Championship - 2022/23

One of the most experienced in that squad...but with no experience from 12 yards!

 

Come on Stocky!

 

Yes, a step up. / Not really - could have aimed higher.

 

Southampton coming rock bottom hasn't really made headlines. They've been in the PL for 11 seasons straight. On paper, a decent side with a great captain and excellent youth players. Gone horribly wrong this year.

 

Yes, were they not also offered special voting rights or something, for the breakaway ESL having been a founder member?

 

Sacking Hassen thingy and appointing that gnome didn't bode well.

 

Think the really young squad has backfired somewhat, Stuart Armstrong, Walcott and Orsic are the only outfield players that are aged 30 or above (and even then Orsic only played once), it's a squad that's raw and lacks leadership with lots of mistakes made in various off the pitch decisions along the way. Jones excelled for Luton but they didn't look at what made him an excellent manager at Luton - Luton also had a relatively young squad, but were put together on a very low budget with practically the whole squad being born in England. Players knew they had to fight for their place in the team as otherwise they'd be off - which would most likely mean dropping down a division and taking a wage cut in the process. That simply doesn't work in the PL with a squad with a diverse amount of nationalities as youngsters know even if they don't make it at Southampton then there'll be top flight clubs in other countries willing to take a gamble on them - I imagine a big chunk of them will be scrambling to get out the club in the summer rather than sticking around and trying to prove themselves.

Signing Onuachu was odd as well considering they were going for a Red Bull style model - the man simply doesn't run so spending €18m on him was an absurd decision, as was just buying up some of Man Cities academy hoping to become City B, admittedly it worked with Lavia who looks a great player but really backfired with Bazunu. He's young but was playing for Portsmouth in League One last season - jumping from League 1 to the PL as a 21 goalkeeper is hard to do and he's conceded 13 goals more than would be expected off his xG faced which is a huge difference.

It'll be an interesting summer for them for sure, Russel Martin is an interesting hire but his Swansea team has been atrocious in some aspects (imo not great at defending their own box in both set-pieces and open play) which I can also see being transferred to this current Southampton squad. But could change when we see who sticks around, who jumps ship and who they get in as replacement but imo they could be in trouble.

 

Yep, all good points.

It also has to be said that I think Hasenhuttl had been doing miracles over the last few seasons in keeping up what already seemed a pretty mediocre squad, but this season they managed to have even less quality there than usual.

Livramento getting injured for so long also hasn't helped.

As well as Lavia, Alcaraz and Bella-Kotchap do look promising players which they could probably at least make a profit from if they don't stay and develop there.

 

Definitely, what Hasenhuttl done was under-rated for sure and I don't think the odd 7-0 pumping they'd receive once a season really did he much favours in terms of his reputation either which is a shame for him (and Southampton) and Livramentos injury was also a big blow as you said.

I really like Lavia and Alcaraz (he flagged up really well in the data as a great U21 creative mould along with my favourite Zafeiris) but I'm on the fence about Bella-Kotchap, sometimes when I've seen him he looks great and other times he looks miles off it defensively. Wouldn't surprise me to see a mid/high level tier Bundesliga team (like a Frankfurt, Gladbach or something) snap him up which would be a good place for him to develop for a couple of years until another PL team could take a punt.

 

It has been coming for some time, apart from an excellent 2020 they've been treading water during the last five years but I didn't think they'd finish this season with such a low points total and in such poor form.

Interesting reading comments in an exchange betwen Brighton and Southampton fans on the BBC following their 3-1 win which qualified them for Europe that Tony Bloom basically copied Southampton's model which resulted in a similar rise (League 1 through Premier League relegation candidates to an established top 8 side). Brighton are obviously a far smaller club than Southampton, it'll be interesting how long they can sustain this if at all, because I imagine while they do have some really good and much improved players excellently coached, a lot of their success must stem from their underdog status (how many of their victories have come when the opposition has underperformed?) and it'll be tougher once the underachieving big clubs get their act together (add to them Burnley and Sheff Utd coming up who could be quite strong) and teams start taking them seriously.

 

I wonder how much of Brighton and Brentfords success is down to their owners also owning a bookie/gambling syndicate. Must have access to all sorts of models and analysis that is far beyond the reach of "normal" clubs.

 

Plus probably have an excellent sense for value, risk etc.

 

Meh. I’m sure Giaretta, Duxbury and the little prince playing with daddy’s train set have equal skills, especially with special advisor Bayat on board.

 

Six years actually!

 

Always fun to open up the ‘what’s a big club’ debate, so here goes. I don’t think it’s obvious at all. Historic success is on Southampton’s side of course, with more seasons in the top division etc., but I would say their support catchment areas are similar. Both are on the south coast with Southampton a bigger city than Brighton, but Saints have a quite big and well supported rival club on their doorstep in Portsmouth, which Brighton don’t have. Also, there is no substantial club to the east in Kent, other than Gillingham well to the north. Brighton seemed quite a small club for a long time, particularly after they lost the Goldstone Ground and were restricted by playing elsewhere, but since building their own stadium their following has mushroomed and success has followed. So I would probably put the two of them on a par right now.

 

Yes always depends whether you are assessing history or future potential. I agree that BHA have huge potential as demonstrated by the fact they feel the need to have CP as their local rivals.

 

That was more to do with Mullery dipping into the cooking sherry again I think!

 

I have adopted the George III , Blackadder III mantra.

Instead of saying "penguin" at the end of every sentence I say "Coventry".

"Coventry".

 

They groundshared with Gillingham for a time, of course their 'nearest and dearest' were off-limits at the time as they were already sharing their ground with Wimbledon!

 

Doesn't look like Wigan will be troubling the Championship any time soon:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65723359

4pt deduction a couple of weeks ago. Another 4pt deduction today, leaving them on -8 for the start of the new League 1 season.

 

Looking at that, what's the likelihood that this just keeps happening, do we reckon? They've already been deducted once for failing to provide required cash on time, immediately followed by essentially the same scenario playing out and another set deducted...

 

To think up until a few years ago Wigan were a pretty well-run club, them being put into admin by then new owners really came out of nowhere

 

“Careful what you wish for”

 

Relegation showdown tomorrow as three teams in the Premier League compete for 17th place.

Surely it would be more logical to have the League 1 play-off final rather than the League 2 one on the same day so we find out in one go who the remaining teams to play in the Championship next season are going to be? I'm sure Wednesday fans would relish sitting back to find out they're going to play Everton and/or Leeds next season after winning promotion a few hours earlier...

 

Close this thread now. My apologies for creating it a year ago.

 

Close, and erase any record of it.

 

Well today was just the icing on the bloody disaster cake of the season for me.

It wasn't bad enough that we were so so so horribly poor.

Nor that the scum went up.

Or that our ex manager took them there.

It wasn't hard enough on me that Everton stayed up.

That our ex player scored the goal to keep them up.

I could just about bear Sheffield United going up.

But now Wednesday too.

When I moved here I used to pretty proudly declare my allegiance to the golden boys to those all around.

Now I sit here in my house up here with the curtains closed to the neighbours absolutely pissed off by the whole bloody season and I'm surrounded by every single happy bugger from both the red and blue side of this godforsaken city.

And you just goddamn know this time next season even Wednesday will probably have finished well above us.

FML.

 

Much bigger club. They should be way above us