You were very unlucky but don’t be too downbeat (8 Viewers)

[Skyblueabo1111]

I get that and in the long term this season should take us up a level but it’s a painful process. We had a team we loved - players we’d seen grow and develop, bond and achieve something really special. Most of them have now left or are way down the pecking order, replaced by talented footballers with no affinity to the club who will be leaving as soon as a promoted premier league club comes knocking in the summer. Most of the money will have gone on inflated salaries, agent fees and transfers. Our ground has a big upgrade that was long overdue but yours doesn’t need it.

Lampard has done an incredible job but you are so far off the level you need to be at (I don’t mean that to sound offensive) that I honestly think you’d struggle to get into double digit points next season even if the owners, like ours did, spent £100m in the summer.

Brilliant posts. Good luck for next season

 

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[Super Frank]

Im ready to start the season now.

 

[Irish Sky Blue]

Honestly think it’s becoming a real problem for the premier league that fans specifically are finding it less appealing due to VAR and dominance of the elite clubs. When the European super league came about I was affronted. Now looking back I actually think it would be best if those top teams did leave, so we can have a cheaper, probably poor quality, but no less entertaining EPL and premier league.

I think the problem with the Super League idea was that they had no intention of clearing off. I may be wrong, but my understanding was they would play Super League but retain a team in their domestic leagues as well. Probably two different teams for the same club most of the time but with the money they would make from both competitions that would have been no problem.

I would have been happy to see them depart with the proviso that if they ever wanted to return to the English Leagues they would have to start at the very bottom. Seeing Chelsea et al in the Isthmian League division two or equivalent would have been fun, particularly having to rely on home gates for the bulk of their money.

The only bad thing with this scenario is that it would probably be more fun watching them play non-league than sterile dead rubbers in the Super League. Too much fun for entitled fans.

 

[Covkid1968#]

Hi,

Ipswich fan here. I watched both games, you were definitely the better side in both and yet again, just like the FA cup semi-final last year, didn’t get the rub of the green. Rotten way to lose a play off (much easier if you’re Bristol City and are just outplayed across two games) and on top of the way you lost the first leg it must be a really bitter pill to swallow.

This may be too soon, it may be too raw and let’s face it it’s none of my business but don’t be too downhearted. After 20 years away, it was like a dream watching my team go up last season, complete back to back promotions and see us finally return to the league we were in throughout my childhood. I know many of you in your 40s and older will have the same feeling about Cov. Your kids have never seen you in the top division and it would mean the world for them to.

For what it’s worth, I think you’ll be happier next season watching a good team in a competitive league than if you’d won last night and then won at Wembley. We went up on the crest of a wave, almost unbeatable for two seasons and with a man who I still believe despite relegation is the best young manager in the UK. The new signings in the summer were fantastic. Players were joining us who a year before would have been so far out of reach it would be laughable to even consider it (Kalvin Phillips, Jack Clarke, Sammie Szmodics and a host of others). The kits and season tickets with the with the Premier League logo, fixture list coming out and seeing we start the season at home to Liverpool etc etc. and then reality bites.

The Premier League isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for clubs like ours. It’s for the elite and those artificially bankrolled by billionaires who use it as a play thing. I can’t wait to be back in the EFL next season!

I honestly thought we’d be able to compete. I knew it would be a struggle but thought we’d have a fighting chance of survival. After a handful of matches though it dawns on you just how big the gulf is now. It’s not like when we (and you) were there before. Squads of the established clubs are so strong that they can loan you a player that can’t get in their squad that becomes one of your best players (Enciso from Brighton is going to be one hell of a player). On top of that the decisions all go the way of the bigger, established clubs, VAR is horrendous and the atmosphere when you go to the likes of Spurs, Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea isn’t a patch on what it is at the bigger championship clubs. The half and half scarves ar every game, tourists and day trippers, silly flares and pyros before every game, patronising media and so on make it all far less enjoyable than you expect it to be.

Anyway, a long rambling message from an outsider on a day when you’re feeling hurt probably isn’t what you want but keep the faith, look forward, get behind your team and see you next season when from what I’ve seen you’ll be up there again .

Probably the best post from a non Cov fan and pretty sums it up. It’s just too big a gap… Im very happy achieving high end Championship outcomes each year.

 

[StrettoBoy]

I partially get your point. I think long term he will have managerial ambitions beyond us, but given his CV to this point he has to get this right with us. If he’d have failed he would have had probably had to go to L1/L2 to build from there.

So I think he is committed to us because it’s in his long term interest too. Getting us to the PL is going to restore his reputation.

I think he is committed to his job with us and wants to do his best, no more and no less. I doubt if he feels the sort of “dyed in the wool” passionate commitment that we fans feel, nor would I expect him to.

If he gets a more tempting offer from elsewhere then I expect him to be tempted and leave. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the way of the world.

So far he has done a great job and is setting us on a path to greater success. Let’s just enjoy it while he’s here.

 

[trevorsathispeake]

Supported Cov since 1978 when we were in the top league - controversial I know but I actually prefer us being a top championship team knocking on the door each season, i don’t miss those dire seasons of the 90s when we lost loads of games in the prem and with the exception of 1987-90 even the division one days were pretty depressing, still believe it’s one of the reasons our crowds were quite poor as people were fed up of watching us lose most weeks. The atmosphere was nothing like what I have experienced in the last 2-3 years.

 

[Gint11]

I get that it’s more enjoyable but the aim has to be the premier league. It’s the top division. Has to be the aim.

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

I get that it’s more enjoyable but the aim has to be the premier league. It’s the top division. Has to be the aim.

Fully agree the aim has always got to be play against the best .

 

[StrettoBoy]

I get that it’s more enjoyable but the aim has to be the premier league. It’s the top division. Has to be the aim.

I totally agree but, having said that, I do think the Championship is an enjoyable competition. The standard is much higher than Leagues 1 and 2 and it is far more competitive than the Premier League.

I just want to enjoy what we are doing at the moment until the time hopefully comes when we make it to the Promised Land.