More a matter of when than if now.... do you think we will struggle next season in the fizzy pop league? will teams comes harder at us seeing we are ex prem? will we get "over-confident" like Norwich for example and end up struggling? I personally think it will take a good 2 seasons to come back up strong enough to avoid the drop again from the Millionaire League....
In a bad mood berkshirehorn? ;D I think we will not struggle in the championship, but that we will not be as strong as some people think. I definately think we wont be strong enough for automatic promotion, i wan another playoff victory ;D
There's a 9th place with our name on it next season. a la 2000/2001, history will repeat it self, like it has this season.
i reckon if we are to come back up to the prem next in one season it will be via the play-offs though im more in favour of us staying in the champ for 2 seasons as that way i feel we'll be ready to really push to stay in the prem
I will be disappointed if we are not in top two - play offs would be a poor performance but if we finish bottom then we are the 3rd best team in fizzy pop so third place would not be unjustified. 4th 5th or 6th gives us a chance to return. Anything below 6th is failure - a very bad failure. If AB wants to establish us as a top 10 premiership team, then he has to stablich us as a top two fizzy pop team however many times we come back down, we have to go staright up - or his ambitions are way of the mark. Once we hold our own in the premiership - i think we will become established - that may take longer than 2010 which AB is attaining for. I would like Aidy to define ESTABLISHED. Can wfc be established by the year 2010? I feel that is a contradiction - we can be there but not established - Bolton for example I would call established, Wigan not.
The Championship is a tough league, but i'd be suprised if we didn't make the top 8, with a few additions and a few fringe players leaving to free up wages. We might play badly in games in the Premiership but we are yet to be played off the park by an 'ordinary team' (touches wood), and that is something to be positive about at the current time. One thing i'm concerned about is that our fans will begin to expect promotion like with Norwich fans last season and develop bigclubitus. One thing you can't do in the Championship is expect promotion, and i'd hope we'd know that by now (having spend so many seasons there in the past 20 years). We just have to keep faith that will are still developing and with the new ground on the way i really believe we are, even if we go down.
Agree with 2 seasons, on current form I think we are a mid table outfit. The challenge will be if Aidy gets us up again he will be gone by 2010 - headhunted by someone with deeper pockets. The board need to start thinking about succession planning.
Not in agreement with that - Aidy will move on when he feels he no longer has the say in team matters, when he feels he is not wanted by the fans or he feels that wfc cannot go any further ( which of course would be his failure and his resignation). Otherwise I would hope that Mr Aidy Boothroyd will be with us for a substantial amount of successful years way after 2010. As he is so young for manager - his best way forward is to have a CV, showing - LOYAL Successfull over 7 years at first managers job. If he leaves to early from WFC - he is likely to fall along the wayside - as however ambitious he may be, he has to achieve to gain that success. If he moves on too quickly - just like he may advice some of his young players not to leave wfc as they will learn their trade better at WFC - he could well get caught in the football management merry go round. Which would be a damn shame for an honest, likeable chap like Aidy. Is Aidy's skills based on money? Would he have spent £8 million on Ash to bring to his club?
I really hope you`re right Paddy, my fear is that say 5 years will still look good on the C.V. You are certainly right about his wanting to move if he feels he can take the club no further. The difficulty is that he is already starting to describe the club in limiting terms (4% of Man U. spend etc), rather than the vision after 2010. The guy is great and clearly hates to lose, he appreciates the fans, but when they stop chanting his name and the boo boys are on song, he will be more likely to succumb to the challenge of a larger club(s).
