play-offs?

[Mr Optimist]

The "West Brom model"

Spot on!

Often mentioned as the financial model to follow and not doing too badly this season. The trick appears to be making sure you bounce straight back before the gold coins run out!!

[Snowball]

I can't trawl through 11 pages, but has anyone made the point that it would be madness for us to try to get up this year? Sixth would be a triumph after our miserable start, but losing in the play-offs should suit us. As the form team on a roll we could have a shout at winning the play-offs, but what then? disaster in the Prem surely? Too soon, I say. Let's finish a nice seventh, strengthen in the summer and give it a good crack next year.

I'm not so sure....

I think we should go up (if we get to that position!), take the gold coins but not stretch ourselves and take the inevitable drop but going down fighting and then use the gold coins to strengthen the team for 2011/12 to go back up with a bit of style and a better chance of hanging around for longer.

THIS

And we could get lucky and finish fourth-bottom

[Snowball]

Looking at the fixture list we have a decent chance of finishing with four straight wins,
and a fighting chance of winning our last five (just the small matter of Newcastle...)


20:00 H Newcastle April 13th
15:00 H Peterboro April 17th
19:45 A Scunny April 20th
15:00 A Watford April 24th
13:00 H Preston May 2nd

If we are within five points with four games to go we'll have a great chance

Of course, if we've already blown it, then we'll be playing youngsters to give them experienceet c

[RoyalChicagoFC]

I can't trawl through 11 pages, but has anyone made the point that it would be madness for us to try to get up this year? Sixth would be a triumph after our miserable start, but losing in the play-offs should suit us. As the form team on a roll we could have a shout at winning the play-offs, but what then? disaster in the Prem surely? Too soon, I say. Let's finish a nice seventh, strengthen in the summer and give it a good crack next year.

Yeah, in another thread

I think we should go up (if we get to that position!), take the gold coins but not stretch ourselves and take the inevitable drop but going down fighting and then use the gold coins to strengthen the team for 2011/12 to go back up with a bit of style and a better chance of hanging around for longer.

The "West Brom model"

Spot on!

Often mentioned as the financial model to follow and not doing too badly this season. The trick appears to be making sure you bounce straight back before the gold coins run out!!

...or before you find yourself pressed snugly to the nourishing bosom of League One --whichever comes first

Call it the "Leeds United model" (or, if you prefer, the Norwich or the Charlton or the Southampton)

wink wink chuckle chuckle, etc

[loyalroyal4life]

Looking at the fixture list we have a decent chance of finishing with four straight wins,
and a fighting chance of winning our last five (just the small matter of Newcastle...)


20:00 H Newcastle April 13th
15:00 H Peterboro April 17th
19:45 A Scunny April 20th
15:00 A Watford April 24th
13:00 H Preston May 2nd

If we are within five points with four games to go we'll have a great chance

Of course, if we've already blown it, then we'll be playing youngsters to give them experienceet c

We will be out of it by the time we play Newcastle and I can see us burning out. Scunny and Watford will be 2 tough games given the likely positions they will be in come crunch time

[Wimb]

Here's to hoping Cardiff go into administration and get deducted 10 points

[Wycombe Royal]

Newcastle are likely, cased on current form, to already be promoted by the time they play us. THey are already 12 points ahead on Forest and with Forest seemingly unable to win away from home that gap is likely to increase.

[Terminal Boardom]

1. It won't happen.

Ok, to humour the mongs let's say we do go up:

2. Contracts would incorporate pay increases so more money would be spent.
3. Relegation will be followed by cloth cutting

As I see it, promotion would be bad if the investment to keep us there was not forthcoming. SJM wants to sell as he has made obvious pretty much since he bacame chairman.

[Mr Optimist]

Don't spend ALL the Prem cash if we go up, but when relegation follows we are still likely to be in a healthier financial position with some of the Prem fall out cash than we would be without the Prem fall out cash for season 2011/12. We would then be able to compete on a better footing with 21 of the 24 teams in the Championship for that season.

Why would that be a bad idea?

[wolsey]

1. It won't happen.

Ok, to humour the mongs let's say we do go up:

2. Contracts would incorporate pay increases so more money would be spent.
3. Relegation will be followed by cloth cutting

As I see it, promotion would be bad if the investment to keep us there was not forthcoming. SJM wants to sell as he has made obvious pretty much since he bacame chairman.

What about:

4. The option of us going up, becoming a more saleable asset in time for new buyer to take control for prem league existence? (Bearing in mind "Better the 'devil' you know etc., etc.)

(FWIW I'd prefer the "win as many games as possible, finish as high as possible, make us, as fans feel as good as we can about the Club, ultimately suffer a bit of Glorious Failure" this season, in the the hope that it might inspire the "Powers that Be" to have confidence in the set-up so that we could go for a controlled effort for promotion next season - in which case he'd have a more Saleable Asset)

As One might say: Simples

[Snowball]

Difficult to assess how good we are right now, and the season-long stats are a bit misleading
but our record in the league against the serious clubs is terrible

Strangely we are doing much better against the middling clubs than the bottom lot

Teams to play in bold

0/3 01 36 +43 76 Newcastle L 3-0
0/3 02 37 +33 72 West Brom L 1-3 (D 2-2 W 2-3 in cup)
1/6 03 37 +20 64 Nottm Forest D 0-0 L 2-1
0/3 04 36 +11 60 Leicester L 0-1
2/6 05 37 +06 60 Swansea D 0-0 D 1-1
0/3 06 36 +14 55 Cardiff L 0-1
0/6 07 37 +03 52 Sheff Utd L 0-1 L 3-0

3 points out of a possible 30 For 3-15 Against

4/6 08 37 +04 51 Doncaster D 0-0 W 1-2
3/6 09 37 +06 50 Blackpool W 2-1 L 2-0
3/3 10 37 -07 50 Coventry W 1-3
0/3 11 37 +07 49 Middlesbrough L 0-2
6/6 12 36 -09 49 Barnsley W 1-3 W 1-0
3/3 13 37 -07 48 Preston W 1-2
4/6 15 37 -12 45 Bristol City D 1-1 W 2-0


23 points from 33 (2.1 per game) For 16 Against 9

…. 14 35 -03 47 Reading

3/6 16 36 -05 44 QPR L 4-1 W 1-0
1/3 17 37 -07 44 Ipswich D 1-1
3/6 18 37 -11 43 Derby L 3-2 W 4-1
1/3 19 35 -06 42 Watford D 1-1
6/6 20 37 -18 39 Sheff Wed W 0-2 W 5-0
3/6 21 36 -02 38 Crystal Palace L 2-4 W 1-3
1/3 22 36 -24 38 Scunthorpe (37) D 1-1
3/6 23 36 -16 34 Plymouth L 4-1 W 2-1
0/3 24 37 -20 30 Peterborough L3-2

21 points from 42 at 1.50 per game For 29-27 Against

[wolsey]

Note to Snowball: -

Your words are generally more interesting than your numbers

Also, have you factored the Rodgers Vs McDermott effect into any conclusion that you have made?

[Z175]

I can see sheff utd and boro finishing behind us now, but I can't see it with Cardiff unless we win away there and they fall off a cliff/go into admin.

Heres to 7th place

boro 49pts sheff utd 52pts
Reading h 3 Donny a 1
PNE h 3 Cardiff a 1
Watford a 1 Scunny H 3
Palace H 3 Barnsley H 3
Plymuth a 3 New A 0
Wed H 3 Cov H 3
WBA a 0 Sheff W a 3
Cov H 3 Swansea a 0
Leics a 0 Ipswich a 3

68 69


URZ 47pts SSHGs 55pts
Boro a 0 Watford h 1
Leics a 1 Shef utd h 3
WBA h 3 Palace a 3
Ipswich A 3 Leics h 1
Cov H 3 Swansea h 1
Cardiff A. 1 Forest a 0
New H 0 Reading h 1
Peterb H 3 QPR a 3
Scunt A 3 Sheff W h 3
Watford A 3 Derby a 3
PNE H 3

70 74 (-10)

[Arch]

Note to Snowball: -

Your words are generally more interesting than your numbers

That's not what Shane says

[wolsey]

Note to Snowball: -

Your words are generally more interesting than your numbers

That's not what Shane says

So it wasn't a wind up?

Damn that Starfish person

[Terminal Boardom]

1. It won't happen.

Ok, to humour the mongs let's say we do go up:

2. Contracts would incorporate pay increases so more money would be spent.
3. Relegation will be followed by cloth cutting

As I see it, promotion would be bad if the investment to keep us there was not forthcoming. SJM wants to sell as he has made obvious pretty much since he bacame chairman.

What about:

4. The option of us going up, becoming a more saleable asset in time for new buyer to take control for prem league existence? (Bearing in mind "Better the 'devil' you know etc., etc.)

That happened in 2005/06 and still no-one came forward.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Yep, "For Sale" sign should've been hung out front soon as promotion was nailed on in '06 IMO (and easy for me to sit here and say and all of that of course)

I can see sheff utd and boro finishing behind us now, but I can't see it with Cardiff unless we win away there and they fall off a cliff/go into admin.

The past really doesn't apply, but I'll say anyway that Cardiff City do have a knack for falling off of cliffs, as it were

We're in the hunt until knocked out of it, which is something that couldn't be said six weeks ago

I strongly suspect that eventually we'll get knocked out of it by sides in front of us performing as well as, or better than, we do over the remainder of the season

But I'll be most interested to look on and see what happens

[wolsey]

1. It won't happen.

Ok, to humour the mongs let's say we do go up:

2. Contracts would incorporate pay increases so more money would be spent.
3. Relegation will be followed by cloth cutting

As I see it, promotion would be bad if the investment to keep us there was not forthcoming. SJM wants to sell as he has made obvious pretty much since he bacame chairman.

What about:

4. The option of us going up, becoming a more saleable asset in time for new buyer to take control for prem league existence? (Bearing in mind "Better the 'devil' you know etc., etc.)

That happened in 2005/06 and still no-one came forward.

Agreed, but it was all so new to us then.. we all went there, bought the ticket, realised that it was over priced tat (including (S)JM) - it would probably different next time around

[Snowball]

We are top of the table on form for 2010

But we have to play the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th form sides (but three of the four games are at home)

Also 9th (away), 11th (away), 12th (home)

and 14th (Boro this Saturday, away), 18th (away), 22nd (home) and 24th (away)

IF we can get a good result at Boro I fancy us for 68 points plus what we can get from the Cardiff game.
If we beat Boro, we may well get something at Leicester. 3 points from the two games and we are on target for the playoffs

I've said two draws, but with our home form so good we might well beat WBA and/or Newcastle at the MadStad.
3 or 4 points from these two games and we should be short odds for the top six. WIN both games and we will make it.

All the other games are definitely winnable.

01 11 8 0 3 4 2 21 11 +10 24 2.18 Reading
02 12 7 4 1 4 2 30 12 +18 25 2.08 Newcastle United Home DRAW
03 14 8 3 3 4 0 25 18 +07 27 1.93 West Bromwich Albion Home DRAW
04 13 6 5 2 8 4 10 06 +04 23 1.77 Swansea City
05 13 6 4 3 5 1 16 14 +02 22 1.69 Coventry City Home WIN
06 14 6 5 3 6 5 16 09 +07 23 1.64 Leicester City Away LOSE?
07 13 7 0 6 4 4 18 14 +04 21 1.62 Nottingham Forest
08 14 6 3 5 3 2 20 18 +02 21 1.50 Doncaster Rovers
09 14 5 5 4 4 3 15 15 +00 20 1.43 Ipswich Town Away DRAW
10 14 6 2 6 3 6 15 19 -04 20 1.43 Sheffield Wednesday
11 13 5 3 5 3 4 17 18 -01 18 1.38 Cardiff City ????? Maybe biggest game of the season for us?
12 14 5 4 5 4 3 21 25 -04 19 1.36 Preston North End Home WIN
13 14 6 1 7 5 2 17 21 -04 19 1.36 Barnsley
14 13 4 5 4 3 5 15 13 +02 17 1.31 Middlesbrough Away, sneak a WIN?
15 13 5 2 6 4 4 17 16 +01 17 1.31 Sheffield United
16 13 5 2 6 4 2 21 21 +00 17 1.31 Derby County
17 12 4 2 6 4 6 08 11 -03 14 1.17 Crystal Palace
18 13 4 3 6 2 3 16 21 -05 15 1.15 Scunthorpe United Away WIN
19 15 4 4 7 4 4 18 22 -04 16 1.07 Blackpool
20 13 3 4 6 1 3 16 19 -03 13 1.00 Plymouth Argyle
21 13 3 4 6 3 6 13 25 -12 13 1.00 Bristol City
22 13 4 0 9 3 7 08 16 -08 12 0.92 Peterboro Home WIN?
23 12 3 2 7 1 6 11 18 -07 11 0.92 Queens Park Rangers
24 11 3 1 7 2 4 13 15 -02 10 0.91 Watford Away WIN?

[Archie's penalty]

Cardiff win, Leicester draw.

10 points behind C and 13 behind Leicester with a game in hand.

Looking like we need to win in midweek now.