Relegation

[Westwood52]

I repeat,how come it is only us and Derby ?

[Zip]

I get that we have to take what’s coming but the embargo feels like a slow death sentence. I’d almost rather take a 9 point deduction and hope that we can stay up.

I am not even sure if relegation would be so bad. League 1 could be a great place to blood our youngsters and to re-build the squad with young hungry players that won’t cost the earth. Crowds would be good if we did well and I miss the days of playing Swindon, Oxford and Gillingham. However, I don’t know what the financial impact would be if we dropped down a division and we’d need the owners to stick with us.

It’d be rubbish. Rebuilding etc hasn’t worked for the likes of Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth and once you go down it’s hard to then build a squad that’ll compete in the champ again even if you do go up

Crowds would dwindle further, less tv money, less attractive to any decent players. Oxford maybe fun, but morecambe, Shrewsbury at home bringing 100 fans really wouldn’t be

Our u23s have shown themselves to be able to compete at champ level - Rino, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre - now hopefully Azeez to add to that. Don’t need to go down to give them a chance

This. It would be horrible to go back down to the lower divisions with absolute no guarantee of going back up again. It could go the other way and we end up back in the basement division again.

[windermereROYAL]

I get that we have to take what’s coming but the embargo feels like a slow death sentence. I’d almost rather take a 9 point deduction and hope that we can stay up.

I am not even sure if relegation would be so bad. League 1 could be a great place to blood our youngsters and to re-build the squad with young hungry players that won’t cost the earth. Crowds would be good if we did well and I miss the days of playing Swindon, Oxford and Gillingham. However, I don’t know what the financial impact would be if we dropped down a division and we’d need the owners to stick with us.

It’d be rubbish. Rebuilding etc hasn’t worked for the likes of Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth and once you go down it’s hard to then build a squad that’ll compete in the champ again even if you do go up

Crowds would dwindle further, less tv money, less attractive to any decent players. Oxford maybe fun, but morecambe, Shrewsbury at home bringing 100 fans really wouldn’t be

Our u23s have shown themselves to be able to compete at champ level - Rino, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre - now hopefully Azeez to add to that. Don’t need to go down to give them a chance

This. It would be horrible to go back down to the lower divisions with absolute no guarantee of going back up again. It could go the other way and we end up back in the basement division again.

Your anxiety might be a bit misguided, i could win the lottery but that won`t happen either.
Wigan were on the brink of going out of business not so long ago but that have enough about them to tempt two players from the giants of L1 Sunderland, including 31 goal Charlie Wyke.
I don`t want us to go down but it`s certainly not the death knell for our club if we do.

[bcubed]

I repeat,how come it is only us and Derby ?

In April it was

Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City, Coventry City, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City.

Not sure but I think it might just be us Derby and Hull now.

[Lower West]

Has the club CEO Dayong Pang said anything publicly in recent months? Feeling sorry for Pauno being left to hang out to dry and being the only spokesperson for the club. Nigel Howe jumped ship at the right time.

[Royal_jimmy]

Has the club CEO Dayong Pang said anything publicly in recent months? Feeling sorry for Pauno being left to hang out to dry and being the only spokesperson for the club. Nigel Howe jumped ship at the right time.

He's barely said a thing since he joined the club.

We don't have a DoF either which I think the club is really missing. Someone who has a wage structure and can negotiate sustainable financial deals for the club.

In fact do we even have a scouting network anymore outside of the academy?

[NathStPaul]

What would a few words from the ownership do to help? If they come out and say that we are screwed the supporters panic. If they come out and say "move along, nothing to see here" they are called liars and more unrest is created. No real good will come from an empty statement being released, it will be like using a plaster to fix a broken leg.

[Snowflake Royal]

I repeat,how come it is only us and Derby ?

In April it was

Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City, Coventry City, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City.

Not sure but I think it might just be us Derby and Hull now.

Most of those were technicalities around when accounts were filed too.

[karbota]

I think that relegation is definitely a possibility, and it shouldn't be such a bad thing, we do need a major reset. The current owners/management and players don't have the local identity, passion, desire that existed under past British/English owner's management and players.
And just think about those mouth watering local derbies and the giant killing cup rounds. It's also so soul destroying for the players and supporters to play and watch in such a plastic out of town carpet land empty stadium. We should never have moved from Elm Park.
Reading Know your place.

[Royal_jimmy]

We're now a long term Swift injury from being in massive trouble in my opinion.

[paultheroyal]

Oh god, here it comes, ie “it won’t be so bad getting relegated comments” FML

[Taffster]

Oh god, here it comes, ie “it won’t be so bad getting relegated comments” FML

Good chance to get rid of the deadwood and rebuild...........

[andrew1957]

We might survive this season provided we don’t have even more long term injuries to key players but I have to wonder how we will persuade any of the better OOC players to re-sign for next season. If they move on we will be down to youngsters and a few freebies in which case relegation sooner or later looks inevitable to me.

I am finding it very difficult to see any silver linings. I genuinely cannot think of a darker time for the club in the last 25 years or so.

[NathStPaul]

Oh god, here it comes, ie “it won’t be so bad getting relegated comments” FML

Good chance to get rid of the deadwood and rebuild...........

Getting relegated could kill us. If you're happy to have that happen just so that someone buys Puscas then great.

We don't really have any deadwood btw, we have a paper thin squad all of which are fairly decent Championship players.

[NathStPaul]

We have more than enough going forward to stay up this season, I would be very surprised to see us anywhere near the bottom 3 come next May.

[SCIAG]

We might survive this season provided we don’t have even more long term injuries to key players but I have to wonder how we will persuade any of the better OOC players to re-sign for next season. If they move on we will be down to youngsters and a few freebies in which case relegation sooner or later looks inevitable to me.

I am finding it very difficult to see any silver linings. I genuinely cannot think of a darker time for the club in the last 25 years or so.

What about when we sold Le Fondre to pay a tax bill?

Hopefully next summer we will be in a better position to recruit. We’re not going to be under an embargo forever.

[Notts Royal]

We have more than enough going forward to stay up this season, I would be very surprised to see us anywhere near the bottom 3 come next May.

You write that before the Joao injury confirmation?

Relying on 2 academy lads with 3 apps and 1 off the bench, and blunt Puscas is not going to keep us up

[Taffster]

Oh god, here it comes, ie “it won’t be so bad getting relegated comments” FML

Good chance to get rid of the deadwood and rebuild...........

Getting relegated could kill us. If you're happy to have that happen just so that someone buys Puscas then great.

We don't really have any deadwood btw, we have a paper thin squad all of which are fairly decent Championship players.

k

[NathStPaul]

We have more than enough going forward to stay up this season, I would be very surprised to see us anywhere near the bottom 3 come next May.

You write that before the Joao injury confirmation?

Relying on 2 academy lads with 3 apps and 1 off the bench, and blunt Puscas is not going to keep us up

We still have enough about us to score goals, providing we keep them fit of course. Losing Joao is a blow of course but Azeez has shown enough to suggest he is comfortable at this level and we also have Ejaria to come back in who I would think Paunovic will be tempted to use as a false 9 should we not be able to sign another striker. We will create a lot of chances due to the likes of Swift and Laurent being in the side and Tom Dele-Bashiru looked very tidy when he came on too.
McIntyre, Moore and Morrison are my concerns at the moment, if we can get them back in form we will be just fine.

[Royal_jimmy]

We have more than enough going forward to stay up this season, I would be very surprised to see us anywhere near the bottom 3 come next May.

You write that before the Joao injury confirmation?

Relying on 2 academy lads with 3 apps and 1 off the bench, and blunt Puscas is not going to keep us up

We still have enough about us to score goals, providing we keep them fit of course. Losing Joao is a blow of course but Azeez has shown enough to suggest he is comfortable at this level and we also have Ejaria to come back in who I would think Paunovic will be tempted to use as a false 9 should we not be able to sign another striker. We will create a lot of chances due to the likes of Swift and Laurent being in the side and Tom Dele-Bashiru looked very tidy when he came on too.
McIntyre, Moore and Morrison are my concerns at the moment, if we can get them back in form we will be just fine.

Azeez has definitely looked like he could be a handful for the opposition but it's only 3 games into the season. Think the opposite of writing a new signing off because he had 3 poor games and cost us points. Teams could work him out still, or he could be in a gold patch. The fact is he's still a rookie and 2 goals in 3 games (whilst it's a great start) doesn't mean he'll go on and get 10-15 and be a regular at this level.