CONFRIMED: Takeover collapsed; Back to square one

[Silver Fox]

Isn't that partially a result of lots of new grounds to go to?

[stealthpapes]

Yes.

[stealthpapes]

Pre-empting the obvious follow up - too soon to tell.

Might as well put this up. I'm not bothering with average attendances by club at this stage as one or two games doesn't really tell us anything.

2024-25 Reading away followings (allocation in brackets; midweek evening matches in italics)
Birmingham - 1,650 (2,200)
Colchester (LC) - 639 (988)
Wrexham - 1,259 (1,284)
Bolton - ON SALE - I've found 585 (1,430)

Given the question was "Would you rather be in Championship or League One", a valid answer could well cite the plethora of new grounds including those with terraces, safe standing etc.

A final anecdote - I've done Derby away a few times over the last decade. By far and away the best of those games was last season, packed out by both sets of fans on a Tuesday night.

[Snowflake Royal]

Of course there are, but not necessarily because they were relegated.

Do you think Ipswich would be in the Premier League if they weren't relegated from the Championship?

No. They'd done nothing for years, with no real significant prospect of improvment. They went down, where they were a big fish in a smaller pond, their youth had a better chance of transitioning, they were more attractive to the better players at that level, they rebuilt, got into winning ways and completely turned their fortunes around.

It's funny how no one is laughing at the people who said relegation would be a disaster, we'd be relegated straight down to L2 etc.

The issue is all about Dai. Not the relegation.

It's almost universally accepted last season was far more enjoyable than most of our recent Championship seasons. The only problem again being Dai.

Still banging this old drum I see. If it’s such a good tactic won’t don’t more clubs do it

Sorry for being right.

I didn't bring it up.

[Snowflake Royal]

Of course there are, but not necessarily because they were relegated.

Do you think Ipswich would be in the Premier League if they weren't relegated from the Championship?

No. They'd done nothing for years, with no real significant prospect of improvment. They went down, where they were a big fish in a smaller pond, their youth had a better chance of transitioning, they were more attractive to the better players at that level, they rebuilt, got into winning ways and completely turned their fortunes around.

It's funny how no one is laughing at the people who said relegation would be a disaster, we'd be relegated straight down to L2 etc.

The issue is all about Dai. Not the relegation.

It's almost universally accepted last season was far more enjoyable than most of our recent Championship seasons. The only problem again being Dai.

If someone said: "Would you rather be in the same situation but in the Championship or still in League One"
What would you choose?

It's clear to me which is the preferable option

Me too.

League One.

Being bottom 8 of the Championship season on season with no prospect of recovery, never able to attract the quality of players to improve and losing all the time is shit.

Even with all our problems at the moment, in L1 we're still mostly playing at a top half level. Bar a month or two last season. All we need is a takeover from someoje vaguely engaged and competent and its easy to see improvement will come. It's far easier for us to attract good players at this level with potential to improve than mediocre players at Championship level.

If we hadn't got relegated when we did and we had the same issues with Dai, we'd quite possibly already be liquidated. And we certainly would be in L1 this season. And worse off by far.