Championship 2025/26 Season

[JonnyBoy]

Atmosphere at the valley sounds class, proper ground.

[It'sblueupnorth]

On 14/05/2025 at 18:32, Bilo said:

Anyone who thinks we do a double relegation hasn't been watching much Championship football this season.

 

Even last night, the quality was absolutely ****ing terrible. 

 

We'll get big earners off the books, get a fee for one or two sellable players and have a bit of elasticity to buy. All three relegated sides would have beaten Coventry or Sunderland last night.

Luton have managed it. We’ve been trying to get the big earners of the books for yonks, who’s going to buy them or pay their wages? The culture at the club is ****ed, it’s easy street and nobody cares. For the record I don’t think we’ll double drop but I think we’ll struggle to make the play offs, especially with the uncertainty on management, there’s not a chance we’ll get lucky with an Enzo type appointment again. If we don’t go up next season first time of asking, we’ll be in league 1 within 5 years 

[murphy]

24 minutes ago, It'sblueupnorth said:

Luton have managed it. We’ve been trying to get the big earners of the books for yonks, who’s going to buy them or pay their wages? The culture at the club is ****ed, it’s easy street and nobody cares. For the record I don’t think we’ll double drop but I think we’ll struggle to make the play offs, especially with the uncertainty on management, there’s not a chance we’ll get lucky with an Enzo type appointment again. If we don’t go up next season first time of asking, we’ll be in league 1 within 5 years 

Calm down.  We have spent precisely one year out of 141 in the third tier.  

[Mark_w]

27 minutes ago, murphy said:

Calm down.  We have spent precisely one year out of 141 in the third tier.  

We’re due a century in the 3rd and 4th 

[Dan]

I've been extremely down on us, and I still am, but Christ I think the gap in the leagues is actually a problem. I think even despite this utter disgrace we'll still get a top 6 finish if the play-offs are anything to go by. We're better than Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City. They've all looked pretty crap in the playoffs.

 

It's good for us in a way but it's bad for the game in general. The gap feels like it's ballooned.

[Bert]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

I've been extremely down on us, and I still am, but Christ I think the gap in the leagues is actually a problem. I think even despite this utter disgrace we'll still get a top 6 finish if the play-offs are anything to go by. We're better than Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City. They've all looked pretty crap in the playoffs.

 

It's good for us in a way but it's bad for the game in general. The gap feels like it's ballooned.

Agree, big time. I think the important part is the gap, though. I honestly think staying in the championship for a year after next, long term could be more beneficial if we get the right manager and players in place for a proper push at trying to re-establish ourselves. 

[Guest Bilo]

7 hours ago, It'sblueupnorth said:

Luton have managed it. We’ve been trying to get the big earners of the books for yonks, who’s going to buy them or pay their wages? The culture at the club is ****ed, it’s easy street and nobody cares. For the record I don’t think we’ll double drop but I think we’ll struggle to make the play offs, especially with the uncertainty on management, there’s not a chance we’ll get lucky with an Enzo type appointment again. If we don’t go up next season first time of asking, we’ll be in league 1 within 5 years 

If we can't shift them for what is, for most, the final year of their contract, then we'll have enough to at least have a play-off tilt. Ndidi, Faes, Vestergaard et al may not be good enough for the Premier League (Ndidi is debatable,) but they're demonstrably a level above most in the Championship as we saw last time. 

 

Vardy, Ward and Iversen will all be going and that's the better part of £200,000 a week straight away. We'll get fees for Hermansen and Soumare.

 

It then comes down to spending it well, but we're realistically only going to need four or five good signings to be very competitive in the Championship. Say we go straight back up, get even more big earners off the books and can better comply with PSR going forward. And don't forget that the disastrous 21-22 PSR window is now off our backs, meaning that the 22-25 three year window will be healthier than what we had last time. Not saying at all than we can go all out, but we'll have more elasticity than people think.

[Claudio Fannieri]

12 minutes ago, Bilo said:

If we can't shift them for what is, for most, the final year of their contract, then we'll have enough to at least have a play-off tilt. Ndidi, Faes, Vestergaard et al may not be good enough for the Premier League (Ndidi is debatable,) but they're demonstrably a level above most in the Championship as we saw last time. 

 

Vardy, Ward and Iversen will all be going and that's the better part of £200,000 a week straight away. We'll get fees for Hermansen and Soumare.

 

It then comes down to spending it well, but we're realistically only going to need four or five good signings to be very competitive in the Championship. Say we go straight back up, get even more big earners off the books and can better comply with PSR going forward. And don't forget that the disastrous 21-22 PSR window is now off our backs, meaning that the 22-25 three year window will be healthier than what we had last time. Not saying at all than we can go all out, but we'll have more elasticity than people think.

The fear is though without making a significant step change in strategy and culture we are just as likely to replace the high earners with more high earners of a lower quality, as we desperately try and hang onto the coat tails of the premier league and the past. 
 

We really need to accept as a club, that era has gone and we need to go away, rip it up and start afresh and build a new Leicester City, but whilst Top and Rudkin fumble around trying to find quick fixes we will continue to throw money down the pan on expensive established players on a downward curve rather than young hungry players on a upward trend. 
 

Our summer recruitment will show if we have learnt any lessons from the mistakes of the last 3/4 years. 

[Guest Bilo]

10 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

The fear is though without making a significant step change in strategy and culture we are just as likely to replace the high earners with more high earners of a lower quality, as we desperately try and hang onto the coat tails of the premier league and the past. 
 

We really need to accept as a club, that era has gone and we need to go away, rip it up and start afresh and build a new Leicester City, but whilst Top and Rudkin fumble around trying to find quick fixes we will continue to throw money down the pan on expensive established players on a downward curve rather than young hungry players on a upward trend. 
 

Our summer recruitment will show if we have learnt any lessons from the mistakes of the last 3/4 years. 

There is certainly that danger, yes. Hence why I'm not saying that it's all well and there are no risks. We could replace Vardy with a Danny Ings type on silly wages, and that would be a red flag that we haven't learned.

 

For me, it comes down to the next managerial appointment as it does seem that our transfer policy is dictated by what he wants. Enzo clearly wanted quality young technical players with room to grow, and that's largely what he got. Cooper wanted Premier League experience, and that's what he got. I suspect the manager goes to Rudkin and the scouting team with a 'type' of player and they go out and look for him. This is why I don't want Dyche; he'll 100% want 'experience' and we'll be unveiling Craig Dawson and Danny Ings within the fortnight. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

10 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

Atmosphere at the valley sounds class, proper ground.

Makes me laugh how a fanbase or a stadium is suddenly labeled "proper" after a short period of it being decent or a cup game against a big club for example.

 

It happened to Cov, now Bristol City are the latest example. Struggled to get 20k in the ground most seasons in the last decade, then started doing well, they all fancied being there and now they're a "class fanbase 👏🏼" 

[Phil Mitchell]

I’ll be stepping up my post-game reactions next season, you’ll see and enjoy in due course. Mitchell’s always evolving. Phil

[Dr The Singh]

20 minutes ago, Phil Mitchell said:

I’ll be stepping up my post-game reactions next season, you’ll see and enjoy in due course. Mitchell’s always evolving. Phil

magnificent 

[Super_horns]

Obviously Wrexham are  trying to show they have the money to be making big moves like this .

 

https://x.com/secondtierpod/status/1923038109249278242

[AjcW]

1 minute ago, Super_horns said:

Obviously Wrexham are  trying to show they have the money to be making big moves like this .

 

https://x.com/secondtierpod/status/1923038109249278242

Their insistance on paying over the hill players lots of money will be their downfall.

 

Birmingham have been chucking money about, but on young players with high ceilings.

[Md9]

Still think we will be a decent draw for some players more so than any other of the championship teams so if we can get rid of some crap of the books and get this window right (big if) we should be challenging again next season. 

[It'sblueupnorth]

17 hours ago, murphy said:

Calm down.  We have spent precisely one year out of 141 in the third tier.  

Oh right so it can’t possibly happen again then

[Guest Bilo]

8 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Makes me laugh how a fanbase or a stadium is suddenly labeled "proper" after a short period of it being decent or a cup game against a big club for example.

 

It happened to Cov, now Bristol City are the latest example. Struggled to get 20k in the ground most seasons in the last decade, then started doing well, they all fancied being there and now they're a "class fanbase 👏🏼" 

It always makes me laugh to hear people sing Coventry's praises as a fanbase. Their support was utterly terrible the last time we were in the Championship for more than a season. I remember going there in about 2010 and it was genuinely MK Dons bad.

[CrazyKopCorner]

17 minutes ago, Bilo said:

It always makes me laugh to hear people sing Coventry's praises as a fanbase. Their support was utterly terrible the last time we were in the Championship for more than a season. I remember going there in about 2010 and it was genuinely MK Dons bad.

 Cov have always been shite. Often they didn’t bring enough to fill pen 1 or bring their full allocation at the KP. Our support traditionally has been twice the size of theirs. 

[Guest Bilo]

1 hour ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

 Cov have always been shite. Often they didn’t bring enough to fill pen 1 or bring their full allocation at the KP. Our support traditionally has been twice the size of theirs. 

Start of the 11-12 season is another I remember.

 

We'd done bits in the transfer market (not that it worked out,) loads of hype, opening day, boiling hot and we took about 5,000, only to look across the stadium to see an entire corner had been cordoned off with an advertising sheet. I'm sure the attendance was about 22,000 and a quarter of that was Leicester. 

 

It's not like they were much better coming to us either as they'd bring about 2,000 at best while we'd take double that the other way. And that at a time where we'd been bobbins for years and the thought of us winning a Premier League title and FA Cup would have got you sectioned.

[CrazyKopCorner]

2 hours ago, Bilo said:

Start of the 11-12 season is another I remember.

 

We'd done bits in the transfer market (not that it worked out,) loads of hype, opening day, boiling hot and we took about 5,000, only to look across the stadium to see an entire corner had been cordoned off with an advertising sheet. I'm sure the attendance was about 22,000 and a quarter of that was Leicester. 

 

It's not like they were much better coming to us either as they'd bring about 2,000 at best while we'd take double that the other way. And that at a time where we'd been bobbins for years and the thought of us winning a Premier League title and FA Cup would have got you sectioned.

1981 Cov was my 2nd ever away game. Alan Young scored 1st for us and at least half of the Sky Blue stand went up - we’d also got 4,000 / 5,000 standing behind the goal. We must have had 8,000 +  in a 21,000 gate - they couldn’t even fill pen 1

 

PS in terms of the game we fell apart and Tom ****ing English got a hat trick we lost 4-1 and we swopped Jim Melrose for the useless twat 

Edited 16 May 2025 by CrazyKopCorner

[pmcla26]

5 hours ago, AjcW said:

Their insistance on paying over the hill players lots of money will be their downfall.

 

Birmingham have been chucking money about, but on young players with high ceilings.

Only have to look at our own history when King Power first come in to see how it doesn’t guarantee success. 

[MattFox]

15 hours ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

 Cov have always been shite. Often they didn’t bring enough to fill pen 1 or bring their full allocation at the KP. Our support traditionally has been twice the size of theirs. 

Pretty sure last season was the first time they’ve sold out at the KP

[Claudio Fannieri]

16 hours ago, AjcW said:

Their insistance on paying over the hill players lots of money will be their downfall.

 

Birmingham have been chucking money about, but on young players with high ceilings.

Couldn’t agree more, will be an interesting dynamic this season,  Wrexham have gone through the leagues at fair rate of knots,  but that will also bring challenges, there will be players on maybe £5k-£10k a week who have bust their bollocks to get the club into the championship, reckon there could be some disharmony and resentment in camp if players such as Cairney come in on 5 or even 10 times as much. 

[AjcW]

7 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Couldn’t agree more, will be an interesting dynamic this season,  Wrexham have gone through the leagues at fair rate of knots,  but that will also bring challenges, there will be players on maybe £5k-£10k a week who have bust their bollocks to get the club into the championship, reckon there could be some disharmony and resentment in camp if players such as Cairney come in on 5 or even 10 times as much. 

Let’s be honest it’s only a matter of time before Parkinson gets found out too. 
 

Excellent until he gets to the championship, I’ll give him that. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

8 minutes ago, AjcW said:

Let’s be honest it’s only a matter of time before Parkinson gets found out too. 
 

Excellent until he gets to the championship, I’ll give him that. 

Agreed, also will be interesting to see if they can attract the level of players required to be competitive. Ipswich spent a fair whack on players last summer and in truth were still a mile off it, at best I can see Wrexham attracting players from high end league 1 or lower half championship players, where they do bring in players such as Cairney I think it will be like us in the Micky Adam’s era where you overpay aging prem players looking for one last payday 

Edited 17 May 2025 by Claudio Fannieri