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I must admit that I fancied both to struggle and there is still time for the form of both or either to collapse, but looking at the Prem at the moment, it is difficult to see either going down. Newcastle are probably the best comparable with ourselves. They struggled for a couple of seasons and went down in complete disarray. But they then took the Championship by storm and seem to have grown as a squad for the experience. I always fancied Nolan as a player and suggested we should buy him before Newcastle snapped him up but, apart from him and Carroll, the team isn't all that. They are just playing with confidence.
Let's take the nightmare scenario for a moment. We go down. The wage bill would have to be cut. Cole would be sold. Big loss? Don't think so. Upson would go. Do we care? Not really. Green would leave. Does that matter? He has lost us as many points as he won for us over the last 18 months. Behrami would go, but Valedictory is on his way in any case. McCarthy would have to stay because Weight Watchers don't have a team, but he would score in the Championship anyway. Parker would leave but Parker should probably have been sold in any case. Dyer would also go, but he rarely plays so that's no great loss either and Boa would either have to play for peanuts or find a new club.
So clear out that lot and we would cut the wage bill by £350,000 PER WEEK, or £18.2 million per year! (And another £20,000 a week if Boa goes!) We would probably bring in £15 million in transfer fees too, effectively offsetting the loss in Premiership revenue for a season, given the parachute payments that now exist.
And so we face a season in the Championship. Wouldn't we have a team good enough to bounce straight back up, even without signing replacements for the big 5?
I fancy this team would take the division by storm:
Stech: Jacobsen, Da Costa, Gabbidon, Ilunga; Barrera, Noble (Captain), Hitzlespurger, Collison; Piquionne, McCarthy.
The subs bench would read: Kovac, Sears, Spence, Nouble, Boffin, Reid, Spector, Tomkins, Faubert, Hines, Stanislas.
True we look a little thin in midfield, but we have some good kids coming through. Maybe the Championship is the right place to blood them. Who knows, Sears, Nouble and Hines might finds their feet, banging in goals for fun and coming back to the Prem rejuvenated. Maybe Hall will come through. Maybe Brown will emerge as the new left back we so desperately need.
One thing is for sure, we couldn't come back a worse team than we looked all of last season. Maybe a year down is exactly what we need. Sometimes, as Newcastle appear to be showing, you have to suffer major trauma and surgery to come back stronger. As Doomsday Scenarios go, it doesn't seem like the end of the World!
15 comments:
HF your only saying that because you are a tottenham fan. and dont say you aint because we all know you are you mug.
"must admit that I fancied both to struggle"
you also fancied Avram to do a good job!
and wanted Scotty to leave....
Just goes to show you know naff all...
That old chestnut 2355. You should have picked up on the fact that I forgot Spence, that would have been a more intelligent contribution. I've added him now!
Perhaps if Scotty had left, the money might have been used to strengthen the team in other areas. Perhaps.
Avram is doing an OK job in the circumstances in my opinion. Very unlucky not to win at Wolves and through to the quarter final of the Carling Cup. Also unlucky we lost yesterday.
What the Grantazola Index doesn't allow for is the number of times we found ourselves playing against 10 men under Zola - including at Arsenal - and still couldn't win!
as a toon fan I would agree that the spell in the championship has done us well but relegation is a major risk for any club, theres more than one club whos gone down never to return, leeds, southampton, leicester coventry and sheffield wednesday 2 of those teams are currently in league one and have had or are having major financial trouble another 2 did spend time in league one. Its rare that sides bounce straight back from relegation (except west brom who make a ritual out of it)
Jospeh
It was smart to keep Parker HF. After getting cut from the England squad his value wouldve dropped but now that hes showed up again we can sell him on for a decent price.
Ill say this though. We wont be as successful in the Championship as the Toon. That's mainly down to their great home-field advantage and the travel most teams would endure to play them up there. UP is by no means a fortress to anyone.
Good post HF. I just hope we don't end up like Forest, Leeds, Southampton, Norwich, Charlton, The Boro, Luton, Ispwich etc etc. Now thats a scary though eh? It could quite easily happen. I hope not.
I've been thinking the same thing for a few weeks now, and to be honest I think it might be the best thing for us - primarily because of the Olympic Stadium issue, but I do agree with the other points.
Disregarding the other worries about playing to a half empty stadium, miles away from the pitch, be under no delusions that the burden of an additional 190m debt to pay for it is totally beyond our means, and would cripple us. There'se the distinct possibility it would mean the end of our club.
If there's a danger of that happening then I've no problem of a season or two in the Championship. After all, how can we possibly even consider taking on a 60,000 seater stadium, and tripling our debt in the process if we're not in the Premiership?
And who would be stupid enough to lend us the cash for that matter!
I'd rather take the bitter pill of the Championship than croak, thanks very much! And if that makes me a filthy Spud then so be it.
But Fanno what about the difficulties of filling the Olympic Stadium while stuck in the Championship? Heaven forbid our owners might not go ahead with the stadium change if we are to get relegated. Not to mention the strong possibility of retaining Spector's services. You obviously haven't thought this through clearly enough.
Masty, I'monly thinking of being down there for a year. We will be back up by the time the Olympics is on. Mind you, I'm in the stay at the Boleyn camp! Like Albertrand71!
Can't possibly be wishing relegation to make us better? Christ! Do we need to go down to correct what is obviously wrong right now? That is pathetic to say the least.
What we should be asking ourselves is how many points should AG get from the next possible nine (Birmingham away and Blackpool and WBA home). I say a minimum of 7 points or he should shown the door and have some one like O'Neal come in to fix things before it is really too late.
I would agree, I have thought this for a while, but it is risky, I think the biggest benefit would be to blood our young players, playing in the same team. If we do go down I think we would be down for two seasons, but I would be ok with this and still be there every week.
I'm not proposing a deliberate strategy to get relegated Dave, I'm just looking at the nightmare scenario and saying it might not be anything more than a slightly bad dream.
I am sure that Sheffield United and Leeds do not agree with your "blessing in disguise" logic.
I say, we shouldn't be even thinking like this. We have plenty of time to put things right but we need to take the right decisions early (in 10 days from as a maximum).
It is a case of how you handle it Sav. My point is that our squad is good enough to book an immediate return. I'm not propsing we TRY to get relegated, I'm simply saying it would not be a complete disaster because the players we would be most at risk of losing are not that good anyway.
I think the likes of Piq, Barerra, Ilunga and Jacobsen would probably stay. I hope we survive and seriously look back at the past two years. Not many of us were expecting to do this badly, and if we do survive, now having two years of it will ALL expect to do badly, just depends what the owners decide to do about it. In terms of blooding youngster though, I agree it could be a blessing.
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