nycanary 1 Posted October 23, 2004 How terrible would it be for us to still be in Div 1. Apart from the obvious, we would be competing in a hugely competitive league. Consider the teams who are or should be near the top of the division:WiganReadingIps-omethingWest HamSunderlandMillwallSheff UtdLeedsLeicesterWolvesIt really does look like a stronger league than last year. Phew. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KeelansGlove 0 Posted October 23, 2004 As I have said before I would love to be in a competative league (as long as we are competing) I dont think this premiership lark is all its cracked up to be. The only up side seems to be the cash and TV coverage.It would have been nice to have a premiership quality striker for this season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DumbleDelia is Magic 0 Posted October 23, 2004 Think you''re totally right ny. The 1st Divison gets stronger every single year. Chances are you get 3 good first Div teams coming down from the Prem, and at least one coming up who can more than hold their own (in recent years Cardiff, Reading, Wigan etc) IMO it is a lot lot harder to get out of, than the Premiership is to stay in Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GenerationA47 737 Posted October 23, 2004 [quote]How terrible would it be for us to still be in Div 1. Apart from the obvious, we would be competing in a hugely competitive league. Consider the teams who are or should be near the top of the divisi...[/quote]I can see what you''re driving at, NYC. I don''t think I necessarily go along with it, mind. Are the Championship teams from last season that you have listed really obviously better this season? It may rather be case of the relegated prem teams actually dropping in quality to Championship standard - and below - as happened with West Ham and now Leeds and Wolves (who never attained sufficient prem quality in the first place). Hopefully this doesn''t bode ill for us should we go down this year (which is not a foregone conclusion, despite the headline statistics so far).The teams we were in theory most scared of last year (W Ham, Sunderland, Sheff Utd) turned out to be, while not pushovers as the results against them showed, still relatively beatable after all and there''s no special reason as far as I know to believe they or the other contenders this year would be superior to us this time round. In other words, the open Championship division this year is probably more a case of levelling down than levelling up, so we would again well have been in with a good chance if we were in there. Granted, we would have lost Greeno and possibly Huckerby, plus probably a couple of others, if we hadn''t been promoted this summer. To this extent I can appreciate your point. However, assuming we kept Worthie, which the board would have done a great deal to achieve, we can rightly have expected him to have pulled off another series of stunning loans and signings throughout the course of the season (whereas at present he is hamstrung by the premiership transfer rules and the going rates for minimum prem quality), as he continues over the years to grow in stature as a shrewd manager. That scenario has a several uncertain premises and I accept there would be alternative projections, especially from supporters of other clubs, but to use a word that has been employed a lot in recent times in connection with the club, I have faith that we could have won it this season as we did last. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites