Are you not excited?

[Scrivvy 26]

There's supporters from plenty of the other clubs in the Championship who'd love to have the opportunity we're about to get - to see their team contest the play-off with a chance of promotion.

Feels like there's quite a few of ours who'd like us to contact the Football League and forfeit our place in the play-off - just in case we win them.

[Nuff Said 5,302]

8 minutes ago, Scrivvy said:

There's supporters from plenty of the other clubs in the Championship who'd love to have the opportunity we're about to get - to see their team contest the play-off with a chance of promotion.

Feels like there's quite a few of ours who'd like us to contact the Football League and forfeit our place in the play-off - just in case we win them.

This is eight years old but still works: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/delia-smith-turns-down-norwich-promotion-2015052698577

[daly 521]

There’s a reason why Leeds are 17 points ahead of us over the season 

[Sufyellow 247]

12 hours ago, Commonsense said:

Worth remembering that every club you mention never won the league in the 100+ years before the prem either, so you may ask what has been the point since 1888, most of those are doing far better in the current era than they ever have            

We nearly did once. 

[Sufyellow 247]

11 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

IMO ,we had to avoid Leeds in these semi finals because I just dont see us overcoming them over 2 legs, second of which at Elland Rd

...however when I saw our apparant lack of urgency and desire to win the game on Saturday to get 5th place, I can only assume that those at the club dont share that view and are more relaxed about it

Lets see if my fears are unfounded

Or maybe,  they don't think it's the time to go up . 

[Sufyellow 247]

11 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I dont think there's much between Leeds and Southampton on the field....I fear there is a difference between them off the field for a midweek second leg

If we can take a good result to Leeds,  we must play on the front foot and look for the first goal,  if we get it they may turn. If we go to defend the pressure will destroy us as the atmosphere builds. Its upto the players and wagner now. 

[CDMullins 462]

For me, the playoffs were a must, but because we spent so much of the season being crap it feels as though we should be grateful and should treat it like an achievement.

David Wagner, I still have no confidence in him. At present I've lost that connection I felt to the club when Farke was here. I'd replace him no matter what the playoff outcome is.

Leeds United - been from Leeds, Leeds are my Ipswich Town. The amount of times I hear how big a club they are, how players can't play for them at Elland Rd because of the pressure, how referees can't referee there because of the pressure, how everyone raises their game against them, it's tiresome and I couldn't beat to lose to them.

Then what? We go up and get drummed every week? I mean we normally do and this must be the weakest squad we've taken up if we do somehow manage it.

 

[BroadstairsR 2,257]

6 hours ago, Scrivvy said:

There's supporters from plenty of the other clubs in the Championship who'd love to have the opportunity we're about to get - to see their team contest the play-off with a chance of promotion.

Feels like there's quite a few of ours who'd like us to contact the Football League and forfeit our place in the play-off - just in case we win them.

The value to our club of going up is beyond doubt. That some cannot see it is beyond me.

The financial benefits are obvious.

The fact that we will have a better chance of hanging on to our better players for longer is  obvious.

The fact that the East Anglian rivarly is put back on a more even keel having shifted so rapidly is obvious.

The continued prosperity of our Cat. 1. status is ensured as are full-houses each match day.

Rejecting our chances in the Premier League completely ignores the Annatasio factor and the Ben Knapper factor, especially if the former is invigorated by seeing the club in which he now has a degree of ownership, once again exhibiting Premier League status. A status he can use in furthering the chances of the investment from down under that he recently thought fit to mention. Especially if the latter furthers the clean sweep of the club, including the appointment of a young forward looking manager such as Cuesta, that many of us suspect and hope are in his plans.

We would then stand, imo, no less chance than the Binners, Leeds or the Albion and certain Premier League flounderers all of whom will necessarily view their chances of avoiding relegation next season with some negitivety.

As for the play-offs? They are a reason for excitment and trepidation in equal measures. They mean so much, especially as we need not be write-offs with players like Sara, Sargent, Rowe and Saintz and Nunez showing just how much we are capapble of on our day

If we succeed in them but again give up hope before a Premier League ball is kicked we might as well save money and retain David Wagner.

Regarding Ben Knapper, perhaps as a fan base we were so ingrained in the Stuart Webber controversy as to give sufficient thought as to the significance of this completely left-field appointment, so unlike our our club. A young, up-coming man of football whom little had heard of and with no experience in the role of DofF, I am left wondering just who was behind this initiative and what it means for the immediate future of our club.

He's no McNally or Webber that's for sure. 

Edited May 7 by BroadstairsR

[canarybubbles 1,985]

3 hours ago, CDMullins said:

For me, the playoffs were a must, but because we spent so much of the season being crap it feels as though we should be grateful and should treat it like an achievement.

David Wagner, I still have no confidence in him. At present I've lost that connection I felt to the club when Farke was here. I'd replace him no matter what the playoff outcome is.

Leeds United - been from Leeds, Leeds are my Ipswich Town. The amount of times I hear how big a club they are, how players can't play for them at Elland Rd because of the pressure, how referees can't referee there because of the pressure, how everyone raises their game against them, it's tiresome and I couldn't beat to lose to them.

Then what? We go up and get drummed every week? I mean we normally do and this must be the weakest squad we've taken up if we do somehow manage it.

 

I'm not sure this is true. We have some very good players who we will lose if we don't go up. It's possibly the weakest defence we have ever taken up, but I think Sara, Sargent, Rowe, Sainz, Nunez would be a potent force going forward, especially if we could find a much younger version of Barnes to play behind Sargent.

[Conrad 180]

3 hours ago, BroadstairsR said:

The value to our club of going up is beyond doubt. That some cannot see it is beyond me.

The financial benefits are obvious.

The fact that we will have a better chance of hanging on to our better players for longer is  obvious.

The fact that the East Anglian rivarly is put back on a more even keel having shifted so rapidly is obvious.

The continued prosperity of our Cat. 1. status is ensured as are full-houses each match day.

Rejecting our chances in the Premier League completely ignores the Annatasio factor and the Ben Knapper factor, especially if the former is invigorated by seeing the club in which he now has a degree of ownership, once again exhibiting Premier League status. A status he can use in furthering the chances of the investment from down under that he recently thought fit to mention. Especially if the latter furthers the clean sweep of the club, including the appointment of a young forward looking manager such as Cuesta, that many of us suspect and hope are in his plans.

We would then stand, imo, no less chance than the Binners, Leeds or the Albion and certain Premier League flounderers all of whom will necessarily view their chances of avoiding relegation next season with some negitivety.

As for the play-offs? They are a reason for excitment and trepidation in equal measures. They mean so much, especially as we need not be write-offs with players like Sara, Sargent, Rowe and Saintz and Nunez showing just how much we are capapble of on our day

If we succeed in them but again give up hope before a Premier League ball is kicked we might as well save money and retain David Wagner.

Regarding Ben Knapper, perhaps as a fan base we were so ingrained in the Stuart Webber controversy as to give sufficient thought as to the significance of this completely left-field appointment, so unlike our our club. A young, up-coming man of football whom little had heard of and with no experience in the role of DofF, I am left wondering just who was behind this initiative and what it means for the immediate future of our club.

He's no McNally or Webber that's for sure. 

I desperately want us to go up, the problem that I have is that I cannot see us doing it. Hence my lack of excitement.

[Virtual reality 761]

10 hours ago, daly said:

There’s a reason why Leeds are 17 points ahead of us over the season 

There’s many reasons, probably the biggest being the injury to Sargent. This calendar year there isn’t much in it at all 

[Capt. Pants 4,355]

12 hours ago, daly said:

There’s a reason why Leeds are 17 points ahead of us over the season 

There's also a reason why they bottled the autos.

[Ernie Wise 73]

20 hours ago, kirku said:

No - zero interest.

Have remarked to friends recently the same thing. It's a sign of how broken football is these days. How can our fans look at this team, understand the amount of money that would have to be spent to even get it remotely competitive in the PL, and then be excited for the prospect of another PL season?

Which teams have genuinely managed to establish themselves in the PL and start competing for European football?

Once upon a time, people would've pointed towards Stoke or Portsmouth..

Absolutely, agree with every word!

The PL has been corrupted by money, some from dubious sources. Before football began ie pre 1992, teams could get promoted and have a genuine chance of competing. Now unless teams have large amounts of money thrown at them you are likely to end up like NCFC or Sheffield United. Even Brentford’s owner has put about £175m in to the club. Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest have stayed up with large cash injections.

This season 3 of the top 4 teams in the championship were relegated last season and the bottom 3 in the PL were promoted last season. 

The only reason to want promotion is for the money because we will never compete, yes compete, in this horrible league.

After supporting NCFC for 60 years (old git, man and boy) I have to believe that football at this level is broken, overhyped and just for the benefit of the few. Mere survival when anything more is out of reach is not my idea of being a fan.

 I am now a part time supporter-most home games-and part time National League watcher, at clubs with a real friendly community feel.

 

 

[Mr Angry 1,582]

I’m excited but that is tempered by the fact that I won’t be around for the final.

Worth remembering too that this is only a small part of the fanbase so may not be representative of the mood everywhere.

[ROBFLECK 132]

I'm excited too , would be a great feat  tbh in view of how bad we were playing a few months ago... 
It's the playoffs so any team can win on the day ! We have a few gems in the team that are game changers , so we have a chance. 

I too fear a season in the PL will be too much for our club , as we just do not have the finances to compete ... yet I live in hope that Attanassio will invest a few dollars ... it's in his interest as shareholder too.
Our defence is not up to premier league standard , our goalkeeper is ... just an example

We all know it will be a toil if we go up , but boy it would be some achievement to get promotion ! Bring it on! OTBC

Edited May 7 by ROBFLECK

[Branston Pickle 3,770]

7 hours ago, Sufyellow said:

Or maybe,  they don't think it's the time to go up . 

Oh - there seems to be a strange idea doing the rounds that you/we get to decide.   It is an interesting and somewhat bizarre notion.  Was it ‘time’ for the binners, Luton/Burnley last year, loads of others before that? 

Back in the real world, you don’t get to decide - you get what you get. Surely it would be far better to wait and see and cross the bridge when we come to it.  If you really don’t want us to go up, why even bother?

[Capt. Pants 4,355]

7 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

Oh - there seems to be a strange idea doing the rounds that you/we get to decide.   It is an interesting and somewhat bizarre notion.  Was it ‘time’ for the binners, Luton/Burnley last year, loads of others before that? 

Back in the real world, you don’t get to decide - you get what you get. Surely it would be far better to wait and see and cross the bridge when we come to it.  If you really don’t want us to go up, why even bother?

This. The world isn't going to hang around whilst NCFC get its sh1t together.

Same applies to our ownership position.

A wonderful opportunity, unexpected it many ways judging by our performances at times. Wagner's attritional style has got us where we are. Is it good enough to get us over the line?

He's done it before and nothing will change over the next 2 games. Sargent's going to have 'die on hill' because we haven't any other options up front and otherthan Sara nobody who scores consistently.

We can do this, and frankly we must.

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,053]

I am looking forward to the play off games and I want us to win them and ultimately get promoted, excited?, not sure about that, my inherent Norfolk stoicism prevents me from getting excited 😀

I hear what some people are saying about not wanting promotion for fear of a battering week in week out in the Premier League, I kind of get what they are saying but what if this opportunity does not present itself for another 22 years?, for me I would take a season of battering over many seasons of Championship anonymity.........

 

Edited May 7 by Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB

[ged in the onion bag 878]

21 hours ago, hogesar said:

If fans aren't excited for the playoffs then I'd really have to question why those same fans spent 7 months complaining and whining on here and trying to get everyone sacked for not being good enough...

An interesting observation largely correct.    There's a mix of concern and optimism in this thread but they highlight the purgatory we are in.    Sadly, that's the fact..... obsessed as every football fan is with success, that's why we follow a team, but then we see that the prize for success isn't that palatable. 

The EPL is stacked in favour of the top clubs who are aided by rules that have no integrity and VAR that endorses them.... most decisions go in the favour of the top clubs because they spend more time in the opponents penalty area.... a ball strikes a hand, its luck, fortune, Man.City's first penalty, Gvardiol shoots, the balls gone over the bar, the Wolves lad follows through and its a penalty.   That is more likely to happen in favour of the top team as they will deliver more crosses into the box in a match, they get all the luck.    That translates down the division and the worst teams get the most decisions against them.... absolutely no integrity whatsoever.      I can't get excited but then I've become disillusioned with this chase anyway.    We've not developed anything this year, nothing at all.   This team is no better than it was at the start of the season.   This team has so many players incapable of performing at the next level.     

Going back to your comment, yes, they moan and complain, then if we go up, they will get excited, then when we don't do well, they will moan and complain.... its a pattern also of being a fan.     The short-termism and lack of patience I have been arguing against remains.  

7 hours ago, BroadstairsR said:

The value to our club of going up is beyond doubt. That some cannot see it is beyond me.

The financial benefits are obvious.   

The fact that we will have a better chance of hanging on to our better players for longer is  obvious.

The fact that the East Anglian rivarly is put back on a more even keel having shifted so rapidly is obvious.

The continued prosperity of our Cat. 1. status is ensured as are full-houses each match day.

Rejecting our chances in the Premier League completely ignores the Annatasio factor and the Ben Knapper factor, especially if the former is invigorated by seeing the club in which he now has a degree of ownership, once again exhibiting Premier League status. A status he can use in furthering the chances of the investment from down under that he recently thought fit to mention. Especially if the latter furthers the clean sweep of the club, including the appointment of a young forward looking manager such as Cuesta, that many of us suspect and hope are in his plans.

We would then stand, imo, no less chance than the Binners, Leeds or the Albion and certain Premier League flounderers all of whom will necessarily view their chances of avoiding relegation next season with some negitivety.

As for the play-offs? They are a reason for excitment and trepidation in equal measures. They mean so much, especially as we need not be write-offs with players like Sara, Sargent, Rowe and Saintz and Nunez showing just how much we are capapble of on our day

If we succeed in them but again give up hope before a Premier League ball is kicked we might as well save money and retain David Wagner.

Regarding Ben Knapper, perhaps as a fan base we were so ingrained in the Stuart Webber controversy as to give sufficient thought as to the significance of this completely left-field appointment, so unlike our our club. A young, up-coming man of football whom little had heard of and with no experience in the role of DofF, I am left wondering just who was behind this initiative and what it means for the immediate future of our club.

He's no McNally or Webber that's for sure. 

Will try to offer some balance to your post as I see it, apologies its the negative side but I think its more evidenced based.

Financial benefits..... all the money we will spend on players and wages and the parachute money will go on paying players wages... we can't sign players without conditions that they can leave on a relegation or that they retain a certain wage, usually well above the EFL wages....   neither of the previous promotions have left us with any money.... don't forget we got money also from player sales.   Why would it be different?    I'd argue that comment is not true. 

Hanging onto our players...  well, if we sold them right now, they'd have some value, if we have a poor season, they will have failed, probably lost confidence and have less value come the end of next season.    That happens.    Or alternatively, we will lose them on a relegation.   We give out the contracts though, we don't have to sell.

East Anglian rivalry.... seems no one has had a problem with no rivalry for the past however many years.  All of a sudden we want to have a competitive rivalry, interesting one. 

Annatasio ... to make this team competitive will take a lot of fortune and money.     Has he got and is he prepared to invest £200m?    Thats the least it takes to be competitive.     There is no immediate indication that we would have the funds, has anyone heard any different?    

Knapper... young guy, we have no idea what he is capable of but we do know he is inexperienced.   He will rely on a recruitment team who have not provided a vast portfolio of success in the past.     They signed SVH most recently when we could have gone with Aboh and possibly ended up with a player long-term.     

Cuesta.... young guy, no experience of managing in the premier league or managing a first team at these levels.   Can he manage first team players?    Might be good, no one knows, but a big gamble and he might not want that challenge with a promoted team with little prospects of success.    Also, at Arsenal, he coaches teams who have the ball for 60 / 70% of a game and play a completely different style of football to what we would be playing.    If there is anyway we will compete, it will be to get some EPL knowledge and experience in the team.... we need brawn and pace as much as quality.   We would need to be tough and ugly, Arsenal type football won't get us in the opponents half.   I'd take Cuesta perhaps if we stay down, definitely not if we go up.    Wagner has to go in any event.   

Play-offs ... Expect that any team that gets promoted will spend more than us and as Hoggy said, they already have deeper squads than us.    Wagner has over-achieved or (more likely) the players have.    I actually expect us to beat Leeds... they are very young and under pressure that it seems they can't handle.     Wagner may give them the initiative with his negativity though.     A final is a lottery at this stage and one thing we do have is quite a lot of experience which may help.    

I just don't think the club has the quality in its infrastructure, the playing philosophy and the players to compete... and that's the problem, I could take us getting relegated having competed.     We just aren't set up to compete.    I am expecting us to get to the final though.  

We're in this continuous cycle that only development gets us out of.   At a point where we developed, got a team with a mix of pace, power, quality and experience, a manager, a philosophy and that's when its time to spend money on a promotion.     Otherwise, Annatasio will be spending lots of money on a likely failure.   ... and with development usually comes fan buy in and transparency.    

 

   

Edited May 7 by ged in the onion bag

[BroadstairsR 2,257]

2 hours ago, ged in the onion bag said:

An interesting observation largely correct.    There's a mix of concern and optimism in this thread but they highlight the purgatory we are in.    Sadly, that's the fact..... obsessed as every football fan is with success, that's why we follow a team, but then we see that the prize for success isn't that palatable. 

The EPL is stacked in favour of the top clubs who are aided by rules that have no integrity and VAR that endorses them.... most decisions go in the favour of the top clubs because they spend more time in the opponents penalty area.... a ball strikes a hand, its luck, fortune, Man.City's first penalty, Gvardiol shoots, the balls gone over the bar, the Wolves lad follows through and its a penalty.   That is more likely to happen in favour of the top team as they will deliver more crosses into the box in a match, they get all the luck.    That translates down the division and the worst teams get the most decisions against them.... absolutely no integrity whatsoever.      I can't get excited but then I've become disillusioned with this chase anyway.    We've not developed anything this year, nothing at all.   This team is no better than it was at the start of the season.   This team has so many players incapable of performing at the next level.     

Going back to your comment, yes, they moan and complain, then if we go up, they will get excited, then when we don't do well, they will moan and complain.... its a pattern also of being a fan.     The short-termism and lack of patience I have been arguing against remains.  

Will try to offer some balance to your post as I see it, apologies its the negative side but I think its more evidenced based.

Financial benefits..... all the money we will spend on players and wages and the parachute money will go on paying players wages... we can't sign players without conditions that they can leave on a relegation or that they retain a certain wage, usually well above the EFL wages....   neither of the previous promotions have left us with any money.... don't forget we got money also from player sales.   Why would it be different?    I'd argue that comment is not true. 

Hanging onto our players...  well, if we sold them right now, they'd have some value, if we have a poor season, they will have failed, probably lost confidence and have less value come the end of next season.    That happens.    Or alternatively, we will lose them on a relegation.   We give out the contracts though, we don't have to sell.

East Anglian rivalry.... seems no one has had a problem with no rivalry for the past however many years.  All of a sudden we want to have a competitive rivalry, interesting one. 

Annatasio ... to make this team competitive will take a lot of fortune and money.     Has he got and is he prepared to invest £200m?    Thats the least it takes to be competitive.     There is no immediate indication that we would have the funds, has anyone heard any different?    

Knapper... young guy, we have no idea what he is capable of but we do know he is inexperienced.   He will rely on a recruitment team who have not provided a vast portfolio of success in the past.     They signed SVH most recently when we could have gone with Aboh and possibly ended up with a player long-term.     

Cuesta.... young guy, no experience of managing in the premier league or managing a first team at these levels.   Can he manage first team players?    Might be good, no one knows, but a big gamble and he might not want that challenge with a promoted team with little prospects of success.    Also, at Arsenal, he coaches teams who have the ball for 60 / 70% of a game and play a completely different style of football to what we would be playing.    If there is anyway we will compete, it will be to get some EPL knowledge and experience in the team.... we need brawn and pace as much as quality.   We would need to be tough and ugly, Arsenal type football won't get us in the opponents half.   I'd take Cuesta perhaps if we stay down, definitely not if we go up.    Wagner has to go in any event.   

Play-offs ... Expect that any team that gets promoted will spend more than us and as Hoggy said, they already have deeper squads than us.    Wagner has over-achieved or (more likely) the players have.    I actually expect us to beat Leeds... they are very young and under pressure that it seems they can't handle.     Wagner may give them the initiative with his negativity though.     A final is a lottery at this stage and one thing we do have is quite a lot of experience which may help.    

I just don't think the club has the quality in its infrastructure, the playing philosophy and the players to compete... and that's the problem, I could take us getting relegated having competed.     We just aren't set up to compete.    I am expecting us to get to the final though.  

We're in this continuous cycle that only development gets us out of.   At a point where we developed, got a team with a mix of pace, power, quality and experience, a manager, a philosophy and that's when its time to spend money on a promotion.     Otherwise, Annatasio will be spending lots of money on a likely failure.   ... and with development usually comes fan buy in and transparency.    

 

   

So much to dispute  in that lengthy expression of despair regarding our club that I'll concentrate upon what I consider to be of immediate significance, that in bold, by suggesting that this need not necessarily be the case and completely depends upon the way the finances, wages and contracts are managed in the future should we go up, and whether lesson have been learned. Suffice to say that although these promotions have not been fully benefitted from in recent seasons, we would not now have the likes of Sargent, Sara, Nunez or even Gunn on our books without Premier League television and parachute money and also the Academy may not have been as well funded as to enable it to produce the likes of Rowe.

If we fail and slip into the quicksand of Championship mediocrity along with the inabilty to continue to produce our gravy train of young players from the Academy then we will surely slide further into debt as gates decease and your outburst of despair might then need to take up even more column inches on this forum.

That we are better off as a club for the successes brought to it by Lambert, Neal and Farke is not in doubt in my view. That we are not as well-endowed with benefits or even league status as might have been expected  can be attributed to a vast array of things (some of which you allude to) but including in no small measure to bad decisions in the transfer market. Webber blamed McNally, many now blame Webber. At least too it has all been fun seeing the candle continue to burn and quite brightly at times.

Let's not attempt to foretell the future based upon the experiences of the past. Let's not attempt to foretell the future based upon the club's mentality/situation of the past. Vast changes have and still will take place, most notably in financing, where I am sure Mr. Annatasio is far more astute than any of us could possibly be. 

My view has always been the same regarding the finances, the hegemony and influence of the big six, the monster that the Premier League has become and the chances that medium-sized clubs such as City have of even pricking, let alone threatening all this. But the PL does provide vast sums from worldwide television interest and some, if insufficient, seeps through to the lower reaches of the English League pyramid. I also have loved it when watching City against such a Liverpool in a crowded bar somewhere in Asia so many times now, and when meeting friends from Scandinavia in London regularly to watch a Premier League game and enjoy an English pint.

I also accept that our recent intentions of being a top twenty-six club are sound, but I am realistic enough to accept the reality that to achieve this we must use the system as it stands rather than aspire to beat it or even complain about it.

Edited May 7 by BroadstairsR

[Bobzilla 179]

As fans we have to understand that if we get promoted it ends one of two ways.  Either we get the financial backing from shareholders to compete in the Prem knowing that the financial impacts of doing that will last 3 seasons (and things are already not great on an accounting front) or we accept that next year will not be nice for us if we are expecting victories - it will be, at best, a season of heroic draws and losses.  We cannot go up thinking that we can be competitive without significant shareholder support - we tried the self funding model last time and we came back down immediately and are still reaping the rewards financially.  It is either Brentford or Farke’s first prem year.  There is no inbetween.

Personally, I could take either.  I wouldn’t want us to spend a lot of money without the shareholder backing and come down anyway, as that threatens the club’s existence.  

But I’m excited for this season’s end.

[shefcanary 2,531]

We have to go up! We have to take down the Binners next season. Whatever else happens, happens.

COYY!

[littleyellowbirdie 2,634]

2 hours ago, ged in the onion bag said:

East Anglian rivalry.... seems no one has had a problem with no rivalry for the past however many years.  All of a sudden we want to have a competitive rivalry, interesting one. 
 

A lot of great points in there. On this specific point, I think the derby rivalry has been missed more than realised. I think the absence of the derby for a number of years has contributed to the growing sense of dissatisfaction over being in limbo somewhere between the Championship and the Premier League; it's a good distraction from that problem.

[Keith Scott 256]

Reasons not to be excited.

Farke will almost certainly school Wagner.

Wagner and these players will almost certainly crumble in the hostile bear pit that Elland Road will be next Thursday night. Seen it time and again this season.

If by some miracle we do go up. This group of players with Wagner in charge could very well replace Derby as the biggest laughing stock in Premier League history. I'd fully expect us to concede 100+ goals over the course of the season. Nowhere near the level.

All the best.

Big Keith Scott.

 

 

 

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

This season we've been so inconsistent, 6th place is about right.  I'm looking forward to the playoffs, but I'd put our chances of going up at about 20%, Leeds and Soton are both stronger squads and the main reason for hope is that they and WBA have all looked incredibly fragile recently.

 

Comparing it to past playoffs, the first time under Worthie (is it really over 20 years ago ?) we gatecrashed the playoffs on the final day of the season AFAIR and it had been a long time since we'd had any sort of success, so just being in the playoffs and reaching the final was fantastic.  While under Alex Neil, we'd had a really bad start to the season and he completely turned it around after he arrived, so we had this fantastic momentum, against 1p5wich we  just looked a class above them and the final itself was just unbelievable.  So this time around, at this point, doesn't feel like we're in as good a place as either of those.

 

Plus of course we've had a lot of experiences recently when we cruised to automatic promotion, under Lambert and more recently Farke, we're just not used to having to scrap through the playoffs.

[Drazen Muzinic 1,461]

12 minutes ago, Keith Scott said:

Reasons not to be excited.

Farke will almost certainly school Wagner.

Wagner and these players will almost certainly crumble in the hostile bear pit that Elland Road will be next Thursday night. Seen it time and again this season.

If by some miracle we do go up. This group of players with Wagner in charge could very well replace Derby as the biggest laughing stock in Premier League history. I'd fully expect us to concede 100+ goals over the course of the season. Nowhere near the level.

All the best.

Big Keith Scott.

 

 

 

oxymoron /ˌɒksɪˈmɔːrɒn/ noun

1. a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g. almost certainly ).

    

   "Farke will almost certainly school Wagner." or

   "Big Keith Scott's wisdom"

Edited May 7 by Drazen Muzinic

[Drazen Muzinic 1,461]

9 minutes ago, It's Character Forming said:

This season we've been so inconsistent, 6th place is about right.  I'm looking forward to the playoffs, but I'd put our chances of going up at about 20%, Leeds and Soton are both stronger squads and the main reason for hope is that they and WBA have all looked incredibly fragile recently.

 

Comparing it to past playoffs, the first time under Worthie (is it really over 20 years ago ?) we gatecrashed the playoffs on the final day of the season AFAIR and it had been a long time since we'd had any sort of success, so just being in the playoffs and reaching the final was fantastic.  While under Alex Neil, we'd had a really bad start to the season and he completely turned it around after he arrived, so we had this fantastic momentum, against 1p5wich we  just looked a class above them and the final itself was just unbelievable.  So this time around, at this point, doesn't feel like we're in as good a place as either of those.

 

Plus of course we've had a lot of experiences recently when we cruised to automatic promotion, under Lambert and more recently Farke, we're just not used to having to scrap through the playoffs.

All of this. I rember the scraping into the Worthy play-offs on the last day and it felt so unexpected with that Malky? goal taking us there on GD. The 'happy just to be there' turned into something better when Wolves were beaten and we almost actually made it via pens.

The momentum in 2015 was amazing and it felt like we were destined.

This time, after the recent prem embarrasments, it now feels a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas and the indifferent form doesn't inspire confidence but, saying all that - bring it on - anything can happen and I'll be there, blood pressure high, willing us to achieve.

It's what supporting a team shoud be like.

 

[hogesar 9,879]

Feels weird to say it but other clubs fans have said the same - our fans really have had a sense of entitlement this season and last in my opinion.

As if the play-offs are a given and should be for us; nothings given to us, we didn't spend big in the summer, we have a lot of competitive teams in this division. Coventry, Hull, Boro, even Watford, Sunderland and Preston - all absolutely desperate for a chance. Some of those teams haven't even touched the prem in recent years. 

[Addick/Canary 92]

oxymoron:

Thanks for the grammar lesson, DM, as I always thought it referred to a stupid person who was a waste of fresh air.

With BKS, however, it works in either the correct version you have quoted, or my alternative misunderstanding.

[TheGunnShow 6,205]

It's potentially three cup finals to get back to the Promised Land. Sure, we'll probably struggle, but sport has always lived from those wondrous moments where logic was suspended and the underdog roared. And we could use the cash.

Luton showed they can compete with canny signings. Why can't we?