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Championship and EFL Football

A place for me to talk about the Championship with anyone that's interested rather than all going in other threads. If admins object please delete but I would intend to post in here quite a lot.

All in all I am fairly happy without business so far and we still expect to sell Sissoko and possibly Janmaat and possibly Thauvin. I would expect to see attacking midfielder, a left back and another striker arrive.

Things seem pretty positive, I expect us to get promoted easily and most likely win the league. We've looked decent in pre-season but that means very little.

Really looking forward to the season, the club as a whole is rejuvenated on and more importantly off the field. It has stopped being an inward only looking entity and has started to act like a proper football club again and to reconnect with its community. Hopefully this will continue but so far so good.

First up is Fulham away in two weeks time, Friday night. Howay United.
 
There should be some good match ups next season as there are several teams who will be in the running, one of the most enjoyable seasons for me as a Spurs supporter was the year we spent in ( what was then Div Two), I got to see a lot of away grounds i had never been to and we had some great away days.

It was a different experience for me ( but as a Saudi Sportswashing Machine supporter i guess you are used to being in the lower div ;)).
 
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@Greg, what kind of parachute payment was on offer this year?

Was it increased to cover the increased difference in earnings now?
 
scaramanga said:
@Greg, what kind of parachute payment was on offer this year?

Was it increased to cover the increased difference in earnings now?
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I'm not sure what they were last season but this season we will get £40Million, that's obviously significantly less than Premier League teams but my view is that for any relatively well run club (and while Mike Ashley has many, many faults he has put the club on a very firm financial footing) one season of relegation will not have that much of a negative impact on the long term future and success of a club. However, the problems will soon mount up if you fail to get promoted at the first attempted, more players will leave and the parachute payments in years two and three are much lower and then zero. Additionally any decent players that have stuck around will more than likely only stay for one season if you don't get promoted.

It is absolutely critical that we get promoted at the first attempt. We've recruited well and brought in players with Premier League potential but significant Championship experience (Hanley, Ritchie, Gayle) but we still need a few more.
 
very lightweight upfront, that perez kid won't like the physicality of this league and dwight gale is an odd signing
 
Sorry I was there and been out drinking ever since.

We probably deserved a draw and should have had two stone wall pens but Rafa got his team wrong. However, I trust him to learn from this. Shelvey has to start in midfield and our players need to grow some balls pretty quickly and start passing forwards rather than sideways and backwards. We really missed Mitro as the way we played Gayle and Perez weren't really in it.

Sissoko is expected to feature next weeks unless a deal is done this week. Apparently he is furious that no one has bid for him yet! His club photo is hilarious.
 
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I'm sure he does want to manage higher up the chain and I'm sure he thinks that he is capable of building towards that at Saudi Sportswashing Machine, something he hasn't always been allowed to do at other clubs. Rafa at Saudi Sportswashing Machine is a bit like giving an artist a blank canvass and allowing them to do their own painting rather than giving them an almost complete painting and telling them how to finish it off.
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It's incredible how delusional people get when Rafa's in charge.
 
Jordinho said:
It's incredible how delusional people get when Rafa's in charge.
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He talks a lot about having been there and done it higher up the chain and finally having the chance to build and shape an entire football club. We've been rotten for so long that this will take a long time and be a very difficult task. That was evident at Fulham as the players bottled it (Rafa selection also a bit dodgy), players went into their shells and we had a lot of the ball but didn't penetrate forward, sideways and backwards. This needs to be fixed asap, our central midfield was the biggest problem, hopefully Diame can help in there, but I would expect a few more signings. We need another winger, a left back and a striker as a minimum (we may have spent £45M but we've made a net profit in this window and still expect Sissoko to go). Matty Ritchie looked very good so looking forward to seeing more of him.

Rafa seems content, I know you have to take what managers say with a pinch of salt, but like I said he talks a lot about having been there at the higher levels and now wants a challenge where he can rebuild an entire club but also have a good family life. His daughters actually played a massive part in persuading him to stay on. He can be back at the family home within a few hours and has his daughter 20 minutes away at Durham Uni, family usually comes up and spends the weekend in Saudi Sportswashing Machine.

Big challenge for him as the club has been rotten to the core for so long but he making a difference already, he's changed the set up at the training ground, he's re-shaping the academy and improving the coaching and structure throughout. He's working more closely with the Saudi Sportswashing Machine Foundation and making sure the club acts like a football club again not as a footballing version of Sports Direct. He has spoken about the fans being detached from the club when he arrived and needing to fix that - he certainly has done that. Long way to go, so much to change but we have a manager we trust and the potential for this go very well (of course there is a chance it could all go tits up but I think we'll be okay). Rafa has full control of all football related matters at Saudi Sportswashing Machine - I very much doubt he would get that at many other clubs these days.

Despite the poor start, it's nice to have a manager you trust to put things right. It's been a while.
 
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