Championship 🏆 2025/26

[Nalis]

3 hours ago, An Away Move said:

You’re not wrong, but we’ve already been there. 

Let’s see how Bournemouth and Fulham do after two seasons of European football when they have bigger squads and a higher wage to turnover ratio and then fail to qualify for Europe a third season and have players on high wages near the ends of their contracts. The latter would **** up a lot of clubs under PSR rules designed to protect the richest clubs. 

We are a great case study for those teams and Forest into how quickly things can go wrong with a few bad windows and when a manager gets stubborn

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, Brizzle Fox said:

The worst thing that could happen for us with the current regime in charge would be for us to get promoted again.

 

There's just no point as it would be simply another rinse repeat, with no lessons learnt.

 

Needs a few seasons down to potentially lead to any change happening. 

I think I’d disagree and we would be better off with a relegation and immediate promotion.
I believe we are coming out of that bad 3yr psr window, we have cut our cloth dramatically and a relegation will see a lot more of the chaff leave taking most of those left on stupid wages & despite what we think of them, a few will still command decent’ish fees.

The core we will have + some well picked signings should see us fighting for promotion as we should still be to strong for the majority of the division.
The issue of hanging around in the league waiting to build is a dangerous 1, take Leeds it took them years to finally get out but only 2 seasons to return back down. The trouble is for every year you’re in the championship earnings fall and your best players are poached until you’re in this revolving door of refilling cracks and not getting to the root cause.

This is where we find ourselves now, it’s not a dramatic reset like we needed when we hit Lge1 but it’s needed just to clear the last remnants of chaff stinking us out from board to playing staff, if that can be done with a yo-yo season we will be in a stronger position on our return, squad & financial to remain unlike 6 or 7yrs hanging around the championship.

[FrankieADZ]

I just hope we can keep Bilal next season too, as he'd be amazing in the championship

but i doubt it sadly

[BKLFox]

3 hours ago, Pliskin said:

PSR will only hurt you if you invest poorly. 
 

Clubs like Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth appear to have sound models and don’t step outside of what they comfortably afford….

 

The reason PSR has hit us so badly, is because our investment was appalling……. We can’t blame PSR for the situation we’re in, it’s our fault, PSR is only an issue because we made it an issue due to incompetence and negligence. 

We know the model, have a single target of staying in the league that is it.
There is a reason only a select few names are on the Premier League title trophy, FA cup and even EFL or what ever name it is now cup.

[Bergen fox]

Wonder if fatawu would stay 

 

[ClaphamFox]

13 minutes ago, reynard said:

Well this really depends on what the make up of that 11 will be. We have some decent players at that level but several may be sold in the summer. Certainly think our keeper will go, Vardy probably retire  and we don't really have another striker as I'm not sure Daka will cut it even at that level and may indeed leave.

The only one of our better players likely to be sold will be Hermansen. Stolarczyk is ready to slot in. Yes, we need a new striker and a couple of CBs, etc, but overall we already have the basis of a very strong team,

.

[ClaphamFox]

2 minutes ago, Bergen fox said:

Wonder if fatawu would stay 

 

He’s not going anywhere - his injury has seen to that.

[reynard]

3 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

The only one of our better players likely to be sold will be Hermansen. Stolarczyk is ready to slot in. Yes, we need a new striker and a couple of CBs, etc, but overall we already have the basis of a very strong team,

.

I'm not disagreeing with you though I do think the so-called "spine" of the team will need to be seriously addressed. We've a couple of players out with long term injury who may play a part if they recover fully but I think there's a fair chance some of those currently here will leave.  Whilst they have been poor this season they were decent last season, players like Winks, For eg, can see him going. 

[Tuna]

10 minutes ago, Bergen fox said:

Wonder if fatawu would stay 

 

Yes, no one signs him after his injury.

[Heathrow fox]

1 hour ago, ClaphamFox said:

There were certainly plenty of posters predicting we’d either be going straight down to League One or end up ‘mid table at best’ in the Championship. Those of us predicting a swift return to the PL were accused of being deluded. 
 

There is a massive gap between the PL and the Championship. This makes it difficult for promoted teams to stay up but it also gives relegated teams an advantage when they go down. Our first 11 next year will be very strong by Championship standards. That doesn’t mean we’ll walk it, but we will be up there. These predictions that we’re in some inexorable death spiral towards the lower divisions are just catastrophizing arising (quite understandably) from depression about our current state. 

Two potential issues with this.

Firstly-last time the board managed to recruit a decent manager 

Secondly-we will be going down minus a 20 goal a season striker.

Both these things can be fixed but it’s easy to see why supporters are nervous.

The trouble with being a yo-yo club is that eventually you lose the upward bounce.
 

[Pliskin]

23 minutes ago, Bergen fox said:

Wonder if fatawu would stay 

 

No chance he leaves after being injured for an entire season. He will 100% be here next year.

[murphy]

12 minutes ago, Heathrow fox said:

Two potential issues with this.

Firstly-last time the board managed to recruit a decent manager 

Secondly-we will be going down minus a 20 goal a season striker.

Both these things can be fixed but it’s easy to see why supporters are nervous.

The trouble with being a yo-yo club is that eventually you lose the upward bounce.
 

Many of Enzo's critics said that almost anybody could get that squad promoted.

 

I think they were largely right.  That is not intended to denigrate Enzo's achievement but I think that the squad was just too strong for the division.

[Heathrow fox]

30 minutes ago, murphy said:

Many of Enzo's critics said that almost anybody could get that squad promoted.

 

I think they were largely right.  That is not intended to denigrate Enzo's achievement but I think that the squad was just too strong for the division.

The bulk of that squad should never have been relegated if we’re honest.It lost Madders and Barnes etc but recruited well.Apart from the late season blip it was HMS piss the league.

The current squad really does deserve to go down.Any players left over from 2 seasons ago have got worse not better.Recruitment in key areas required.If the wage bill is far and away top 2 then promotion should  be more than achievable.Just can’t see it being as easy this time.

[hebangsthedrums]

1 hour ago, Pliskin said:

No chance he leaves after being injured for an entire season. He will 100% be here next year.

I could see him going on loan tbh. If I was him that's what I'd push for...

[Steve Earle]

2 hours ago, BKLFox said:

I think I’d disagree and we would be better off with a relegation and immediate promotion.
I believe we are coming out of that bad 3yr psr window, we have cut our cloth dramatically and a relegation will see a lot more of the chaff leave taking most of those left on stupid wages & despite what we think of them, a few will still command decent’ish fees.

The core we will have + some well picked signings should see us fighting for promotion as we should still be to strong for the majority of the division.
The issue of hanging around in the league waiting to build is a dangerous 1, take Leeds it took them years to finally get out but only 2 seasons to return back down. The trouble is for every year you’re in the championship earnings fall and your best players are poached until you’re in this revolving door of refilling cracks and not getting to the root cause.

This is where we find ourselves now, it’s not a dramatic reset like we needed when we hit Lge1 but it’s needed just to clear the last remnants of chaff stinking us out from board to playing staff, if that can be done with a yo-yo season we will be in a stronger position on our return, squad & financial to remain unlike 6 or 7yrs hanging around the championship.

The flaw in that argument is that were we to win promotion next season, we’d still have Faes, Vestegaard, Ayew & DCR stinking up the place & costing a fortune in wages.

Try getting rid of chaff when they’re on those wages!

[Pliskin]

1 hour ago, hebangsthedrums said:

I could see him going on loan tbh. If I was him that's what I'd push for...

Which he clearly won’t? It’s obvious he loves being here what indication have we got that he wants to leave? 
 

We will sell Mads plus some of the fringe players, and build a team around the likes of Bilal and Abdul! 

[CloudFox]

Going down can only be a good thing if a) we focus on developing/building our young players (El Khanouss, Alves, Fatawu, Nelson, Stolarczyk) and b) shed the "chaff" we often speak off.

 

Thankfully Ward and Iversen will be out of contract, but it's the likes of Vestergaard, Ayew, and BDCR that we have no means of shifting. And that worries me that the manager in place will end up using them rather than being forced to rebuild properly.

Edited 16 March by CloudFox

[Paninistickers]

17 minutes ago, Steve Earle said:

The flaw in that argument is that were we to win promotion next season, we’d still have Faes, Vestegaard, Ayew & DCR stinking up the place & costing a fortune in wages.

Try getting rid of chaff when they’re on those wages!

The club really need to get hold of these elderly players on a wad. The meek and weak DoF won't of course. 

 

But, a strong a focussed DoF would pull BdcR, Ayew, Vesty, Coady aside at the end of season and make clear; 

 

 

None of them will be registered to play next season, regardless of manager 

 

They will be required to train at Belvoir Drive.Seagrsve isn't available to them

 

 

...each player can, if they wish, ask their agent to negotiate a financial settlement and exit terms. But if they don't want that, the club will do the decent thing and pay what they are owed. 

[Twitcher]

20 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Which he clearly won’t? It’s obvious he loves being here what indication have we got that he wants to leave? 
 

We will sell Mads plus some of the fringe players, and build a team around the likes of Bilal and Abdul! 

All players want to play at the top level, especially when you've missed out. I really hope he stays, but I don't think it's a given. If a Palace or Everton came in for him, why not? It's not as though he's a Leicester lad. No real elegance. I'm hopeful that with the injury, he's under the radar, but Directors Of Football, (well most) are cleverer than that. The place stinks at the moment. Why stay? Fingers crossed he does.

[Paninistickers]

2 minutes ago, Twitcher said:

All players want to play at the top level, especially when you've missed out. I really hope he stays, but I don't think it's a given. If a Palace or Everton came in for him, why not? It's not as though he's a Leicester lad. No real elegance. I'm hopeful that with the injury, he's under the radar, but Directors Of Football, (well most) are cleverer than that. The place stinks at the moment. Why stay? Fingers crossed he does.

You've got Leeds for a start who know he's good and will be a division higher

[Leicester_Loyal]

Was looking forward to a season down here but can't shake the feeling that it'll be a disaster, especially with all the other changes being forced upon us (digital tickets, half hearted attempt at safe standing, all the 12:30 early KOs)

[Number 6]

I'm not convinced players like Bilal have actually done enough to get a move elsewhere. Not in England anyway. If we can keep players like that next year then we'd be in a really strong position. 

 

Bring through youth, get money for Hermansen, and use the PSR Headroom to offload shite rather than buy more players. Better use of the loan market needed to so that we can that start afresh if we were to get back up.

[Stevosevic]

5 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

I'm not convinced players like Bilal have actually done enough to get a move elsewhere. Not in England anyway. If we can keep players like that next year then we'd be in a really strong position. 

 

Bring through youth, get money for Hermansen, and use the PSR Headroom to offload shite rather than buy more players. Better use of the loan market needed to so that we can that start afresh if we were to get back up.

I agree. 
 

Can see Bilal and Fatawu lining up for us next season, as well as likes of Ricardo, Justin, Mavididi etc… we should still have a strong squad. 

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, Heathrow fox said:

The bulk of that squad should never have been relegated if we’re honest.It lost Madders and Barnes etc but recruited well.Apart from the late season blip it was HMS piss the league.

The current squad really does deserve to go down.Any players left over from 2 seasons ago have got worse not better.Recruitment in key areas required.If the wage bill is far and away top 2 then promotion should  be more than achievable.Just can’t see it being as easy this time.

While I totally go along with your general point about this squad being clearly relegation fodder, unlike the 'Class of 2023', I'd disagree about one or two of the other comments.

 

Firstly the whole HMS Piss the League thing. We only went up by seven points, and only won the league by one or two. Secondly, it wasn't merely a late season blip - we weren't even on promotion form for the second half of the season, and came perilously close to blowing what, on paper, looked like the biggest ever shoo-in for a second tier title. Enzo did his job, but it was far, far from emphatic.

 

Part of the problem was that we didn't recruit all that well. We still effectively had to replace the backbone of the side when we did get promoted because we already knew Faes and Vesty weren't EPL standard, KDH left, and Vardy was 37 - and we simply hadn't developed enough new options with our investments at the lower level. If the likes of Souttar / Nelson / Alves etc. were ever likely to add to those options, then the decision to play a brand of football which would be way beyond the skill-set of our players at a higher level, and to favour those who could handle that brand of football but only at a lower level, totally sidelined them. It left us with too much work to do in the summer of last year, when our resources were limited.

 

As for the 2023 signings, too few of them offered anything at the higher level. The keeper - great - but Stephy, Winks, Coady, Cannon didn't really advance our cause. Winks' form was middling even in the FLC from the New Year onwards. Fatawu may indeed be a great prospect, but he was still some way off PL standard in most of his performances this season.

 

So yeah, you're right that this side is likely to have some difficulties which we didn't have last time round. You're right that they're a lot poorer than the side which went down in 2023. But I think there were plenty of signs last season that things weren't going all that phenomenally well, and many of our current problems come from the short-sightedness of our approach back then.

 

I'm not advocating for a long-term approach which devastates any chance of an instant return next season. But if we don't do a better job of rebuilding the core of the squad next time round, we will also deprive ourselves of the chance to compete again at the highest level, and for the foreseeable future.

[LCFCJohn]

I don’t get the argument that we’d be better off not coming back up.

 

Of course we are better off coming back up. As long as we don’t spend on shite again. If we recruit sensibly (ha), the worse case is we come down again but battling and building to getting back properly.