The Championship Thread 2023/2024

[Fox92]

2 hours ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

I'd be more worried about Ipswich than Preston long term I think. Preston are just mid table fodder with a good defence on a good/lucky run. Ipswich actually have quality and a style of play that can take them far in the league. 

 

We'll comfortably finish above both IMO

Can "lucky" be removed from football.

 

Preston aren't "lucky" to have lost 0 games this season so far, and fair play to them. It's great to see different clubs at the top of the table. They have been mid table for the past three seasons. Ipswich have come up and are riding on that promotion..

 

But I've seen nothing to suggest Ipswich are any better than Preston at the minute. If they were then they wouldn't be a point behind.

[TJB-fox]

12 hours ago, Super_horns said:

Probably be wishing they hadn’t bothered!

Up the Gas rather than up the greens…

[snoopy87]

18 hours ago, Happy Fox said:

A Birmingham City win to hopefully burst Preston’s bubble.

Everyone kept saying this about us when we won the league, the bubble didn't pop

[Fazzer 7]

12 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

There's no pressure. It's September 

Yes it is. However, to get out this league you need to keep winning. 

[foxfanazer]

4 minutes ago, Fazzer 7 said:

Yes it is. However, to get out this league you need to keep winning. 

You don't need to be perfect though. Preston and Ipswich won't be. As Mickey Adams said years ago, you need to average 2 points a game for automatic promotion so we're well on track 

[Manini]

9 minutes ago, Fazzer 7 said:

Yes it is. However, to get out this league you need to keep winning. 

We could probably be about 6/7th in December and still go up automatically. I’m not saying that with any arrogance either, and I’d rather not be in that position, but there’s so many games. We’re 6 points ahead of Leeds as it stands, I’d put money on them being in and around the top 3 when all is said and done. You can go on bad runs and still pick up enough points along the way in your good spells. If anything I think our current run has taken the pressure off us a bit. I’d rather have runs on the board and then go on a bad run, rather than having to make the points up. 
 

Southampton are probably only a managerial change away from being competitive at the top also, they could easily make the deficit up. 

Edited 20 September 2023 by Manini

[FrankieADZ]

12 minutes ago, snoopy87 said:

Everyone kept saying this about us when we won the league, the bubble didn't pop

bare in mind we are only in late September, if it was Jan then sure, its still early days within the season

[TheStig]

21 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

You don't need to be perfect though. Preston and Ipswich won't be. As Mickey Adams said years ago, you need to average 2 points a game for automatic promotion so we're well on track 

So are they....

[foxfanazer]

1 hour ago, TheStig said:

So are they....

They are but are Preston likely to keep that up all season? Logic would suggest no. And if they did then other than beating them ourselves there's not a lot we can do about it 

Edited 20 September 2023 by foxfanazer

[Ric Flair]

5 hours ago, AmyLGK said:

Well done to Preston and Ipswich... I'll never write anyone off, ever again, so our games against them are going to be hugely important.

Same, this league can and does have such clubs maintain their form. It won't be at near 3 points a game levels but they may well challenge all the way.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

3 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Can "lucky" be removed from football.

 

Preston aren't "lucky" to have lost 0 games this season so far, and fair play to them. It's great to see different clubs at the top of the table. They have been mid table for the past three seasons. Ipswich have come up and are riding on that promotion..

 

But I've seen nothing to suggest Ipswich are any better than Preston at the minute. If they were then they wouldn't be a point behind.

Lucky is a thing though. On balance of play they could easily have lost a good number of those games, they are hardly blowing teams away. 

 

That's why Ipswich are much more of a concern as on the whole they have deserved their wins and clearly have a lot of goals in them, which Preston don't appear to. 

[Leicester_Loyal]

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/60406-saints-0-1-ipswich-match-thread/?do=findComment&comment=3227102

[Lambert09]

the comments about preston are just disrespectful. If anyone has ridden their luck and fluked their way to the top so far, that would be us. 

Edited 20 September 2023 by Lambert09

[Chelmofox]

19 minutes ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/60406-saints-0-1-ipswich-match-thread/?do=findComment&comment=3227102

They all seem really happy.

[Gamble92]

10 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

the comments about preston are just disrespectful. If anyone has ridden their luck and fluked their way to the top so far that would be us. 

No one gets disrespected as much as Leicester on here. I don't think the population of Preston are sat reading Foxestalk. 

[ALC Fox]

The first ever winners of the football league in 1889, when they also won the FA Cup, being the first club to do the Double. They then won the league again in 1890 and never since.

 

They haven't been in the top tier since 1961.

 

It'd be brilliant to see Preston finally make it back to the top level after knocking on the door on a few occasions in the last 20 years or so.

 

As long as it doesn't come at our expense, of course 

[purpleronnie]

Lets face it, the championship is a pretty poor standard, no-one expected forest to go from bottom of the league  and get promoted, no-one expected luton to go up.  I would be surprised if Preston and Ipswich stayed there, but who the heck knows?

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Lucky is a thing though. On balance of play they could easily have lost a good number of those games, they are hardly blowing teams away. 

 

That's why Ipswich are much more of a concern as on the whole they have deserved their wins and clearly have a lot of goals in them, which Preston don't appear to. 

We could have easily lost a number of games too, but didn't. That's how it goes.

 

Preston have had the harder start anyway, just. Ipswich lost to the toughest team they've faced (Leeds).

[Drink Water]

I'd be elated if Preston and Ipswich get promoted with us instead of Leeds and Southampton, because it makes the Premier League easier next season. You have to think about these things tactically, you'd rather go up along with smaller clubs than your fellow relegation buddies. 

[Jack1993]

 

I always think that 12 games in is a good indication of how good each team actually is. 

 

Probably worth mentioning that many teams have had a great start over 6 to 8ish games but pretty much all of them fall off that pace by the 12th game: 

 

Now, I'm not for one minute saying they wont keep up this form, HOWEVER...

 

If Preston continue their current Points Per Game for just 5 more matches they will: 

 

Have had the best start to a Championship / Division 1 season since Fulham 2000 / 2001

 

The 3rd best ever start to a Championship / Division 1 season (Since becoming a 24 team competition, 1992)

 

With just 1.4 Points Per Game from their next 5 games (2 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses) they would have still been top or joint top in 7 out of the last 10 seasons

 

With 1.8 Points Per Game from their next 5 games (3 wins, 2 losses) they would still have been top or joint top in 14 of the last 15 seasons (2nd by a point in the other)

 

22/23: Sheffield Utd: 24 

21/22: Bournemouth: 28 

20/21: Norwich: 24 

19/20: WBA: 25

18/19: Sheffield Utd: 25 

17/18: Wolves: 26 

16/17: Norwich: 26 

15/16: Brighton: 28 

14/15: Watford: 24 

13/14: Burnley: 29   (We went on to win it )

12/13: Leicester: 25 

11/12: Southampton: 27

10/11: QPR: 28

09/10: WBA: 24

08/09: Birmingham: 27

07/08: Watford: 29

06/07: Cardiff: 29 

05/06: Sheffield Utd: 30

04/05: Wigan: 24 

03/04: Sheffield Utd: 26  

02/03: Portsmouth: 31

01/02: Crystal Palace: 27 

00/01: Fulham: 34

99/00: Charlton: 26 

98/99: Sunderland: 24 

97/98: Sheffield Utd: 25 

96/97: Bolton: 29

95/96: Leicester: 22 

94/95: Wolves: 26 

93/94: Leicester: 25 

92/93: Newcastle: 33 

 

[Fear Of The Fox]

I'd rather have teams like Preston and Ipswich doing well early in the season. Keep Southampton, Norwich and Leeds struggling and dropping points. Because in the end it's Championship and it will balance out. If we keep improving we'll get promoted. 

If we get promoted it's a different game of football. Champions League format is changing for the worse next year, with some good planning and wise transfers we can take advantage. 

Keep positive, keep improving under Enzo. The future might be brighter than we think. 

[LCFCJohn]

2 hours ago, ALC Fox said:

The first ever winners of the football league in 1889, when they also won the FA Cup, being the first club to do the Double. They then won the league again in 1890 and never since.

 

They haven't been in the top tier since 1961.

 

It'd be brilliant to see Preston finally make it back to the top level after knocking on the door on a few occasions in the last 20 years or so.

 

As long as it doesn't come at our expense, of course 

I was reading about the clubs that had reached 5000 total leagues games which was obviously made up of teams who were founding members of the league. It was because Blackburn had reached that milestone at the weekend.

 

Preston were the first to do that and what I was reading made the point that it is a lot easier to get there playing 46 games a season not 38 but I didn’t realise it was that long they’d been out the top flight!

[deep blue]

Interesting that many of us on here feared Russell Martin being appointed as our manager because he gave the impression  of being very much a Rodgers look-alike in his playing philosophy.  Some of the Southampton fans' comments - for example "no strong characters", "weak midfield", "can't organise a defense", "playing players out of position",  "doesn't know his best team" etc - bear this out.

 

If he were being seriously considered for the job here then early indications are that we dodged a bullet.

[RowlattsFox]

19 minutes ago, deep blue said:

Interesting that many of us on here feared Russell Martin being appointed as our manager because he gave the impression  of being very much a Rodgers look-alike in his playing philosophy.  Some of the Southampton fans' comments - for example "no strong characters", "weak midfield", "can't organise a defense", "playing players out of position",  "doesn't know his best team" etc - bear this out.

 

If he were being seriously considered for the job here then early indications are that we dodged a bullet.

I think it was more his agent whoring him around and Southampton fell for it. 

[iancognito]

2 hours ago, Drink Water said:

I'd be elated if Preston and Ipswich get promoted with us instead of Leeds and Southampton, because it makes the Premier League easier next season. You have to think about these things tactically, you'd rather go up along with smaller clubs than your fellow relegation buddies. 

I thought that last season when Sheff and Luton went up. We literally needed one win last season and we'd have made it through this season too. With those two, Everton crumbling and Bournemouth trying to be "next level" by sacking O'Neil, we'd have had a great chance to rebuild.

 

That said it gives you a sense of perspective when you hear fans of Wednesday and WBA ringing radio stations about the mess they're in with owners. Wednesday's owner sounds like a poundshop Top and the Baggies guy - Lao Che from Indiana Jones? - has cleared their accounts and can't get them sold fast enough with their parachute payments running out in a few months.