s inevitable though like you said - it’s seeping into the championship. Soon you’ll be paying £50 a game in either league. £50 v Oxford/lincoln or £50 against Man City.

then you’ll be making the same arguments for league one

JohnWH · 2026-03-09T21:05:36+0000

Liquid Gold said:
Never did I think I’d see posts saying they don’t want premier league football or if we do get there to barely spend any money.

I'll go ahead and be that guy.
I don't want Premier League football, and spend Not One Penny More, just send that 200m£ straight to the bank. Rinse and repeat every other year, build up a 2 billion £ war chest to unleash

Travs · 2026-03-09T21:07:39+0000

I certainly want us to go up.... otherwise there's no point in competitive sport.

But he's right that the journey is very likely to be better than the destination. Everyone is happy to spout on here that the championship is one of the most competitive and entertaining leagues in the world.

VAR is absolutely dogshit.

Going up carries a great probability that a huge chunk of city fans are going to want Lampard out by xmas if/when we are struggling in the bottom three (although thats a catch-22 because he may well be gone if we don't go up!)

Its great to be going up (we're almost there) but there's no getting away from the fact that the Premier League is pretty sterile.

fernandopartridge · 2026-03-09T21:10:02+0000

shmmeee said:
24 and 26 points from 30 is a ridiculous return

Yes, I don't think it's typical really. It'd be better to look at the first and second placed finishers over seasons. Team and points at 36 games, final points in brackets.
2024
Leicester 81 (97) 16 points from 10
Ipswich 78 (96) 18 points from 10
2023
Burnley 80 (101) 21 points from 10
Sheffield United 67 (91) 24 points from 10
2022
Fulham 77 (9 0) 13 points from 10
Bournemouth 69 (88) 19 points from 10
2021
Norwich 79 (97) 18 points from 10
Watford 69 (91) 22 points from 10

About 19 points on average. Quite interesting that the second placed team has got more points in the last ten in every one of those seasons. There was a healthy gap with ten games to go in most of them bar 2024 which might explain it a bit. In each season the team leading the division at 36 games has gone on to finish first. The last time that didn't happen was the 2019/20 season which I think was paused because of COVID. At the 36 game mark West Brom were top by a point from Leeds but went on to finish second to Leeds.

Shannerz · 2026-03-09T21:22:30+0000

shmmeee said:
Maybe you can name players we’ve signed who had played eight minutes after a month and then went on to become a regular.

That's a very exact number, but Sakamoto didn't play much when he first arrived, neither did Kitching.

Going further back, Mo Konjic barely featured when we first signed him (partly through injury) and went on to be club captain.

I don't know what sort of signing Markelo will end up being, but I'm not reading too much into his current level of involvement.

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T21:35:07+0000

Shannerz said:
That's a very exact number, but Sakamoto didn't play much when he first arrived, neither did Kitching.

Going further back, Mo Konjic barely featured when we first signed him (partly through injury) and went on to be club captain.

I don't know what sort of signing Markelo will end up being, but I'm not reading too much into his current level of involvement.

Sakamoto had him beat by game three and wasn’t out of the squad from day one.

Kitching also had him beat from game three and wasn’t out of the squad.

Even Brau has him beat. Torp another Jan signing has him beat

You do know what kind of signing he will end up being you just don’t want to say it. But you know it’s unusual for a £4.5m signing not to be able to get near the squad.

It extremely entertaining watching the denial though so keep it up.

Mucca Mad Boys · 2026-03-09T21:38:20+0000

shmmeee said:
24 and 26 points from 30 is a ridiculous return

It’s just not likely, is it? It’s possible, just not probable. Likewise, we’re in a position where we need 17-19 points to hit the same overall points tally so we need to be need to average for our season and the chasing pack need to be flawless.

The reason Sheff U lost out on automatic promotion is because they lost two 6 pointers v Burnley and Leeds in the final 13 games. The highest placed teams we play is Hull, Derby, Wrexham and Southampton. Tough teams, but you favour 1st place to beat 5-8th in most cases.

We had 6 pointers v Millwall and Boro and won both. The 2nd automatic promotion spot is between Millwall, Ipswich and Boro and all play each other and the team that wins those key games will go up.

shmmeee · 2026-03-09T21:42:25+0000

Mucca Mad Boys said:
It’s just not likely, is it? It’s possible, just not probable. Likewise, we’re in a position where we need 17-19 points to hit the same overall points tally so we need to be need to average for our season and the chasing pack need to be flawless.

The reason Sheff U lost out on automatic promotion is because they lost two 6 pointers v Burnley and Leeds in the final 13 games. The highest placed teams we play is Hull, Derby, Wrexham and Southampton. Tough teams, but you favour 1st place to beat 5-8th in most cases.

We had 6 pointers v Millwall and Boro and won both. The 2nd automatic promotion spot is between Millwall, Ipswich and Boro and all play each other and the team that wins those key games will go up.

I think we all know anything is possible in football. I think we’ll win the title. But averages are just that and historic records only hold until they’re broken.

We could end up on 100 points or get overtaken and finish fourth and no one really knows. The endless spreadsheets and average points through the ages posts including mine are nought but statistical comfort blankets.

Shannerz · 2026-03-09T21:53:09+0000

shmmeee said:
You do know what kind of signing he will end up being.

No, I don't! And neither do you.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a little sceptical, but I'm not going to make ridiculous pronouncements either.

I'm not denying anything, I'm reserving judgement, which, call me old fashioned, seems the more rational path to take.

Ccfcisparks · 2026-03-09T21:59:20+0000

Shannerz said:
No, I don't! And neither do you.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a little sceptical, but I'm not going to make ridiculous pronouncements either.

I'm not denying anything, I'm reserving judgement, which, call me old fashioned, seems the more rational path to take.

At first I thought he was rage baiting

wingy · 2026-03-09T22:00:28+0000

Shannerz said:
No, I don't! And neither do you.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a little sceptical, but I'm not going to make ridiculous pronouncements either.

I'm not denying anything, I'm reserving judgement, which, call me old fashioned, seems the more rational path to take.

As soon as it's done from our end we'll have a look at him I'm sure, one for next season I think.

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