Championship - 2023/24

From little acorns etc etc …

 

There is not one team in the Championship that would be worried about that quartet. If that's their best 4 players they are screwed

 

Eustace to Bristol City

 

Sheff Wed owner asking 20,000 fans to stump up £100 each to pay their HMRC bill?!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67268518

 

"Be careful what you wish for"

 

Sorry for my typo. Uff predictive text. Should have read as Lampard

 

"Frank Lampard's Bristol City" has a nice ring to it.

 

Watching Leicester v Leeds, light years ahead of everyone else these two. Good game.

 

I was really disappointed at our result and performance at Leeds given their indifferent start and the fact they were one of very few teams not to beat Sheffield Wednesday, but it doesn’t look too terrible a result now.

This could be a three-horse race (Southampton are 4th but look too inconsistent to challenge).

 

So, despite their great start, Leicester didn’t surpass our 39 points from the first 15 games we got in 2000/01 (and we were unbeaten). I don’t expect them to collapse like we did, though.

 

Excellent result for us. Keeps the top 2 spots within range.

 

We can still catch Brentford.

 

Not quite as good: 35 points from 15.

 

I’m not sure why people include Norwich in the list of scary opponents we have coming up after the next international break. They’re poor and we always beat them anyway. They’re now 3-0 down at home to Blackburn, so they might be on a “new manager bounce” by the time we play them.

 

Ok ok third time lucky for me on this one...

Liam Manning to Bristol City

 

Ben Knapper due to take the Sporting Directors job at Norwich on the 13th November. Imagine Wagner will be getting the sack the same day!

 

Wagner?

 

Oops. I always confuse those 2!

 

Racist.

 

A little bit like us I suppose, Aarons also left, but Pukki wasn't as influential for them as he had been in the past. Seems as though their incomings are the issue, a lot of the players they've signed belong in Dad's Army, I think ultimately they are quite similar to us in that they may have underestimated the Championship, or more to the point, underestimated how influential players like Buendia were, like us with Hughes. Not sure about their financials, but surely they can't be in as much of a mess as we are, they always seemed well-run

 

Hanley and Sargent are injured I believe. That, with Aaron's and Pukki gone is pretty damaging.

 

Going by the below posts it seems the problem is more with the squad than with the manager - I was initially surprised to hear them struggling so much with him at the helm, I didn’t notice he’d been appointed this year. I’m not sure the club is so well run as a fair amount of criticism has been flung from their fans; they may be on a much sounder financial footing than us but only three consecutive seasons max and no top-half finish in the top flight since the mid-90s is pretty poor for a club of their size when you consider what Fulham, Palace, Wigan, Swansea, Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth have achieved. His record in 2023 has been really poor but Norwich are quite patient with managers - even counting interim/caretaker managers, he’s only their eighth in the last decade and 17th this century. I imagine they’ll allow him to rebuild the squad as Huddersfield did when they got that surprise promotion after their usual bottom third finish under Wagner.

 

Ipswich seem a bit of a soft touch with the weaker teams (draws at Huddersfield and Rotherham) but 17 away league games unbeaten is mightily impressive and I imagine they’ll be going up with Leicester.

 

Rotherham will probably now be on a high when they come to us on Saturday.

Just our luck, but we really must overcome their new found confidence and put them back in their place

 

My Bristol City friend who I had coffee with this morning is very sceptical about their appointment. She didn’t want Pearson to leave, is unhappy about paying compensation to Oxford and doesn’t think Manning will work out. I’m surprised as I think he’s a very bright coach who has done well in both his main jobs, and who I think we were linked with too when we eventually went for Edwards?

Thoughts?