The Championship Thread 2023/2024

[Happy Fox]

It’s going to be a ducking slog that’s for sure, every team barring Leeds and Southampton will see us as scalp, we need to play with intensity and have pace in the team.

 

I am not going to lie it’s not nice being back in the championship but it is what it is, the club need to hit the 100 point target for the season for the sake of us if we don’t then compensate us with free season tickets next season.

 

But realistically we are going to finish below the likes of West Brom and Middlesbrough.

[RowlattsFox]

With the 3 relegated clubs looking for managers it's hard to say what might happen. But I'd have Southampton slight favourites as they are likely to keep a fair few of their players who either young or have good championship experience. 

[blueharmie]

100 points? I'm lumping on us to go down again. We are ran like a freak show. 

 

Top and crew won't have a clue how to get out of this mess....but can have a smashing game of golf on the training ground.

 

Bunch of jokers.

[Raj]

29 minutes ago, ceebeefox said:

When you only watch blue and white, so long as we’re watching a win more than they lose side, who cares about the opposition? I don’t go down the city to watch the other teams.

Yeah okay.

I'd rather us be battling the likes of MAN.city and Arsenal than Hull and Ioswich.

Keep your rhetoric  for those simpletons who are still clapping the players.

[Twitcher]

39 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

I don’t think any of us understand what the financial implications will be, but I suspect not very good at all.
 

Our loans with Macquarie will swallow up the Fofana money and any parachute payments at least. So Barnes and Maddison need to go along with anyone who doesn’t have a relegation clause in their contract. Given how shockingly our club has been run in that regard, I expect there are a fair few on or around 100k a week with no clauses. 
 

I will wait to hear more before making a judgement, but you can’t help but think we are at major risk of breaking EFL rules and/or going into administration at some point in the near future. 

I genuinely do not understand the financial situation at the club. I wish someone with real knowledge of it would explain.

So many posters on here trying to make out we should have become this progressive club that was challenging the top six. Really? If that's the case, then we have money. Others saying we had money to buy players when Rodgers wanted them, it was just that our hands were tied with financial fair play.

If we are that big then, why can't we buy our way out of the Championship? Or maybe we're not as big as some like to think, and maybe relegation was always a possibility. For example Liverpool will not go down by next season or the season after, but Brighton could. 

Have we got money; yes/no? If it's no, then why, when we were touted as giving very rich owners?

The picture is very confusing.

Edited 29 May 2023 by Twitcher

[LCFCCHRIS]

Has anyone ever watched any games on ifollow legit or streaming? Is it every game shown? Is there a commentary team? Genuinely curious. 

[Sly]

6 minutes ago, Twitcher said:

I genuinely do not understand the financial situation at the club. I wish someone with real knowledge of it would explain.

So many posters on here trying to make out we should have become this progressive club that was challenging the top six. Really? If that's the case, then we have money. Others saying we had money to buy players when Rodgers wanted them, it was just that our hands were tied with financial fair play.

If we are that big then, why can't we buy our way out of the Championship? Or maybe we're not as big as some like to think, and maybe relegation was always a possibility. For example Liverpool will not go down by next season or the season after, but Brighton could. 

Have we got money; yes/no? If it's no, then why, when we were touted as giving very rich owners?

The picture is very confusing.

We didn’t spend as we tried to comply with FFP.

 

Too is a very wealthy man and days gone by, he’d have thrown money at it. Apparently his wealth is in the region of £1.7b but took a hard got from covid. 

 

However, he’s not the richest owner in the Championship. 
 

Leeds are £4b, however are on the verge of a buyout from the SF 49ers 

 

Southampton are similar to Leicester, at £1.3b.

 

Blackburn, Bristol, Preston, Stoke, Sunderland and WBA also potentially have more individual wealth. 
 

Our major issues will be cutting cloth and staying competitive. 

[CountesthorpeFox1]

8 minutes ago, Twitcher said:

I genuinely do not understand the financial situation at the club. I wish someone with real knowledge of it would explain.

So many posters on here trying to make out we should have become this progressive club that was challenging the top six. Really? If that's the case, then we have money. Others saying we had money to buy players when Rodgers wanted them, it was just that our hands were tied with financial fair play.

If we are that big then, why can't we buy our way out of the Championship? Or maybe we're not as big as some like to think, and maybe relegation was always a possibility. For example Liverpool will not go down by next season or the season after, but Brighton could. 

Have we got money; yes/no? If it's no, then why, when we were touted as giving very rich owners?

The picture is very confusing.

I’m by no means in the know when it comes to our financial side of things, but I think when they took over we were ‘very rich’ for the position we were in. Fast forward 15 odd years and a lot of clubs have been bought out by richer clubs, the pandemic probably hit KP more than any other owner as all revenue comes from travel which came to a standstill.

 

I can’t remember the exact figures but I’m sure KP’s turnover went from 2.5 billion to around 1.1 billion. When you’re a company that’s turning over 2.5 billion I imagine your overheads are incredibly big and probably only making a gross profit of around the 1 billion mark so when your turnover drops so dramatically and your overheads remain the same it just eats at your profit. 
 

So my take is we’ve been hit with a double whammy of time and regression in income, but as said I’m as clueless as everybody else it’s just my take on it

[Motty]

10 hours ago, Dr The Singh said:

This thread stinks of old man farts and old lady urinals

thats because like most of us you pooped and pissed yourself about 5 mins after the final whistle

[Aus Fox]

So are we Barnsley or Sheffield Wednesday tonight?

[Happy Fox]

1 minute ago, Aus Fox said:

So are we Barnsley or Sheffield Wednesday tonight?

 

Ask Jamie Vardy who he would prefer to play.

[Unabomber]

2 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

So are we Barnsley or Sheffield Wednesday tonight?

Definitely Wednesday, really hope they do it 

[CosbehFox]

18 minutes ago, Twitcher said:

I genuinely do not understand the financial situation at the club. I wish someone with real knowledge of it would explain.

So many posters on here trying to make out we should have become this progressive club that was challenging the top six. Really? If that's the case, then we have money. Others saying we had money to buy players when Rodgers wanted them, it was just that our hands were tied with financial fair play.

If we are that big then, why can't we buy our way out of the Championship? Or maybe we're not as big as some like to think, and maybe relegation was always a possibility. For example Liverpool will not go down by next season or the season after, but Brighton could. 

Have we got money; yes/no? If it's no, then why, when we were touted as giving very rich owners?

The picture is very confusing.

As I’ve just said elsewhere the clubs incoming money over the last two season as high as we’ve had in the history of the football

club, however we’ve had awful signings, we’ve not sold players to bridge or fund signings and the wage bill has grown ridiculously. So that incoming money has been grossly mis-spent. 
 

Now ultimately those revenues are reduced so we can’t spend our way out of the Championship. As in fact we’ve got to pay off a payday loan we’ve agreed with an Australian bank. We could use the parachute payments or we could assign money attributed to Maddison and Barnes transfer fees towards it. 
 

Last summer was less about FFP (our finances were on UEFA’s watchlist which would not have affected our PL status) and more about a wage bill problem being completely out of control. 

[LVFox]

We need to move quickly and ambitiously. None of the arrogance and malaise that saw us relegated. 

For what it's worth, I think this is a poor championship we are going into and our main competition will be Saints and Leeds. Sunderland probably best placed to improve on this year from current crop.

[Motty]

1 minute ago, Aus Fox said:

So are we Barnsley or Sheffield Wednesday tonight?

not sure if its changed now but i remember a cup match at barnsley. it was wet and cold on the slag  heap stand, joachim got an equaliser  before we eventually lost out

[Beachyboy]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

Current early betting odds have us and Leeds (unsurprisingly) as favourites to gain promotion. 

 

Leicester - 5/1

Leeds - 11/2

Middlesbrough - 10/1

Southampton - 10/1

Ipswich - 14/1

Norwich - 14/1

Watford - 14/1

West Brom - 14/1

Stoke - 20/1

Sunderland - 20/1

Blackburn - 25/1

Coventry - 25/1

Millwall - 25/1

Swansea - 25/1

Hull - 28/1

Birmingham - 33/1

Cardiff - 33/1

Bristol City - 40/1

Plymouth - 40/1

Preston - 40/1

QPR - 40/1

Huddersfield - 50/1

Rotherham - 80/1

Coventry or Blackburn look value to me.

[LVFox]

Just now, Beachyboy said:

Coventry or Blackburn look value to me.

Cov will lose their best two players (I'd love them here), Sunderland huge value at 20/1 though, their recruitment team are getting far more right than wrong 

[Tielemans63]

Unless there are serious changes to the leadership at the club, you can kiss goodbye to a swift promotion back to the PL.

[blueharmie]

4 minutes ago, Beachyboy said:

Coventry or Blackburn look value to me.

Anywhere that shows relegation candidates ?

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

My biggest worry is the motivation of the squad. Yes some will leave. End of contract, crown jewels being sold etc. But there will be a lot who have to stay. Some of which, have been bit part players on the fringes of the team for a while. I don't feel they will be overly invested in project promotion. As they've wanted out of the club for a while . So the question is - how many good enough & committed lads will we really have left?

[Happy Fox]

When Newcastle were in the championship with Rafa they got promoted with 90 plus points with Jamaal Lascelles at the back..

[StriderHiryu]

11 hours ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

People think we will do a Burnley are in for a big shock. We’ll be stuck down here for years.

Very sadly agree, the situation with players out of contract is horrendous. I’m scared because we need a great DOF already at the club to oversee the manager search, followed by elite recruitment. When’s the last time we made a genuinely great signing? It must be Fofana!

 

I suppose it does depend on who stays though. Iversen, KDH and Souttar are proven at this level. Even if we sell one striker, the two that remain should bag. But given we’ve got less than 90 days to find a manager, oversee huge player turnover and find an identity, I think we’ll be a mess. The preseason tournament will just make things even worse. 

[StriderHiryu]

5 minutes ago, Happy Fox said:

When Newcastle were in the championship with Rafa they got promoted with 90 plus points with Jamaal Lascelles at the back..

Rafa is a good manager and had been in charge at the back end of the previous season. He knows how to sort out a team, especially defensively, though the football can be lacklustre. 
 

He’d probably get us promoted though… not the worst shout for a manager.

[Happy Fox]

Just now, StriderHiryu said:

Rafa is a good manager and had been in charge at the back end of the previous season. He knows how to sort out a team, especially defensively, though the football can be lacklustre. 
 

He’d probably get us promoted though… not the worst shout for a manager.

 

We should have offered him the contract he wanted instead of going for Smith, he would have kept us up I reckon or if we did go down (and now we have) definitely got us in the mix for promotion.

 

If we can convince him to come now it would be a coup far better than all the dross at this level.

[westernpark]

17 minutes ago, Beachyboy said:

Coventry or Blackburn look value to me.

If Blackburn hold on to their manager I think they’ll be in the top two.