Standing Still or Falling Behind? (1 Viewer)

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?

Hincha said:

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

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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.