I’ve finally got round to looking at the fixtures for next season – our return to the Championship. And I’m surprised.
When we first won promotion, it seemed to me that we would be playing clubs at a stratospheric level – Premiership standard clubs, clubs that are recognised as ‘BIG’ clubs.
But guess what – having now looked at them all in terms of matches we’ll actually be playing, most of them don’t seem quite as daunting.
Cardiff (simply because they were relegated with a failure bonus of £30-million or so better off than the rest), Derby and Norwich are all, maybe, in that bigger category – simply because of their history and standings over the past few years. Wigan also have some Premiership money left in the kitty and came close to promotion last term under Uwe Rosler.
Middlesborough, Blackburn, Brighton, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Ipswich, Watford and Wolves – well, they’ve all been established second tier clubs for some time (Wolves dipped into League One last season but, in truth, won it at a canter)
Which leaves Birmingham, Blackpool , Bolton, (all in financial trouble apparently), Bournemouth, Charlton, Fulham, Huddersfield, Millwall, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday at around our expected level.
So what’s to fret about? As of now, all of us – big, rich, small, poor – no matter what our past, we’re all Championship clubs, starting off as equals. We’ll all see some players come and go over the next few weeks too.
Hopefully our home form of the past couple of seasons will continue more or less, so that leaves four clubs who would expect to beat us on their patches, nine against whom we’d only have to raise our game a bit more than usual, and ten we’d expect to be at or around our own level.
Worry? Well, believing that most teams will mainly play football in our kind of style (i.e. not third tier hoof ball, relying purely on aggression), it seems as if my initial belief that we’ll finish our first session in the Championship around tenth place, or maybe even a little higher, to be around right.
Naw – it doesn’t seem anywhere near as daunting as I thought at first.
Larry Signy
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
CastBox
Acast
TuneIn
Google Podcasts
It will be extremely daunting without at least two, ideally three, proven goalscorers though… and they don’t come cheap.
Good article and there is every reason to be hopeful that the Bees can perform well in the championship. I am a little concerned though over our apparent lack of activity in the transfer market, though hopefully we are being a bit canny and waiting to reveal our signings nearer the start of the season. I personally feel that we need a new ‘keeper and a good goal scorer and our position is not helped by the possible losses of Saville, Trotta, Donaldson and Grigg. Imagine how we would have felt if those four had all been injured at the same time last season. Here’s hoping we have a great season and we just have to put all our faith in the management to set it all up well. I am sure that they will.
How you can realistically think we will finish tenth or above is a tad dillusional. Almost all the clubs in the league are bigger in terms of finances/fans/stadium. Whilst I would love a mid-table finish, it will require us to get in some good fire-power up front and even then need us to punch well above ourselves.
Bournemouth achieved it last year but I really can’t see it happening. I do think we are well run enough to avoid relegation and if the fans do not expect to much, we should all be in for a great season.