2014/15 Championship Thread

[Dolphin Ziggler]

First topic message reminder :

Well, it's all decided now.

Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Blackpool
Bolton Wanderers
Bournemouth
Brentford
Brighton & Hove Underdogs
Cardiff City
Charlton Athletic
Derby County
Fulham
Huddersfield Town
Ipswich Town
Leeds United
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest
Reading
Rotherham United
Sheffield Wednesday
Watford
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers

Forest have Pearce, Leeds may have investment, Olly has reasons to be cheerful and Wigan don't have European distractions.

[NickisBHAFC]

Can someone explain why Brentford are looking for a new manager? He's in 4th place yet they want rid?

He also sounds like a respectable Englishman. Something we never really see these days.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Can someone explain why Brentford are looking for a new manager? He's in 4th place yet they want rid?

I understand he's actually said they have contingency plans in place in case somebody snaps him up from the Premier League, not they will get rid.

Media misreporting as per with the lower league clubs

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

And of course we let Charlton back in it with a sloppy goal. We just cannot defend this season

[westisbest]

Bent scores again.

Hmm

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

We're completely spineless

[NickisBHAFC]

Results all going against brighton, so a Cardiff goal is due any second. Probably noone

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

HAVE MY BABIES CAMERON JEROME

[FootballLight]

Absolutely class Reading. What a home performance against Leeds, 0-2. Fabulous opening goal, Federici should look down in shame and the 2nd, don't get me started, a right back heads into the top of the net, I'll tell you. Reading's inconsistency this season fills me with no surprises anymore. We win 2 games and then I know we will lose the next game.

Steve Clarke needs to get us a top half finish minimum this season as that isn't too hard to get regarding the points difference between like 18th and 8th in the table and then he needs to build some consistency for next season and we should at least reach the Play-Offs. If not, have him gone.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I genuinely couldn't name one player who plays for Reading

Wigan are in proper trouble, will they actually have any fans turn up in League 1?

[GSC]

Assombalonga completes the holy trinity of having our best defender, midfielder and striker injured long term

[Fernando]

Even you know who this is Olly...

[dyrewolfe]

Strange game against Blackpool - a lot closer than I expected. All the goals came in the last 10 minutes - and we scored them all!

Still with Derby and Bournemouth cancelling each other out, it means we're top...for the time being.

Would be fantastic if we could stay there.

[NickisBHAFC]

Although the championship is fun and entertaining. The standard really is dire these days. Asides derby and Boro, no one else really stands out as an excellent championship side.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Yeah I mean that highest scoring team in the country are proper rubbish

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Ive thought for about 2 or 3 years that the quality in the championship is lacking.

[Crimey]

Most likely due to the increased television deals in the Premier League meaning the top Championship clubs are even further away financially from those at the bottom of the Premier League meaning players who might normally choose the Championship clubs because they can experience winning for the same money now pick the relegation-fighting Premier League sides.

[NickisBHAFC]

Yeah I mean that highest scoring team in the country are proper rubbish

3 seasons ago. Bourenmouth wouldn't of done so well. Tommy Elphick and Steve Cook are there first choice Center backs. Says it all.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Three/four years ago we got promoted with Elliott Ward and Zak Whitbread playing centre half. It really isn't much different at all

[FootballLight]

Derby County vs Reading

FA Cup match. This is the 3rd time we will have played Derby this season, lost both times and not surprisingly, haven't scored in any of them. Dreading today's result. I'd normally go for 3-0 Derby but because they are missing Chris Martin, I'll drop it down to 2-0 instead. Still a strong outfit either way. We are not bad, but no much for Derby at the moment. Its a bit unfortunate that we couldn't finish our chances vs Leeds at home, hence why we lost 2-0 and rightly so.

But hopefully with Guthrie fit again, he probably won't make an appearance, but I so hope he does. Him and Williams is the strongest CM partnership for me (but of course, biased view).

URZ!!! COME ON YOU ROYALS!!!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

The standard of refereeing on this league is truly Sunday league

[NickisBHAFC]

Were gonna lose. Good news is Millwall are losing.

[GSC]

This game is hilarious.

How Blackpool are allowed to host games on that pitch though is beyond me

[GSC]

This was in pregame...

Unsurprisingly, Hobbs has done his knee again on it.

[NickisBHAFC]

Said that 2 weeks ago. It's a lottery on who is going to win.

[GSC]

Probably a decent strategy for them then.

Blackpools pitch has been like this for years though. The FL really has to step in sooner or later, its really unprofessional.

[NickisBHAFC]

Once again feel sorry for fans, season ticket holders have to endure watching football played on that week in week out!

[GSC]

I feel sorry for the fans, but for reasons I won't discuss on this website for fear for legal reprisal.

[GSC]

Well that just happened

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

5 wins from 7 under Neil so far, excellent team performance today, easily the hardest I've seen them work all season. He seems to have developed a real work ethic within the squad.

Grabban in particular has shined since Neil came in.

To say the game against Watford next week is a biggie is an understatement

[FootballLight]

We didn't play but dropped a few places. Unfortunate but I'm at least hoping Steve will pull his finger out and try and get us to a respectable top half finish this season. 8th and above would be good, but I'd even settle for somewhere like 11th this season because it is so tight around the middle band of teams.

But very pleased to have surpassed Derby and we're in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup now! At this rate, I wouldn't go beyond us to win it! Maybe Derby should have played Jake Buxton and Will Hughes yesterday, rather than the more than laughable Stephen Warnock.

[dyrewolfe]

Ive thought for about 2 or 3 years that the quality in the championship is lacking.

Its always been "lacking" - thats why its the 2nd tier of English football.


Of course another major factor is that they don't get the same level of sponsorship or oceans of TV money that the PL clubs do, meaning they can't pay PL wages or transfer fees to get PL quality players.

[FootballLight]

Ive thought for about 2 or 3 years that the quality in the championship is lacking.

Its always been "lacking" - thats why its the 2nd tier of English football.


Of course another major factor is that they don't get the same level of sponsorship or oceans of TV money that the PL clubs do, meaning they can't pay PL wages or transfer fees to get PL quality players.

There are some good players in the Championship. They just need to be on wages that are less than £20,000p/w to be really worth it for a Championship club. Reading have Pogrebnyak on European standard wages and he doesn't deliver any goals near that standard per that season. Grabban, Deeney, Rhodes etc are them sort of good players that could do well at PL level and they'd accept wages that are probably under £30,000p/w.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

It'd be interesting for Rhodes to take a massive pay cut to go up a league FL

[FootballLight]

I was only using examples of players that could make the jump. I didn't research the wages before I put it down, I just don't have the time.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Ive thought for about 2 or 3 years that the quality in the championship is lacking.

Its always been "lacking" - thats why its the 2nd tier of English football.


Of course another major factor is that they don't get the same level of sponsorship or oceans of TV money that the PL clubs do, meaning they can't pay PL wages or transfer fees to get PL quality players.

Lacking in comparison to what they had. There were a few seasons where clubs were not awful dropping down from the Prem but struggled anyway. The glut of teams that failed, like Birmingham, Bolton etc, hit the quality a bit.

[Derbymanc]

Plus FL clubs have to balance the books better for FFP, if you get caught in the PL it's a fine you can afford anyway, if caught out in the FL it's transfer sanctions etc.

[FootballLight]

As Forest have found out......

[Derbymanc]

It's a stupid rule though FL, if any owner wants to pump cash into a club then they should be able too. The only thing is that they should have to turn the debt into shares or equity (I think) basically making them responsible for the debt and not the club.

[FootballLight]

I don't think so because the clubs debts is what needs to be paid off. The Chairman has to keep some money for himself. They can pump a maximum of £10m I think into the running of a club. For me, that isn't bad considering teams don't spend a lot. But that has to be used wisely. Clubs cannot make a loss of over £3m either, that's down to how the club spend their money. That is why Blackpool's philosophy looks good, maybe they were failing FFP rules? For all we know, that could be the case.

[Derbymanc]

Nope, Nope, Nope and Nope. If someone owns a club and wants to pump 50 million quid into it and effectively write it off, then they should be allowed. It's their club/business and their money.

If Blackpool's philosophy was that good then the fans wouldn't be up in arms and they wouldn't be languishing around the bottom.

I can understand what they're trying to do with FFP but it's making it harder for the smaller teams to break the glass ceiling of the PL rather than levelling the playing field.

[GSC]

I don't think so because the clubs debts is what needs to be paid off. The Chairman has to keep some money for himself. They can pump a maximum of £10m I think into the running of a club. For me, that isn't bad considering teams don't spend a lot. But that has to be used wisely. Clubs cannot make a loss of over £3m either, that's down to how the club spend their money. That is why Blackpool's philosophy looks good, maybe they were failing FFP rules? For all we know, that could be the case.

Fun fact, 2 clubs owe nearly a combined 200m

Neither have embargos.

The FL chairman effectively voted like Turkeys voting for Xmas. Watch parachute payments establish a group of teams that yo yo

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Brentford are a bit mad ain't they. Warburton and his staff gone at the end of the season. Maybe he's QPR's dream manager

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I don't dislike the move, I dislike the timing.

[FootballLight]

Reading vs Wigan tonight. It will be just like us to do poor in this match and end up losing. Wigan still are a very good side, but we need to put them in their place tonight and make sure we get this game comfortably won. Reading 3-1 Wigan tonight I'm predicting.

URZ!!!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Wigan still a very good side? I'll have a pint of whatever you're on FL must be strong stuff

Graham Dorrans on loan for a month. Nice

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Gwarn Rotherham

[Fernando]

You jinxed them it's 3-3 now

[westisbest]

Ince and Bent cant stop scoring for Derby.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

They've found their level that's why Westi

[Fernando]

Will Sherwood try bring back Bent to Villa? Or is that not possible? Let's face it Benteke ain't doing much.

[Sponsored content]