Sky Blues

There's been 2 different sets of rule changes directly because of what your club has done. The first one gave you a big financial boost when you didn't have to pay the full amount for your ground when going into administration. It seems the biggest complaint is other clubs have found more lucrative loopholes or you're worse off because another club survived relegation when using the same loophole.

You did extremely well by ignoring them. The problem was after winning the Prem you spent like a big club and made some bad decisions. You're on the edge once your income is taken by wages. The big clubs have a much bigger income.

I don't disagree with what you say, but in the game at your place you were one of the best sides we have played so far this season. But hit a barn door? You couldn't even hit the building for the barn door. You still controlled most of the game.

It doesn't work if you don't keep to the rules. The sides doing better now are those who kept to the rules.

The present predicament is not the fault of the rules. Constantly breaking the rules over a lot of years also isn't the reason. The problem was spending too much for what was mediocrity in the end. Having 3 or 4 players on the same money as most 1st teams in the Championship that are just average was never going to end well.

I'm not so sure. In the game at your place you kept us at bay. If you had anyone who knew how to shoot you would have won. And we're just not getting any luck at all at the moment. We're hitting the woodwork more times than we're scoring goals. But our home record is solid.....

Hi all it's that time again. Things haven't gone to plan recently for us but there's reasons. Most of our attacking players have been injured with BTA still out. We had a flu bug hit most of the 1st team and also had suspensions to our defenders. All this when we had a hard run of games during November and December. But nearly everyone's back now and with a couple of additions. Esse is very good. We are lucky Palace spent 35m for a player in his position making him available. For those who can't remember he was above most players at this level with Millwall, tempting Palace to pay 12.5m for him. He was very good against Stoke where we played a reserve side against a full strength Stoke. Happy to lose as don't want the extra games. We hit the woodwork twice and they got a wonder goal right at the end. Our home form is solid although we lost last time at home to Ipswich. 9W 2 D 1D. Slump? We've played nearly every top side away recently and now have the return games left. Not too worried as hardly anyone can put a run together, but also not too bothered where we finish. We only need a point a game to make the playoffs. Promotion can be good for financial reasons but also a disaster. It's taken us 25 years to get to this position since relegation from the Prem. Should be an excellent atmosphere and other than Thomas out suspended for a couple more games we will field a strong side where most have been rested. May the best side win.

Our ground is full these days apart from when the away end doesn't sell out, but as we've reduced the size of the away end it shouldn't be too frequent we lose out here from now. Many of our supporters won't be able to cope if we go up. The world nearly ended when Ipswich recently did the double over us recently. They're struggling to cope with 3 defeats in the 1st 26 games. What would they be like losing 3 in a week and none are close 🤣 We would give it a go. Lampard only knows attack 🤯

How many season ticket holders do you have? Take this off the number then you'll see how many were sold. Then take off the away amount. It will give a good idea of how many you sold. Is it much lower than normal? This is the amount that makes the biggest difference. This is the money not coming in. He's already had the money for the empty season ticket seats.

Think it was 46 years without a top 6 finish....then we got 6th place 😂

In the Championship most seasons most clubs are close in the table and anyone can beat anyone. Enjoyed the top flight football but it was a relegation battle nearly every season. By the time we got relegated there was only Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool that had been in the top flight for longer than us. That's a lot of relegation battles. I'm sick of them.

I don't want promotion. I don't want to be in the Prem. I'm going to miss the quality of the games if we go up. Trying to stay in the Prem is what did us last time. At least we'll only be gone for 9 months.

It's too late to stop the loans. Everything due to come in up to June 2028 is already mortgaged. Without a new and very big income stream you might not be able to survive on your current income. Could be too late to live within your means.

So an immediate 12 point deduction and that's just the start of it. The bad certainly outweighs the good these days.

Or on the other hand the desperation for cash means long term to bring in immediate cash. There's not much left to sell off and you still have players on a massive wage that will probably want to stay until the bitter end then leave on a free for a signing on fee elsewhere.

Going down to League 2 is a reality check. We still had support for those who took us there even at that time. They had others to blame. Some people just can't bring themselves to admit they're wrong on something. We had to wait until we were taken out of our city for home games for the second time. There were some right good excuses for them for putting us into administration and a points deduction to get out of a contract. We've done it the right way with a bit of luck on the way. Run as close to your budget as you can and build over a few seasons. Reinvest what comes in. Our overspending led us to the wilderness for nearly 20 years. In that time I've seen several more clubs go the same way. Administration used to be a word used in football. Now it comes with a cost. That's relegation normally for starters. 12 points for the administration. Football debts must be paid on time or it's more points lost. Missing a payday by a few days? Risking another 6 points. So I don't agree with those who say they'd take administration to get rid of Top. That's instantly on the slippery slope. Nobody to pay the inflated wages so looking at 2 quick points deductions. Squad decimated for the next season. IIRC you were the last club to go into administration before the points deduction came in. It's a different ball game now.

I agree with everything, but expectations may be different between the two. One lot have seen it's easy to come back from League 1 and then play with the big boys and beat them. League 1 if it happened would be a blip on the way back up. Those of us that have suffered a lot more years know how you can just drift along. You've had 25 years of a lot happening. But on the point of administration that has been brought up it's a lot worse than your last time. Look at what they've done to Sheffield Wednesday. Docking them 18 points for being skint. Who had the idea of giving a club no hope for their supporters for a whole season when they need to sell every ticket they can to survive?

When Wright is on form you can't stop him. But when things are going against him you sometimes don't notice he is on the pitch. But lately we've had a lot of injuries, illness and a suspension for an important player. We weren't able to even name a full bench last game and had 2 GK's on it the game before. We're down to the bare bones so are playing differently to normal. He has been unlucky though.

The truthful answer is not many people will know for sure. It certainly doesn't look good though. But on the bright side there's several clubs now in financial difficulties who will all struggle to get squads together for next season. Add to this the promoted sides and you should reach safety even if it goes wrong. But the clowns in charge need to go before you even think about improving.

If you had nearly lost your club from a position similar you would look at it differently. I don't want any more supporters going through what we did but the list just gets longer. It's the turn of Sheffield Wednesday this season. Can see there being at least 1 more next season. Clubs have run out of money. That's why anyone with a half decent squad will have a chance this season. Next season looks the same with those coming down maybe not in a good position.

Or they're taking their time to see if a points deduction would make a difference and if not do it for next season.

The money has come from a loan that takes every penny you're due before June 2028 which includes all Sky money owed. More like slimming down than fattening up. The big earners still in place need to be gone otherwise there could be sales to pay their wages they're sucking out.

I am used to it. Been going nearly 50 years. Seen about 45 relegation battles 🤣

They're quite easy. You get two boxes. One for yes if you're happy and one for no if you're unhappy. You just have to put a tick in the box.