Everybody is petrified of relegation, why?

[Juggy 0]

There is a chance that relegation could have catastrophic consequences.There is also the chance that it wouldn''t end up so bad if we have been managed correctly and make the right decisions. Lot''s of teams have done a yo-yo or two, West Brom did it several times before establishing themselves.Eventual relegation for a team like ours is inevitable, a few clubs have a 7, 8, 9 year run (Wigan, Fulham), most manage just 3 or 4 years if they stay up at first attempt (Wolves etc).What''s to say that staying up and going down in one or two years wouldn''t be more of a disaster? If we went down with a bigger wage bill and more deadwood at the club? What''s to say that a regroup and a rebuild wouldn''t work out well for us? We''ve got players like Pilkington who have become ineffective, Hoolahan who is unhappy, Van Wolfswinkel who just isn''t going to work out here, Ruddy who it just feels like ''when'' and not ''if'' he will leave. We haven''t got any new heroes. Garrido, Becchio, Fox, Whittaker have become our deadwood. Question marks over some well paid players like Bassong, Snodgrass inconsistant, Turner ageing, players out of contract (Bunn).A management team that the majority of fans want rid of, and a bunch of young talented players who could be effective in the league below (Murphy''s, Rudd). Everybody is scared of relegation because we have been stuck in the Championship for a decade in the past, scared that we would have to lose some talented players, but for all the talent that we have in the squad we don''t have many players fulfilling it, we are dysfunctional as a team, can''t get goals out of three proven quality strikers (even Elmander is proven), have players that people suspect are unhappy, and for all the talent that we have we don''t have any sort of relationship between the players and the fans. No new Grant Holt. What does staying up really mean? What would happen then? We''d stick with Hughton, swap a few of our ''talented'' players for other better paid ''talented'' players and then persevere with another rubbish season watching talented players failing to perform, grinding out the occassional 1-0 win and clinging on to 17th again?Or could we just go down, appoint the next Lambert or Rodgers like manager (Eddie Howe) and start playing some entertaining progressive football again, find some team spirit, develop a rapport between players, manager and fans again, give opportunities to exciting young players like the Murphy''s and Rudd, and come back up with some optimism, excitement and belief again?Fans are scared of potential consequences, would it really be all that bad?

[Tetteys Jig 830]

The championship is a minefield and I fear that it would be like 94/95 all over again.

Real irrational fear in a way, as I don''t believe we''d be going down with a load of over paid prima donnas on our books, our finances are the best they''ve been and our youth players would get a hell of a chance to shine.

You only have to look at the effect Newcastles relegation had on Andy Carroll. He was touted with a £1m here as he couldn''t get near the first team at Newcastle and then two years later, he was on his way to Liverpool for (an allbeit inflated) £35m!

Perhaps one of our youth players could similarly benefit.

I think if we stayed up, we''d right our wrongs and go again, perhaps next season we could be like WBA last season or Swansea the season before or Southampton this season? We might even give the cup a proper go if we were high enough up the table and our promising youth players were another year older and wiser.

The worry is that we go down, sell a few players and the ones that stay find their level in the Championship where we fester away for a few years. It''s be more entertaining I reckon but would you rather 3-3 draws at home to Brentford or 0-0 with Man City?

[GJP 79]

[quote user="Le Juge"]

Turner ageing,
[/quote]

I know this isn''t really what you''re getting at but Turner is only 30.

 

Yobo is 33 and he''s still doing alright.

[Guest]

Well done for answering your own question with the first sentence of your post.

Relegation would be a huge risk, which would at the very least set us back somewhat. There is a chance we may come out better for it, like we did previously - equally there is a chance we may struggle like many other teams who have been relegated. Stability is what we need at the club at present - dull but necessary.

Regardless of your thoughts on the manager, people generally agree we have one of the very best Norwich squads of the last 10 years at least. It''s extremely likely we would lose players like Fer, Olsson and Redmond if we went down, and I don''t see how we could replace them.

You also seem to imply that we have a lot of deadwood to get rid of - but I wholeheartedly disagree. People like Garrido and Whittaker are obviously important squad players who may well be called upon again this season in the case of injury/loss of form. The others (Fox excluded) are squad players and there for cover - which a team in our position is always going to need as we can''t pay huge money to have talented players sit on the bench.

There is obviously team spirit in the squad, otherwise we would be dead and buried by now. You seem to have almost a fatalist view on the current situation, whereas realistically, if we can add to the squad in the summer and start playing decent football, the majority of the fans would be back onside and start to get the optimism and belief back.

[bloodwagon 0]

What''s to say that a regroup and a rebuild wouldn''t work out well for us? To be honest, i dont want to try and see if we could get up again. Too much of a risk.Van Wolfswinkel who just isn''t going to work out here  Not with C.H no, but with another manager he could come good. (yes i like him, his movement in a game is very good)Everybody is scared of relegation because we have been stuck in the

Championship for a decade in the past, scared that we would have to lose

some talented players, but for all the talent that we have in the squad

we don''t have many players fulfilling it, we are dysfunctional as a

team, can''t get goals out of three proven quality strikers (even

Elmander is proven), have players that people suspect are unhappy, and

for all the talent that we have we don''t have any sort of relationship

between the players and the fans. i still put this down to tactics. Players are told when your 1 up sit on it and City are not good at sitting on it.We like attacking. Half the time the players dont know where they should be in C.H. system. Fans are scared of potential consequences, would it really be all that bad? It very well could be, look what happened last time :(Its all about keeping up this time as i dont want to drop and gamble we would come back up

[Juggy 0]

Out of contract though isn''t he?Strange one, wonder whether he is having a 2 year vs 3 year argument with McNally.Should have just said he was out of contract really.

[Juggy 0]

Will Hughton keep his job if we stay up?I fear so.

[ron obvious 1,495]

It depends on how you look at sport really. For me, pitting yourself against the best is the best.

When I used to play, performance was all I really cared about. It was nice to win, but no fun at all against rubbish opposition.

Beating Spurs is so much more satisfying than any number of thrashings of, say, Yeovil Town.

[Dubai Mark 0]

Got me thinking this one........I understand if there is a fear factor should we go down amongst many, but when you weigh everything up we should look at it as positively as we can under the circumstances. I for one really do not think its anything like when we went down with Worthington, our squad is much stronger as is our Academy set-up and finances and the club will b able to have one of the strongest squad''s in the league no doubt. Whilst it will be a battle, we will probably mount a decent challenge at least for the play-off''s (although of course we could do a Bolton, but I think that''s unlikely) and just by virtue of the fact that we will be one of the bigger clubs in The Championship and mounting a challenge many supporters will be happy as the team will be winning more than losing, and probably playing more offensively as a result of the quality of our squad and level of opposition. Then if we get back up in to the EPL we will probably be one of the ten or so clubs battling to keep out of the bottom three, and those same fans, many of whom will certainly believe that we should be comfortably in the top half of the league will be calling for the head of the very Manager who got us up in the first place, well something like that. So, for me, no need to be petrified....just a little apprehensive........... 

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Looking at recent relegated teams.  QPR are 4th, Reading and Wigan are 6/7th.  Don''t these all have rich owners though ?  And even so, they are only managing the playoffs at the moment, just outside for Wigan.

 

From the year before, Bolton and Blackburn are both mid-table in the Championship while Wolves went straight down the trapdoor to League 1.

 

So for me the big concern about relegation is that we have no external funding, and would be relying on the parachute payments which are looking pretty small now relative to our current wage bill.  Do we have contracts with relegation clauses in them for some of our more recent signings ?  I worry that we don''t.

 

So you could have a shake-out where we have to let go a lot of recent signings like RVW, Fer, Hooper cheap because we can''t afford their salaries, so you''re left with a very patchy squad.  I can easily see it being a repeat of the 95 relegation.

[Guest]

I would normally say it''s a fear of the unknown.  Except in our case, as we have experienced it before, it is fear of the known.  Lose our best players. Subsequently fail to compete at Championship level.  Go through a succession of struggling managers.  Supporters turning on the board. A club divided.  Eventually falling to League One.  Deja vu.As it is, I think McNally and co. would probably keep the ship much steadier this time around than before,  if we get relegated.  Financially the club appears to be on a good footing. Plus the high parachute payments should give us a short term advantage, if we can make the most of that advantage by appointing a positive manager that can bring everyone together again.By the way, if we do stay up, there is no way Hughton will be kept on. No way. Not after McNally has had to come out to the national media to get his manager to sort his act out. It''s my view that he''s only being kept on because there is no Plan B, so Hughton is saddled with all the blame if the worst does happen.

[morty 0]

For the reasons already mentioned, there are absolutely no guarantees of becoming a yoyo club. Clubs with far bigger financial clout than us have tried, and failed to come back up.And it would effectively undo any previous good work that we did to get here. That "perfect storm" where we achieved back to back promotions is very unlikely to happen again. If it was that simple every club who went down would bounce right back.Oh and last, and definitely not least, think of the delight it would give our bluenose, six fingered "friends"

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]The championship is a minefield and I fear that it would be like 94/95 all over again.

Real irrational fear in a way, as I don''t believe we''d be going down with a load of over paid prima donnas on our books, our finances are the best they''ve been and our youth players would get a hell of a chance to shine.

You only have to look at the effect Newcastles relegation had on Andy Carroll. He was touted with a £1m here as he couldn''t get near the first team at Newcastle and then two years later, he was on his way to Liverpool for (an allbeit inflated) £35m!

Perhaps one of our youth players could similarly benefit.

I think if we stayed up, we''d right our wrongs and go again, perhaps next season we could be like WBA last season or Swansea the season before or Southampton this season? We might even give the cup a proper go if we were high enough up the table and our promising youth players were another year older and wiser.

The worry is that we go down, sell a few players and the ones that stay find their level in the Championship where we fester away for a few years. It''s be more entertaining I reckon but would you rather 3-3 draws at home to Brentford or 0-0 with Man City?[/quote]The off -field circumstances then were vastly different, in a very bad way, compared with now.

[SwindonCanary 455]

"We will not contemplate relegation, in a sporting sense it is worse than death,"  McNally said it !

[lake district canary 4,530]

[quote user="swindoncanary"]"We will not contemplate relegation, in a sporting sense it is worse than death,"  McNally said it ! [/quote]

Its just another way of saying - like Shankly did - "football isn''t a matter of life and death, its more important than that".  

[hazza9 0]

What a rediculous post!

Made even more rediculous when you stated even Elmander is proven...really??

[The Great Mass Debater 1,073]

For purely selfish reasons, as a plastic it would mean I wouldnt be able to watch every week - very few streams from the Championship. Difficult to know which is more boring though, watching teletext (or its modern equivalent) or watching Chris Hughton''s brand of football...

[Juggy 0]

"Made even more rediculous when you stated even Elmander is proven...really??"

Of course he is, 18 PremIer League goals before coming to Norwich, 1 in 5 for Bolton.

How many does he have this season?

If 1 in 5 at Bolton isn''t ''proven'' then what does that say about his 0 in 20 this season,,or Van Wolfswinkel''s 1 in 19.

Hooper is on 1 in 4.6 this season.

That means that Elmander scored at a similar rate for Bolton in this league as Hooper has this season for us.

In his final season for Bolton he scored 1 in 3.7, far better than Grant Holt last season.

So what exactly do you have against this sentence exactly?

"can''t get goals out of three proven quality strikers (even Elmander is proven)"

Bolton where a team famous for playing 4-5-1 and grinding out the 0-0''s and 1-0''s, and yet even they managed 1 in 5 from Elmander, and 1 in 3.7 in his final season.

Let me just remind you again of his goalscoring rate this year.... 0 in 20.

If he scores in our next game he will still be in 1 in 21.

What could possibly be the slightest bit wrong with my suggestion that we have failed to get goals out of a player who has scored goals in this league before?

ejit.

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,402]

Those of us with longer memories than just the "Lambert Years" understand how hard it is to get to the Premier Division, and then stay there.

[Juggy 0]

Our past failures are causing irrational fear, and that fear is a weakness. The only way to overcome fear is to conquer it, and the only way to conquer this particular fear is to prove it to be unfounded.

Perhaps therefore when I say that a ''yo yo'' could be a great thing for this club perhaps you are in a way showing that to be correct. Perhaps the real problem facing this club is not a lack of belief or ambition from the manager, but a lack of belief and ambition from the fans. Perhaps that is the real problem.

[KeelansGlove 0]

I''m baffled why anyone would be worried about relegation.

For the most part the product we have been served up in the premier league has been substandard so the additional revenue has not supplied a superior product.

an extra 8 games per season in the championship ?

I''d say im currently more petrified of survival and the possibility of watching another season of Mr Hughtons brand of "football"