A Premiership club in all but name - we should be beating clubs like....

[smudgerfox]

Actually 12 of the present Chamiponship were last in Premiership after we were last relegated from the top flight and two more (leeds and Soton) were relegated in same season are above us in the champ. So we have no rsuperior claim to be there we need to find a talented and united team management team just like everyone else.

[Christoph]

I do kind of agree with what your saying. I feel a lot of our fans expect unrealistic expectations. As a long term leicester fan, i've kind of come to terms with the idea that we're a decent mid table championship team. A lot of expectations were hoped for this season which has turned out pretty crap and with the amount of money we have spent, it's only natural for people to be frustrated. If we're not in the prem next season, I do worry about where we will be financially.

[Fox92]

I see what you're saying, but take into consideration all of our changes this season, in partiuclar.

Rome wasn't built in a day

[Asha]

Ridiculously pedantic here, but Leeds and Wolves came down with us, Southampton were there more recently.

Valid point though, there are a lot of strong sides in this league.

[Haydos]

I don't feel like we deserve to be in the Premiership. I feel like we should be aiming for the Premiership in the next 3 years because we're in a very strong position right now in terms of finances, manager, owners and facilities. I think there's a bit difference and you might be mistaking the mood of the majority for thinking we deserve it.

[ealingfox]

We are MASSIVE

[Corky]

We should be aiming to get back there, for years we've accepted this below par football (sixth time in eight years since relegation that we'll finish outside the top six of a division).

We don't have a divine right to be in the Premier League but we shouldn't be finishing well away from the play-offs every year.

[speedwayson]

if you look at the top 12 none will have no room for investment i hope we would, but we will not now until we are in that postion. southhamton might invest a little west ham are broke they might get a little if they are lucky,

as for the rest they have no chance and all the clubs that are due to come down are in the same boat this is going to be a bad year two or proberly all 3 could come straight back down

[Happy Fox]

It isn't to much to ask to get into the playoffs FFS that should of been the minimum target after the money we have spent ( yes I know money doesn't guarantee success but we should be doing a far sight better than we are atm) mid table mediocrity is what we are accustomed to and it is pretty shit. Not as shit as the dross we have witnessed in the last decade but you get the picture.

[Kitchandro]

What's the point of this thread? I know we've got to have a team worthy of going up. Who is suggesting we should be allowed in the Premiership even though our team isn't good enough to get promoted?

We are a Premiership club in terms of fanbase and history. We average more than a few Premiership teams in this league and even in league 1 we averaged more than Wigan are now. We as a group of fans do deserve to be in the premiership, it's the team who have been letting us down for ages.

The fact that the likes of Hull, Blackpool and Burnley have been to the Premiership since we last did, and Wigan have spent 7 years there in that time is quite depressing.

[speedwayson]

It isn't to much to ask to get into the playoffs FFS that should of been the minimum target after the money we have spent ( yes I know money doesn't guarantee success but we should be doing a far sight better than we are atm) mid table mediocrity is what we are accustomed to and it is pretty shit. Not as shit as the dross we have witnessed in the last decade but you get the picture.

i would agree

[accessory]

[smudgerfox]

We should be aiming to get back there, for years we've accepted this below par football (sixth time in eight years since relegation that we'll finish outside the top six of a division).

We don't have a divine right to be in the Premier League but we shouldn't be finishing well away from the play-offs every year.

No-one is not aiming to get there...my point is that fans of plenty of other clubs could make exactly the same argument - west ham, Birmingham Blackpool, relegated 2011, burnley, hull, portsmouth 2010, Middlesbrough 2009', reading, derby 2008, Watford 2007, Southampton 2006, palace 2005, Leeds and us 2004. And if we finish near the bottom of that lot we finish mid table and nowhere near the play-offs. It's just not as easy as it once was when we were one of those natural yo-yo sides who were too strong for most in the second tier if not quite strong enough to survive long in the first tier.

[Libertine Dream]

What's the point of this thread? I know we've got to have a team worthy of going up. Who is suggesting we should be allowed in the Premiership even though our team isn't good enough to get promoted?

We are a Premiership club in terms of fanbase and history. We average more than a few Premiership teams in this league and even in league 1 we averaged more than Wigan are now. We as a group of fans do deserve to be in the premiership, it's the team who have been letting us down for ages.

The fact that the likes of Hull, Blackpool and Burnley have been to the Premiership since we last did, and Wigan have spent 7 years there in that time is quite depressing.

That's what I was thinking, we're a yoyo club, or should be at the very least.

[speedwayson]

No-one is not aiming to get there...my point is that fans of plenty of other clubs could make exactly the same argument - west ham, Birmingham Blackpool, relegated 2011, burnley, hull, portsmouth 2010, Middlesbrough 2009', reading, derby 2008, Watford 2007, Southampton 2006, palace 2005, Leeds and us 2004. And if we finish near the bottom of that lot we finish mid table and nowhere near the play-offs. It's just not as easy as it once was when we were one of those natural yo-yo sides who were too strong for most in the second tier if not quite strong enough to survive long in the first tier.

i would agree with this but you have got to be in a postion to stay in the premiership for it to be worth wile are else your yo-yoing up and down which is no good when we get in the premiership we have to stay there

[Kitchandro]

No-one is not aiming to get there...my point is that fans of plenty of other clubs could make exactly the same argument - west ham, Birmingham Blackpool, relegated 2011, burnley, hull, portsmouth 2010, Middlesbrough 2009', reading, derby 2008, Watford 2007, Southampton 2006, palace 2005, Leeds and us 2004. And if we finish near the bottom of that lot we finish mid table and nowhere near the play-offs. It's just not as easy as it once was when we were one of those natural yo-yo sides who were too strong for most in the second tier if not quite strong enough to survive long in the first tier.

But why is it not as easy? It should be easier when we've spent twice as much as all of them.

One thing that might have counted against us before the Thais came was that we were skint, and the teams coming down from the Premiership got parachute payments to give them an advantage financially. But we haven't got that excuse anymore.

Southampton have just come up from league one, why should we be finishing below them? I know they're top, but why? 'Momentum' is always a popular argument but that's merely a state of mind, one that our players should have. Really though, Adkins is a quality manager. Why are we below Reading? Hull? Blackpool? Brighton?

There's no excuse for finishing below these teams. Not just because we're bigger clubs with more fans than them, not even just because we've spent more money than them, but also because I've seen all of them play a few times and have thought them to be pretty average overall.

The league has been poor this season, it was there for the taking and we've ****ed it up.

[Dan]

Who said that we should beat clubs based on when we were last in the Prem?

I don't get this daft mentality some of you lot have, "we don't have a damn right to win everything", I'm not being funny, I agree, but we should be doing better, for what we've spent, it's as simple as that.

[MC Prussian]

But why is it not as easy? It should be easier when we've spent twice as much as all of them.

One thing that might have counted against us before the Thais came was that we were skint, and the teams coming down from the Premiership got parachute payments to give them an advantage financially. But we haven't got that excuse anymore.

Southampton have just come up from league one, why should we be finishing below them? I know they're top, but why? 'Momentum' is always a popular argument but that's merely a state of mind, one that our players should have. Really though, Adkins is a quality manager. Why are we below Reading? Hull? Blackpool? Brighton?

There's no excuse for finishing below these teams. Not just because we're bigger clubs with more fans than them, not even just because we've spent more money than them, but also because I've seen all of them play a few times and have thought them to be pretty average overall.

The league has been poor this season, it was there for the taking and we've ****ed it up.

We have no god-given right to finish first in this division.

Why we are faring so relatively lowly? It's the Championship.

The teams that you mention have managed to hold on to the core of players for more than just one season.

That's one reason why they're playing better and more consistent (or able to come up with longer-lasting winning runs than others).

Unlike Leicester.

We have no god-given right to finish first in this division.

[smudgerfox]

What's the point of this thread?

We are a Premiership club in terms of fanbase and history.

And neither fanbase or history play any part in determining the final league table. So it's not surprising expectations are so high and thus likely to be unmet if you're basing your hopes for the club on what is essentially a delusion. Gate receipts - if that's what you see as the significance of the fanbase - are small change in the pockets of any club these days. It's just a harsh economic fact.

[Kitchandro]

We have no god-given right to finish first in this division.

Why we are faring so relatively lowly? It's the Championship.

The teams that you mention have managed to hold on to the core of players for more than just one season.

That's one reason why they're playing better and more consistent (or able to come up with longer-lasting winning runs than others).

Unlike Leicester.

We have no god-given right to finish first in this division.

Yes I know that, where have I said otherwise? Where has anyone ever said otherwise? Nobody has claimed we should be awarded the Championship trophy at the start of the season. Many people have said we SHOULD be finishing first, or at least second, in the Championship. Why? Because we've spent twice as much money as everyone else.

It is not necessary to have the same players for two or three seasons before you can mount a promotion push. Reading have lost most of their best players over the past couple of seasons but are still doing well. Blackpool lost a lot of their best players when they came down. If we had the right players and the right manager from the start of the season, we'd be doing better, simple as that. Besides, we kept vital core players from last season, Naughton and Yakubu (on his day) aside, King, Wellens, Gallagher were our big performers, but they just haven't performed. Bamba also, and he had more good games than bad before January.

'It's the Championship'.There is no curse on this league. You get the same amount of points for a win here as you do in most league's throughout the world. The teams are just players, human players like anywhere else.

[Out Foxed]

i don't even like the premier league.

[smudgerfox]

But why is it not as easy? It should be easier when we've spent twice as much as all of

This is the money trumps all argument. Football history is littered with clubs who got new rich owners who thought they could buy success. Some managed it. Many did not.in the current climate, when players are determined to play in the Prem if at all possible and when many clubs have rich owners it just doesn't work. Look at the trouble Sven had landing his second striker - was Beckford his twelfth or thirteenth choice? Long, Jelavic, Mackail-smith, some guy from Korea and rhey're just the ones I remember. Money isn't everything.

And look at Norwich, Swansea , both doing very nicely in Prem without spending a fortune, without stars. Supporters and players united behind a decent manager.

[Kitchandro]

And neither fanbase or history play any part in determining the final league table. So it's not surprising expectations are so high and thus likely to be unmet if you're basing your hopes for the club on what is essentially a delusion. Gate receipts - if that's what you see as the significance of the fanbase - are small change in the pockets of any club these days. It's just a harsh economic fact.

Yeh but you're ignoring me really aren't you.

For the third time. We've spent (approximately) twice as much as everyone else in this league. THAT is why we should be doing better THIS season.

History does determine/manage expectations, of course it does, and why shouldn't it? If, throughout our history, we've mainly been a team which has been either in the top division or towards the top of the second division, doing worse than that will be considered a failure. How else do you determine what our expectations should be? I'd like to know how long it's been since we spent over 8 years outside the top flight. Knowing our history quite well off the top of my head I'm sure it's pre-war. So it seems we'll be out of it for 9 years at least now.

If I was the Chairman or someone high up at the club, and I saw our attendances, I'd be thinking this club should be in the Premiership. This kind of club is underachieving whilst clubs like Wigan are clearly overachieving. Clubs with bigger fanbases generally have a more successful history than those with significantly smaller ones.

So, take you're pick, finances, fanbases, history, whatever. It doesn't matter how you look at it, Leicester are punching below their weight.

[Kitchandro]

This is the money trumps all argument. Football history is littered with clubs who got new rich owners who thought they could buy success. Some managed it. Many did not.in the current climate, when players are determined to play in the Prem if at all possible and when many clubs have rich owners it just doesn't work. Look at the trouble Sven had landing his second striker - was Beckford his twelfth or thirteenth choice? Long, Jelavic, Mackail-smith, some guy from Korea and rhey're just the ones I remember. Money isn't everything.

And look at Norwich, Swansea , both doing very nicely in Prem without spending a fortune, without stars. Supporters and players united behind a decent manager.

So what's your point? You've been writing a lot without actually making one.

Should we just expect to be midtable then? No matter how much money we spend, no matter how much we know that there is no good reason for us to be crap, we should just accept this is where we should be?

[Cropwellfox]

You just have to hold onto the hope that outside of the top eight in the prem, football in our country is a cyclical thing, and we are possibly coming back from the bottom of the worst cycle in our history. Norwich, Swansea, reading, Southampton, are all at the top of theirs, but even with big investment this won't last for ever. The question is will it be our turn to move into the ascendency before we hit real financial problems, finance being the biggest threat to this natural cycle of teams having success and failure. it wasn't that many years ago Norwich and stoke fans could only dream of the success we were having, how that's changed now.