Would you swap this season for 19th in the Championship?

[Mister Chops 7]

Amidst all the fun of seeing so many home wins, so many goals, and watching our team play some wonderful attacking football, it would be easy to forget that we are in the third tier of English football, and although we are third with a good chance of second, it is still our lowest league position for 50 years.So, let''s suppose (for the sake of it) Roeder had kept us up in 19th place last season.  This season we''re still in the Championship with a squad of premiership loanees, a couple of new signings, we still have Hoolahan and Roeder has brought in Lambert as assistant manager.  We are 19th, 4 points off the bottom.  Would you change places?

[Ghost of Davie Ross 0]

No I wouldnt because even though we are in the third division there is more hope for the future with the current team and manager than there would have been with Roeder and his loan signings. I think that if City go up and keep this team together they will do well in the Championship next season (similiar to Leicester).

[First Wizard 0]

No, because relegation has given us Paul Lambert.[Y]

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

No Last 2 seasons have been horrible i have enjoyed this one Colchester apart

[LinkNR9 0]

This is a difficult one; it''s the same as when we were scrapping around at the bottom of the Prem, when mid-table in the Championship looked more attractive sometimes!

However, as a fan, it''s about supporting the team through thick and thin, so I guess the higher the League, the better.  

[Trent Canary 0]

Championship for me. Despite this season being an enjoyable one, theres still a very high likelihood we only get a play off place and then stuff it up in the semis or finals. Then theres a chance we struggle in league one next season etc. If we go up then this route has been invaluable (IE Mcnally, Lambert) but if we dont go up then we could be faced with a long stay in the division. Hope not though..

[Gibbo 131]

I''d take where we''re at now - I think it''s the only real way that change would have occured.

If we has survived, we would have continued to stuggle until inevitable relegation a year or two down the roed...

A year or two more of struggling in the championship could well have gradually seen us lose the few decent players we had, giving us pretty much no chance of coming straight up after a future relegation. As it is we''ve kept hold of players capable of potentiallly taking us up and keeping the momentum going afterwards...

[Herman 9,694]

[quote user="Gibbo"]I''d take where we''re at now - I think it''s the only real way that change would have occured. If we has survived, we would have continued to stuggle until inevitable relegation a year or two down the roed... A year or two more of struggling in the championship could well have gradually seen us lose the few decent players we had, giving us pretty much no chance of coming straight up after a future relegation. As it is we''ve kept hold of players capable of potentiallly taking us up and keeping the momentum going afterwards...[/quote]

Good post[Y] Sadly i think we needed the kick up the backside,and a general clear out.Shame it still took the opening day debacle.......

[ZLF 271]

As burning earth regenerates it this relegation increasingly feel like the rebirth of the club.

Without relegation would we have had the change in board or manager that we so clearly needed?   While we cant say for sure it feels like we would have continued under Mundby, Doncaseter and Gunn with no real hope for change or improvement.  Would the sacking of Gunn lead to Lambert if we struggled as Ipswich have?  Would he have been on Doncasters radar,  who already snapped by another club?  We know not.

However whether we get promotion this season or not is almost irrelevant.  We have good people leading the club now,  McNally is a ruthless breath of fresh air that we have needed and the board now seems far more balanced with Bowkett et al in tow.  

In lambert we have a progressive manager who will be a star away from NCFC eventually - unless we can match his ambitions in getting him the rewards he is himself aiming for that may be sooner than we all want;  so we have to go with him while we can before the inevitable call from a larger club comes - whether that is straight to Celtic or not. 

Relegation was a good thing - we would have been relegated this season if led by the previous set up

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

Relegation was a reality check for all involved in the club fans / players / board included.Think it as just the ticket we needed.Id much prefer to be where we are now than even safe bottom of the championship. Think the relegation has been good for us.

[BroadstairsR 0]

I consider that a main consideration has to be the impact upon the Club''s finances.

NCFC bled money from Worthington''s sacking onwards. Four manager''s contracts have been paid up, along with all the others involved in the various managerial teams and backroom staff.

Players have come here and then left at a loss, without impacting positively upon the club''s fortunes. Croft cost £600, 000 and left for nothing. Marshall, Bell  sold at a loss. There were others. All these players were on expensive contracts and all this money was paid out with nothing to show except an increasing budget deficit and relegation.

The over-employment of the loan system proved cripplingly expensive, in wages and agent''s fees. It contributed to the failure.

The club was caught in a quicksand of waste . It could not go on, but it could well have done if we were still to be floundering in the lower reaches of the Championship.

True, we get less income from being in League One, but this has been mitigated by the way that gate receipts will have been sustained and by a more conservative approach in the transfer market. The abundance of youngsters coming through is a bonus that might not have been realised if we had been involved in constant relegation battles in the Championship and many of the new acquisitions genuinly suggest success in the higher league. This was Gunn''s only lasting achievement in his spell as manager.

The overall wages bill must be the lowest in over a decade and at last we seem to be getting value for money. Being in League One has not been the nightmare most of us anticipated and I feel that the current team is worthy of instant promotion and could hold it''s own in the Championship, if only just. 

If the Club has turned the corner by being relegated, then it seems to me to have been a positive thing. However, we cannot afford to be where we are for more than two seasons as interest will wane and the debt will no longer be "manageable."

So far so good.

 

[Sideshow Tim 110]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

I consider that a main consideration has to be the impact upon the Club''s finances.

NCFC bled money from Worthington''s sacking onwards. Four manager''s contracts have been paid up, along with all the others involved in the various managerial teams and backroom staff.

Players have come here and then left at a loss, without impacting positively upon the club''s fortunes. Croft cost £600, 000 and left for nothing. Marshall, Bell  sold at a loss. There were others. All these players were on expensive contracts and all this money was paid out with nothing to show except an increasing budget deficit and relegation.

The over-employment of the loan system proved cripplingly expensive, in wages and agent''s fees. It contributed to the failure.

The club was caught in a quicksand of waste . It could not go on, but it could well have done if we were still to be floundering in the lower reaches of the Championship.

True, we get less income from being in League One, but this has been mitigated by the way that gate receipts will have been sustained and by a more conservative approach in the transfer market. The abundance of youngsters coming through is a bonus that might not have been realised if we had been involved in constant relegation battles in the Championship and many of the new acquisitions genuinly suggest success in the higher league. This was Gunn''s only lasting achievement in his spell as manager.

The overall wages bill must be the lowest in over a decade and at last we seem to be getting value for money. Being in League One has not been the nightmare most of us anticipated and I feel that the current team is worthy of instant promotion and could hold it''s own in the Championship, if only just. 

If the Club has turned the corner by being relegated, then it seems to me to have been a positive thing. However, we cannot afford to be where we are for more than two seasons as interest will wane and the debt will no longer be "manageable."

So far so good.

 

[/quote]

Absolutely spot on post

[Trent Canary 0]

Agree with all the pro-league one points. My only concern is that rightly we hold Lambert and Mcnally in very high regard, but then so were Delia and Worthy in the early 2000''s. Whos to say in 12 months time the fans wont have turned on Lambert and Mcnally for whatever reasons?