Team for the championship - likely exits, and what will be required for promotion and staying up

[Danbert]

I think I read somewhere that if Leicester get relegated they're in for a points deduction, and surely also a reduced spend. The rat-faced cunt will be two years slower as well. I fancy us to finish above them.

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, Danbert said:

I think I read somewhere that if Leicester get relegated they're in for a points deduction, and surely also a reduced spend. The rat-faced cunt will be two years slower as well. I fancy us to finish above them.

Leicester always wriggle out of it. No doubt will adjust their financial year for accounting purposes if needed 

[redkeith]

I still think that Leicester up this year.

Last season they finished 7 points clear of Leeds in 3rd place. That is a whole 6 points that they didn't use. I am sure that their honarable accountants and legal team can get those points carried over to this season! 

[StrangelyBrown]

20 hours ago, woodsaint1 said:

In the summer please can we finally rid ourselves of the likes of McCarthy, Stephens, Bednarek, ABK and Smallbone. They're like a bad smell now.

I could see us selling Dibling, Ramsdale, Sulemana, BBD and Onuachu, but would be hopeful that we could hold onto the likes of Fernandes, THB and Archer - who could be great assets in the Championship.

                      New GK

Suga   THB  Wood/Edwards   Welly

           Downes   New CM

New RM   Fernandes  Edozie/New LM

                     New CF

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

[woodsaint1]

2 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

Completely forgot about Charles. Hopefully he features alot more this time

[Matthew Le God]

8 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

12 players would give us an advantage 

[Galway saint]

Seems a bit odd that having recruited a championship strike force to play in the PL we might well lose a couple of key components in BBD and Armstrong for the championship but they may return of course. Personally I think if they do and we make a couple of decent signings and buy a decent keeper to replace ramsdale we could do well. Importantly we also avoided a splurge in the last window.

[Patches O Houlihan]

It would appear that Ronnie Edwards is kicking ass at QPR. Their fans are all now closet Saints fans on the basis they might get to keep him, if we miraculously stayed up. They can't believe we loaned him out. 

 

Read the replies

[StrangelyBrown]

53 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

12 players would give us an advantage 

Ha ha. Good point

[austsaint]

9 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

Surely (if it’s Juric) he won’t play 3 centre-backs.   Take Bree out of there;  take the 12th man Smallbone out of the side and play an attacking player like Gronbaek, and it’s not a bad line up.  Someone better in goal than Baz would help.  I’ve got a feeling though that there will be several new faces starting the first game of the 25/26 season.

[Saint86]

12 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

I think this is overly pessimistic on a couple of fronts.

CB wise:

Personally, its unlikely that we chose to shift both THB and Bednarek in the summer. On THB especially, he's almost certainly got a relegation wage clause in his contract, and we've only just signed him this year (i.e., has a long contract remaining). If he does go we'll be able to set the price and presumably sell him for a profit (or chose not to) - and that money can be reinvested.

I personally also think that Woods, Edwards, and one of THB/Benarek is a very solid set of CBs for the league. Plus we've got the somewhat hyped french youngster on the books as well (Sanda).

Suga is certainly good enough for the champ given his pedigree. Wellington looks like he'd certainly not be out of place in the worst case. Plus we have Manning as LB on the books who is more than proven at championship level having already been in a promotion winning side.

CM:

Charles and Downes... if there is a better CM pair in the champ next season i'll be somewhat surprised.

Not clear Aribo will be off - He's rumoured to be on high wages and would likely command a small fee (which can be reinvested). Smallbone is a good squad player for a promotion side as a minimum. At times he was very good for us last year as well, albeit in a different system.

Attackers:

Firstly, i think its very unlikely that we shift all of Lallana, Fernandes, and Dibling this summer. I think its even more unlikely that we shift all 3 of them and don't strengthen the attacking midfield significantly.

We'll retain at least 2 of Armstrong, Archer, Onuachu, Edozie, Sulemana. All of which will be very good players at championship level. Whatever we sell here will be replaced with players of at least a similar standard imo (except maybe Sulemana).

Don't forget, we have the loch ness drogba (rumoured to exist although sited very sporadically).... In all seriousness, i wonder if we can even give him away at this point.

Loans:

The club will certainly make use of the loan market again - which was particularly well used last season imo - And groanbaek and Lesley haven't been bad acquisitions this year either. At championship level, as a promotion chasing side, and with our facilities - we have surely got to be one of the most desirable places for the bigger clubs to send a promising u21 player next season.

Edit - i've written off BBD - i don't think we'll see him in a saints shirt again due to the rumoured promotion clause in his loan, but if we do then he's a proven player at championship level.

Edited February 6 by Saint86

[Miltonaggro]

Given this flat window it looks to me like Solak is simply giving Juric the remainder of this season to assess players and decide who he wants to be here come August.  The DS comment about Juric being in place next year was made after a discussion on that basis, so Ivan is being trusted to do a Torino on us.  Think that the seniors out on loan are 100% offski whilst others are being closely assessed (Bazunu, Edwards) to see if they will fit.  It's all going to be about recruitment in the summer, and we are going to need athletes who will compete and work integrated into the squad for pre-season.  Get it right and we may well tear the Championship a new one this time around.      

[Charlie Wayman]

18 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Given this flat window it looks to me like Solak is simply giving Juric the remainder of this season to assess players and decide who he wants to be here come August.  The DS comment al thinkingbout Juric being in place next year was made after a discussion on that basis, so Ivan is being trusted to do a Torino on us.  Think that the seniors out on loan are 100% offski whilst others are being closely assessed (Bazunu, Edwards) to see if they will fit.  It's all going to be about recruitment in the summer, and we are going to need athletes who will compete and work integrated into the squad for pre-season.  Get it right and we may well tear the Championship a new one this time around.      

Interesting but wishful thinking.

[Dman]

4 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

It would appear that Ronnie Edwards is kicking ass at QPR. Their fans are all now closet Saints fans on the basis they might get to keep him, if we miraculously stayed up. They can't believe we loaned him out. 

 

Read the replies

The jump between the championship and PL is big enough. The jump between L1 and the PL is way to much - as we found with Baz. 

A loan to a decent championship side was sensible all round. 

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Interesting but wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking an intrinsic part of being a Saints supporter.

[StrangelyBrown]

5 hours ago, austsaint said:

Surely (if it’s Juric) he won’t play 3 centre-backs.   Take Bree out of there;  take the 12th man Smallbone out of the side and play an attacking player like Gronbaek, and it’s not a bad line up.  Someone better in goal than Baz would help.  I’ve got a feeling though that there will be several new faces starting the first game of the 25/26 season.

I hope you are right, but I've got a nasty feeling we're in for rough ride next season.

On the 3 centre backs, we seem to have had a weird obsession to play 3 at the back ever since SR took over... Hassenhutl seemed like he was being forced to do it, Mad Nate played 3 at the back to start with, then RM and now Juric is playing with 3 at the back. I'm convinced that this is Rasmus' contribution following on from the success of playing 3 at the back with Brentford. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

51 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

I hope you are right, but I've got a nasty feeling we're in for rough ride next season.

On the 3 centre backs, we seem to have had a weird obsession to play 3 at the back ever since SR took over... Hassenhutl seemed like he was being forced to do it, Mad Nate played 3 at the back to start with, then RM and now Juric is playing with 3 at the back. I'm convinced that this is Rasmus' contribution following on from the success of playing 3 at the back with Brentford. 

Yeah, there’s something weirdly nuts keeping that formation in place for every game - looks like it’s to enable use of the huge number of defenders on the books and/or to utilise the talents of KWP, Suga etc., but that always leaves us short in central midfield, doesn’t assist our attacking play and usually has our wing backs and CB’s stranded too far up-field.

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

The jump between the championship and PL is big enough. The jump between L1 and the PL is way to much - as we found with Baz. 

A loan to a decent championship side was sensible all round. 

Indeed, i know we're not ones to talk at the moment, but when was the last time QPR watched a competitive Premier league Hoops side at Loftus road? 😅

Edited February 6 by Saint86

[Tommy]

honestly id prefer to be competitive in the championship and not get promoted. I don’t think I’ll ever renew season ticket in the prem again. Detest this league.

[saintant]

On 05/02/2025 at 21:27, StrangelyBrown said:

Depressingly I could see us starting the season with

                        Baz

Suga  Bree   Wood   Edwards   Welington

        Charles   Downes

Archer   Smallbone   Edozie

               Onuachu

I'm not sure that's anywhere near good enough to push for promotion....

 

So presumably you believe we'll sell Dibling, Fernandes and others but not use their fees to strengthen the squad? Strange.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Tommy said:

honestly id prefer to be competitive in the championship and not get promoted. I don’t think I’ll ever renew season ticket in the prem again. Detest this league.

Ruined by the TV hype.

[Gloucester Saint]

13 hours ago, Tommy said:

honestly id prefer to be competitive in the championship and not get promoted. I don’t think I’ll ever renew season ticket in the prem again. Detest this league.

The parachute payments taper away though and after about three seasons you find that you’re not competitive any longer. Just ask Norwich, Swansea, Stoke etc.

[StrangelyBrown]

On 06/02/2025 at 22:31, saintant said:

So presumably you believe we'll sell Dibling, Fernandes and others but not use their fees to strengthen the squad? Strange.

Do you think we haven't got to sell to make up the shortfall of revenue resulting from relegation (last I knew this was between £100m and £150m)? 

We may buy some players, but we haven't got the same level of saleable assets we had last time round - the likes of Bednarek, KWP, Aribo are all at the end of their contracts. Dibling might get us £50m, Fernandes might get us £30m or £40m at a push.

I can't see us being able to spend big enough to make a difference.

[CB Fry]

31 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Do you think we haven't got to sell to make up the shortfall of revenue resulting from relegation (last I knew this was between £100m and £150m)? 

We may buy some players, but we haven't got the same level of saleable assets we had last time round - the likes of Bednarek, KWP, Aribo are all at the end of their contracts. Dibling might get us £50m, Fernandes might get us £30m or £40m at a push.

I can't see us being able to spend big enough to make a difference.

Last time it was Lavia, Tella, JWP and Tino that we got serious money for. Maybe Salisu.

We haven't spent anything like we did in the equivalent January so we should be starting from a better position.

Ramsdale, Fernandes and Dibling will net us not a million miles off those four. 

Whatever happens we will be richer than 75% of the Championship.

[Matthew Le God]

Higher than 75%.

The only clubs out of the 23 other Championship clubs with an income close to ours will be the 2 clubs relegated with us.

[Gloucester Saint]

45 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Higher than 75%.

The only clubs out of the 23 other Championship clubs with an income close to ours will be the 2 clubs relegated with us.

Correct on income, although possibly not on spending assuming Brum and Wrexham go up this season.

It’s what the club does in the market this time which hopefully is where Spores is the different variable. Last time we bought a semi-retired striker and a £15m DMC Russell Martin didn’t like or particularly use. Fortunately they did decide to let Che run his contract down and AA hit gold which saved the bacon. Selling was good on prices - Lavia, Tella, JWP - but the buying remained poor. Loans were used well - Downes, Brookes, Rothwell which will be important again.

Edited Saturday at 09:26 by Gloucester Saint

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Correct on income, although possibly not on spending assuming Brum and Wrexham go up this season.

It’s what the club does in the market this time which hopefully is where Spores is the different variable. Last time we bought a semi-retired striker and a £15m DMC Russell Martin didn’t like or particularly use. Fortunately they did decide to let Che run his contract down and AA hit gold which saved the bacon. Selling was good on prices - Lavia, Tella, JWP - but the buying remained poor. Loans were used well - Downes, Brookes, Rothwell which will be important again.

Birmingham and Wrexham won't be remotely close on wagebill with us. They also wouldn't be able to compete on transfers wuth us. Our 1st year parachute payments, bigger attendances, bigger sponsorship deals and player sales allow for us to blow them out of the water.

 

[Gloucester Saint]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Birmingham and Wrexham won't be remotely close on wagebill with us. They also wouldn't be able to compete on transfers wuth us. Our 1st year parachute payments, bigger attendances, bigger sponsorship deals and player sales allow for us to blow them out of the water.

 

Financially but Ipswich more than kept up with us, Leicester and Leeds. Birmingham shouldn’t have gone down in the first place and with them and possibly Wrexham, momentum and owner investment could go a long way. It did for us in 11/12 too.

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, Matthew Le God said:

Birmingham and Wrexham won't be remotely close on wagebill with us. They also wouldn't be able to compete on transfers wuth us. Our 1st year parachute payments, bigger attendances, bigger sponsorship deals and player sales allow for us to blow them out of the water.

 

It doesn't mean much. I always stand by the opinion that in the lower leagues momentum counts for more than money, but when you can combine momentum with a bit of money it's sometimes an unstoppable force.

Edited Saturday at 11:11 by S-Clarke

[InvictaSaint]

3 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Birmingham and Wrexham won't be remotely close on wagebill with us. They also wouldn't be able to compete on transfers wuth us. Our 1st year parachute payments, bigger attendances, bigger sponsorship deals and player sales allow for us to blow them out of the water.

 

Honest question - doesn’t our single year in the EPL mean that next season we will get year 2 of the parachute payments rather than a reset to year 1? Sure I read that somewhere. 

[Tommy]

On 07/02/2025 at 09:15, Gloucester Saint said:

The parachute payments taper away though and after about three seasons you find that you’re not competitive any longer. Just ask Norwich, Swansea, Stoke etc.

Sheff United 3rd

sunderland 4th

West Brom 5th

Blackburn 6th

 

none have PP and all having competitive seasons. Even Norwich you used are 8th. 
 

id much rather be watching a team 8th in the championship this season than a team bottom of prem with all the shit that comes with being a fan of a prem club. 

 

[Dragon_man]

On 31/01/2025 at 15:43, Dragon_man said:

We'll get an indication a week Saturday. High flying Championship side vs our best (as it stands today). 

Question answered.

[Wade Garrett]

This is fanciful but I would like us to keep Ramsdale, Dibling and Fernandes.  Premier league quality.

Would like to see more of Edwards, Wellington and Archer in the Championship as I think they could do well.  Wood I would keep as well.

Get rid of the rest.  Lack of ability/professionalism or just downright lazy.

 

 

[Pamplemousse]

On 08/02/2025 at 09:39, Gloucester Saint said:

Financially but Ipswich more than kept up with us, Leicester and Leeds. Birmingham shouldn’t have gone down in the first place and with them and possibly Wrexham, momentum and owner investment could go a long way. It did for us in 11/12 too.

Back to back promotions very rarely happen.

Look at Portsmouth and Derby this season, right down the bottom, Birmingham have rebuilt their team well so I reckon they will be fine, Wrexham if they were to go up I think would need a brand new squad.

Anyway hopefully Wycombe come up, easier to get to than North Wales!