The Championship Thread 2023/2024

[MrsJohnMurphy]

1 hour ago, Rain King said:

 

Nah.....needs a Romanian wild dog under each arm

[Pub breath]

On 21/10/2023 at 17:15, Lambert09 said:

there’s still too many defensive issues at leeds. They will continue to drop silly points imo. 

 

don’t get me wrong, they will be up there. But 11 points is huge to close down. 

Third best defence in the league despite a very unsettled start due to new manager and lots of ins and outs.  6 goals let in in the 8 games since the window shut and none of those with Djed Spence, who will be comfortably the best RB in the division when he's fit soon.

Clearly not as mean as Leicester's but I don't think Leeds have a major defensive issue.

[goose2010]

2 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

Third best defence in the league despite a very unsettled start due to new manager and lots of ins and outs.  6 goals let in in the 8 games since the window shut and none of those with Djed Spence, who will be comfortably the best RB in the division when he's fit soon.

Clearly not as mean as Leicester's but I don't think Leeds have a major defensive issue.

Interesting... We have two that are better so I don't think that is right. 

[Pub breath]

10 minutes ago, goose2010 said:

Interesting... We have two that are better so I don't think that is right. 

It's all about opinions but I respectfully strongly disagree.  Spence is ridiculously good at this level.

[Ric Flair]

3 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

It's all about opinions but I respectfully strongly disagree.  Spence is ridiculously good at this level.

Never seen him play in a back four, but as a right wing back at this level he is strong.

 

I'd be pretty surprised if you don't finish top two. Ipswich would need to keep the pace or us plummet for it not to happen IMO. 

[Pub breath]

2 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Never seen him play in a back four, but as a right wing back at this level he is strong.

 

I'd be pretty surprised if you don't finish top two. Ipswich would need to keep the pace or us plummet for it not to happen IMO. 

The strangest feeling is, i'm really not all that bothered if we don't.  Not sure if some Leicester fans feel similarly.  Would be nice to go back up but then you realise what a corrupt, dodgy money ruled, VAR ruined, sterile mess the PL is and we'd probably just end up in a lower table dog fight again.  I'm really enjoying the championship again.  The football is decent, the games are entertaining, no VAR thank God and it all feels much more real than the PL.

[goose2010]

7 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

It's all about opinions but I respectfully strongly disagree.  Spence is ridiculously good at this level.

He hasn't played at this level for nearly 2 years? He actually hasn't played in any position for that amount of time. 

 

To say he is better than Ricardo and or Justin even at this level is a bit mad.

 

Leeds will finish top 3 I don't doubt that but the about of BS coming out of some fans is mid blowing. 

[goose2010]

Just now, Pub breath said:

The strangest feeling is, i'm really not all that bothered if we don't.  Not sure if some Leicester fans feel similarly.  Would be nice to go back up but then you realise what a corrupt, dodgy money ruled, VAR ruined, sterile mess the PL is and we'd probably just end up in a lower table dog fight again.  I'm really enjoying the championship again.  The football is decent, the games are entertaining, no VAR thank God and it all feels much more real than the PL.

Now I will agree with this completely! 

[Pub breath]

2 minutes ago, goose2010 said:

He hasn't played at this level for nearly 2 years? He actually hasn't played in any position for that amount of time. 

 

To say he is better than Ricardo and or Justin even at this level is a bit mad.

 

Leeds will finish top 3 I don't doubt that but the about of BS coming out of some fans is mid blowing. 

Talk to any Forest fan and you'll understand.  I'm good mates with one so have seen quite a lot of Spence.  I'm really not sure you understand just how good he is mate.  You'll see soon enough.  It's hardly mind blowing to suggest that a defender who Spurs paid £20m in the Championship, might just be a tad good.

[ian__marshall]

1 minute ago, Pub breath said:

Talk to any Forest fan and you'll understand.  I'm good mates with one so have seen quite a lot of Spence.  I'm really not sure you understand just how good he is mate.  You'll see soon enough.  It's hardly mind blowing to suggest that a defender who Spurs paid £20m in the Championship, might just be a tad good.

I feel sorry for you mate. Having grown up around a lot of them the one bit of advice I'd offer is take whatever they say with a pinch of salt. The amount of times I've been told by them that player x who no one has ever heard of is the second coming of Maradona is baffling. Think it's a Nottingham thing in general. There's a bloke at work who claims to be an Arsenal die hard yet has never set foot in the Emirates. Never heard him mutter a word about Forest in the Championship. The second they were promoted suddenly he's telling me how big a fan he is and that he might get a season ticket. Couldn't make it up, absolute deluded bunch of people.

[goose2010]

10 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

Talk to any Forest fan and you'll understand.  I'm good mates with one so have seen quite a lot of Spence.  I'm really not sure you understand just how good he is mate.  You'll see soon enough.  It's hardly mind blowing to suggest that a defender who Spurs paid £20m in the Championship, might just be a tad good.

They also paid 55m for Ndombele and 22m for Bryan Gill....

I'm sure he will be fine for Leeds but to come on here and say he will be comfortably be the best RB in the league is a massive statement. Hope he plays next Friday 😄

[fuchsntf]

26 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

The strangest feeling is, i'm really not all that bothered if we don't.  Not sure if some Leicester fans feel similarly.  Would be nice to go back up but then you realise what a corrupt, dodgy money ruled, VAR ruined, sterile mess the PL is and we'd probably just end up in a lower table dog fight again.  I'm really enjoying the championship again.  The football is decent, the games are entertaining, no VAR thank God and it all feels much more real than the PL.

I sometimes go through that feeling.. Plus a nice cozy feeling in being able to wallow and take a few "Spa"  seasons in the championship.. 

 

But our and that enviable feeling, only comes about, because..

CLUB/most Fans / Players have that consequence & cause, for that deep  in bred need for competition, & show of success, we find ourselves in this extactic position & comfy situation. 

 

I suppose one could put in a type of clause.. ANY TOP 4  CAN CHOOSE.... 

IF.. they want to be promoted to the PL. 

but that's unfair on the other teams, who not only compete for coveted positions, but also for higher quality players & also clubs  then having something in the class of Seagrave.. 

Question also what management team, like Enzo's would go through that Stress, just to have the honor to stay comfy & cozy in the Championship.. 

 

Plus on the Human note &  character.. 

What a crazy cozy, egoistic, cruel, selfish notion to have.. 

GROUNDHOG Day, all your life.. 

 

 

 

 

[Aus Fox]

1 hour ago, Pub breath said:

Third best defence in the league despite a very unsettled start due to new manager and lots of ins and outs.  6 goals let in in the 8 games since the window shut and none of those with Djed Spence, who will be comfortably the best RB in the division when he's fit soon.

Clearly not as mean as Leicester's but I don't think Leeds have a major defensive issue.

It’s tough adapting to a new league, with a new manager and lots of ins and outs. We even lost one game whilst adapting…

As for Spence, he’s good, no doubt, but he’s a long way behind Ricardo who has done it at the top level and James Justin who pre injury was in the England squad.

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Pub breath said:

The strangest feeling is, i'm really not all that bothered if we don't.  Not sure if some Leicester fans feel similarly.  Would be nice to go back up but then you realise what a corrupt, dodgy money ruled, VAR ruined, sterile mess the PL is and we'd probably just end up in a lower table dog fight again.  I'm really enjoying the championship again.  The football is decent, the games are entertaining, no VAR thank God and it all feels much more real than the PL.

Totally agree on being out the Prem is a breath of fresh air but if we didn't go up from the start we have made thrn I'd struggle to be unaffected by it.

 

It's a dilemma as I absolutely detest VAR.

[Pub breath]

52 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Totally agree on being out the Prem is a breath of fresh air but if we didn't go up from the start we have made thrn I'd struggle to be unaffected by it.

 

It's a dilemma as I absolutely detest VAR.

Yeah, guess that's what I mean by it being a strange feeling.  Each game, I want us to win, no doubt about that.  With the squad we have, no promotion would probably be a failure and no sports fan wants to feel like their team has failed.  The prize at the end of it, well it's a bit of a freshly laid turd in a beautifully presented and enticing looking gift box.

Leicester upsetting the apple cart amongst the (dubiously) wealthy elite was a freak enough event 8 years ago but with ever more clubs joining that group, it would be as near to impossible as you can get now.  You either join them and turn your gaze away from the awful truth behind how your transfers are actually funded or embrace a future top flight existence of mediocrity at best, emotionally draining crapness and humiliating drubbings at worst.  Oh yeah, and VAR   Yuk.

[surrifox]

17 hours ago, MrsJohnMurphy said:

Nah.....needs a Romanian wild dog under each arm

And those fluffy boots should be white 😉

[CosbehFox]

When folk say you wouldn’t want to go back to the Premier League, the gap to achieve what Brighton did or nab a 7th isn’t a lot beyond staying up performance. 
 

Thats Europe. That’s memories for life. 

Edited 24 October 2023 by CosbehFox

[Pub breath]

3 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

When folk say you wouldn’t want to go back to the Premier League, the gap to achieve what Brighton did or nab a 7th isn’t a lot beyond staying up performance. 
 

Thats Europe. That’s memories for life. 

Now there's a club showing the world how you can achieve no real success as a small club by deploying highly questionable funding practices that to my small brain, seem to make a total mockery of FFP.  What is it that they owe Bloom?  Half a billion or more? 

It's the only way it can be done and it's no longer really sport.  It's a competition between billionaire owners, not cities and towns.  I can't get excited about a sport that mostly (but not always of course) comes down to who has the best (and usually most bent) billionaire.  It makes no sense to be emotionally invested in such a thing.

[BKLFox]

5 hours ago, Pub breath said:

Talk to any Forest fan and you'll understand.  I'm good mates with one so have seen quite a lot of Spence.  I'm really not sure you understand just how good he is mate.  You'll see soon enough.  It's hardly mind blowing to suggest that a defender who Spurs paid £20m in the Championship, might just be a tad good.

for me it was the partnership with Johnson at Forest that made Spence shine & vice versa, since they have been split up neither have produced anything like they did together in that last season.

[blockheadder]

1 hour ago, Pub breath said:

Now there's a club showing the world how you can achieve no real success as a small club by deploying highly questionable funding practices that to my small brain, seem to make a total mockery of FFP.  What is it that they owe Bloom?  Half a billion or more? 

It's the only way it can be done and it's no longer really sport.  It's a competition between billionaire owners, not cities and towns.  I can't get excited about a sport that mostly (but not always of course) comes down to who has the best (and usually most bent) billionaire.  It makes no sense to be emotionally invested in such a thing.

Was it ever thus?

[Pub breath]

20 minutes ago, blockheadder said:

Was it ever thus?

Was it ever not like that?  Oh aye.  Leeds won the last ever Div1 title before the PL started and there were no billionaire pouring their life savings into clubs then, no corrupt Russian Oligarchs or sovereign wealth funds abusing historic English clubs for their sportswashing needs.  This really has been the last two decades in the making and is getting obviously and depressingly worse.

[Lambert09]

6 hours ago, Pub breath said:

The strangest feeling is, i'm really not all that bothered if we don't.  Not sure if some Leicester fans feel similarly.  Would be nice to go back up but then you realise what a corrupt, dodgy money ruled, VAR ruined, sterile mess the PL is and we'd probably just end up in a lower table dog fight again.  I'm really enjoying the championship again.  The football is decent, the games are entertaining, no VAR thank God and it all feels much more real than the PL.

penny for burnleys thoughts? 

 

Can’t be enjoying it at all right now.

 

Ive always had the feeling being a yo-yo club is far better for a fan base than being an everton.  How do everton fans not just completely go off football 

Edited 24 October 2023 by Lambert09

[Ric Flair]

53 minutes ago, Pub breath said:

Was it ever not like that?  Oh aye.  Leeds won the last ever Div1 title before the PL started and there were no billionaire pouring their life savings into clubs then, no corrupt Russian Oligarchs or sovereign wealth funds abusing historic English clubs for their sportswashing needs.  This really has been the last two decades in the making and is getting obviously and depressingly worse.

It's true though to an extent, the most powerful pre the Premier League were those with either wealthy owners who ploughed money in or powerhouse clubs who generated lots of revenue. 

 

I am fascinated by clubs that build success on a budget, but it's so difficult and so rare to do. Clubs that have a model to buy low and sell high, however they do it (Brentford and Brighton come in to it) is the only way clubs of their size, ours and probably even yours can try and compete but as you say, a lot of this still comes down to the owners investing what they can within the sham of the rules that are in place.

 

 

[Pub breath]

22 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

penny for burnleys thoughts? 

 

Can’t be enjoying it at all right now.

 

Ive always had the feeling being a yo-yo club is far better for a fan base than being an everton.  How do everton fans not just completely go off football 

A point behind Luton even, which is crazy when you think how good Burnley were last season.

The 2 seasons we had fighting relegation were completely miserable affairs.  Most weeks either beaten or utterly destroyed.  Imagine that for a long stretch?

I'm not a wistful "weren't the past bloody great" kinda guy but the sport of football was simply far, far better 20-30 years ago.

[AllGoneTitsSchlupp]

26 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

penny for burnleys thoughts? 

 

Can’t be enjoying it at all right now.

 

Ive always had the feeling being a yo-yo club is far better for a fan base than being an everton.  How do everton fans not just completely go off football 

I have similar thoughts about Crystal Palace. How is that enjoyable, never fighting for Europe, never fighting for a cup, never fighting relegation, they just exist. Must be so boring