What would our survival odds be if we went up? (4 Viewers)

[Major Tom]

Sheffield won’t be the same team when they come down - change of management and some poor purchases including Gus who needed a team around him BUT they will get full parachute payments which make it so bloody unfair - let’s see how we get on against Wolves

Its great to see Ipswich bucking the trend.. But whoever comes down will be taking at least 1 auto and 2 of the play off places .. the battle will be for the remaining 3 places for the foreseeable.

 

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[Major Tom]

In a way, with hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t win the playoff final, as the entire next season in the Premiership would have been an albeit different squad ‘rebuild’, but at a considerably higher level of intensity and pressure.

We’d have had to gel a lot quicker, for sure, and there was potential to be whipping boys, even if we kept both Vik and Gus.

I’d rather us get there with an established and evolving team spine, and actually survive, and avoid being the next yo-yo team.

I would love my boy to see the top flight players for at least one season .. there are a generation or two of young Cov fans who have only watched the premier league on TV and the Playstation ..

 

[Alan Dugdales Moustache]

We will still be in the championship next season. That's fine with me . Love this league. Premier league is there for the big 5 or 6 and everyone else is there to make up the numbers . Half of the also-rans are no more a pull for me as a city fan than most teams in the championship.
Premier league is overrated tosh but it's very lucrative and there's the rub.

 

[Deity]

100% they will and I am 99% certain he would be sacked.

You've seen how unhappy people on here are after a couple of defeats. Imagine getting a constant good thumping.

I think that is a very low possibility.

Good owners know it is likely they will come back down and if they trust the manager to bring them back up they will stick with them.

Luton and Burnley are examples this year.

I think it would take a fall out between Robins and King for a parting of the ways in the first season in the premier league

 

[StrettoBoy]

I think it becomes strategic. Use the money to buy 2-3 top championship level players. Take the parachute payment and invest again. Then try and repeat until you can assemble a squad to one day consolidate. It’s quite a long process but less risky than just going for it.

I completely agree with that.

A lot of teams over-spend when they get promoted and still end up being relegated. Then they find themselves back in the Championship saddled with a lot of debt.

 

[StrettoBoy]

Just wondering if Gus regrets signing for such a bad team. Surely he can't be happy.

I suspect he is quite down about it until he looks at his bank balance

He will doubtless be off in the summer to someone like one of the newly promoted teams or a Palace/Forest level club.

 

[StrettoBoy]

I do genuinely think we'd have had more of a go at staying up than Burnley & Sheff Utd.

I agree. I think we would be around the level that Luton are : may come down but not without a fight.

 

[MusicDating]

In a way, with hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t win the playoff final, as the entire next season in the Premiership would have been an albeit different squad ‘rebuild’, but at a considerably higher level of intensity and pressure.

We’d have had to gel a lot quicker, for sure, and there was potential to be whipping boys, even if we kept both Vik and Gus.

I’d rather us get there with an established and evolving team spine, and actually survive, and avoid being the next yo-yo team.

Had a similar conversation with Andy Turner after bumping into him outside Wembley before the game. I said it didn't feel like we were ready and that I didn't want us to do a Forest and bring in 15/20 players just to try and stay up. We'd built such an affiliation with the players, it would have been sad to see none of them wear the shirt again.

 

[Grendel]

It was a crazy move from the off. What a daft thing to do.

You would have thought that other Premier clubs would have looked at him, who were a bit more bedded in, in the Premier, like Palace or Brentford etc.

Sheff Utd always looked odds on certainties to come straight back down again

I don’t think clubs were that interested

If you look at Hamer last season he wasn’t that great until late on. He then went on a great run of form once he was given more freedom to get forward.

I get the impression he’s really not that bothered - he’s earning good money and could probably get a move to a Burnley or Leeds or Southampton if they don’t go up

He doesn’t seem to have the fitness levels for the premiership

 

[Essexrobbie]

Zero, although Bournemouth managed it for a season or two first time around. Was it West Brom that went up and down like a yo yo for a number of years? Too good for the championship but not prem. There is such a gulf now that you have to invest serious money to stay there.

 

[Essexrobbie]

Sheffield won’t be the same team when they come down - change of management and some poor purchases including Gus who needed a team around him BUT they will get full parachute payments which make it so bloody unfair - let’s see how we get on against Wolves

Yes Wolves will be a good indicator of where we are. They will play their first eleven for sure so lets see.

 

[skybluericoh]

I think we would do the double first season
Seriously, I would hope we have one or two decent wins hope we don’t break any negative records like most goals conceded, least points etc. actually staying up could have a negative impact. 1 season of getting beat too most fans would be understandable, and they would think we are getting ££££ and will be able to strengthen, have another great run in the championship and come back up. Second season, would get a bit harder. Apart from 5/6 teams they’re ‘happy’ if they don’t get relegated.

 

[Torquay Sky Blue]

I think we'd do a Luton . They work hard for their manager as I think we would.
As for Sheffield United...they've down tools. I didn't realise Gus was playing last night until he got a kick of the ball halfway through the second half

 

[JSL]

It would be a nice problem to have

 

[HerneBayGaz]

Just wondering if Gus regrets signing for such a bad team. Surely he can't be happy.

I think he went to SU knowing they would be in a relegation batle. But he wanted to test himself against great teams and players. And the vast amount of money he is earning now. I watched the Arsenal game, and it was embarrassing. They were run ragged. It was like a training session. Attack versus defence. His name was rarely mentioned.

Would love to get him. But can't see it somehow

 

[Dickie]

It was a crazy move from the off. What a daft thing to do.

You would have thought that other Premier clubs would have looked at him, who were a bit more bedded in, in the Premier, like Palace or Brentford etc.

Sheff Utd always looked odds on certainties to come straight back down again

Always a bad fit.

 

[Legia Sky Blue]

I imagine Hamer might want to leave at the end of the season, and while I could see a lower PL/ newly promoted PL club being interested, I can't see any of them paying the fee paid to us. Therefore unless Sheffield United are prepared to cut their losses he might be stuck with them.

 

[StrettoBoy]

As for Sheffield United...they've down tools. I didn't realise Gus was playing last night until he got a kick of the ball halfway through the second half

Astonishingly, according to the player ratings on the BBC website, Gus was their best outfield player! When you think that his rating was 3.30 and Arsenal's worst player out of the 16 who took to the pitch was 6.13 (most were 7+ and 8+) it shows the gulf in class.

 

[JimmyHillsbeard]

It you can keep the team spirit together and add some quality you can have a good go at staying up.

I don't understand why Burnley and Kompany seem to have gone under the radar about how shambolic they are. They've spent 100m on top of a championship winning squad and look awful.

Agreed. The “Kompany is the natural heir to Pep” brigade don’t seem to as vocal as they were last season but many being quiet is still working in his favour as he’s escaped criticism generally.

Buying a super-talented but super-inexperienced goalkeeper was a strange move I thought. Virtually all promoted championship sides have to invest in a new keeper but learning your trade in a bad team is hard for keepers (Tim Flowers once said it took him 5 years to forget the bad habits he learned as a 17 year old playing for Wolves - where he could let in 2-3 goals a game and still get man of the match).

 

[JimmyHillsbeard]

Yes Wolves will be a good indicator of where we are. They will play their first eleven for sure so lets see.

Seeing what they did to West Brom and what West Brom did to us doesn’t portend well.

 

[San Francisco]

Seeing what they did to West Brom and what West Brom did to us doesn’t portend well.

That's because we're dreadful when we play with a back 3.

 

[blunted]

If we got up, we would be hot favourites to go back down again. There would be a lot of money incoming. A sharp club would buy a lot of players with potential and contracts organised to drop on relegation to within a manageable level, taking into account parachute payments. Some players would excel in the Prem and be sold at a premium. If managed correctly, it could make us for years to come. Managed poorly hello Stoke City.

 

[JSL]

If we got up, we would be hot favourites to go back down again. There would be a lot of money incoming. A sharp club would buy a lot of players with potential and contracts organised to drop on relegation to within a manageable level, taking into account parachute payments. Some players would excel in the Prem and be sold at a premium. If managed correctly, it could make us for years to come. Managed poorly hello Stoke City.

I think that's exactly what we tried to do but is not turned out as expected yet

 

[Houchens Head]

Personally, I would love to see City back in the PL. I saw my first game 60 years ago at Highfield Rd, watched the game versus Wolves with a record crowd of around 52,000, saw many top teams and famous players and spent a good few years as a steward.
34 years we were in the top flight, usually fighting relegation but what a buzz those games were! I know there's many members on here that have never seen City in the top flight and I sympathise with them, and it's for the younger guys on here that I'd like to think want to see them promoted.
The thread title asks about what our survival chances would be. My heart says we'd be fine, but head thinks maybe one or two seasons then down again.
Sadly, I don't get to games these days due to distance from Malvern and the fact that I'm a full-time carer for my darling 74 year old wife since her stroke, but follow everything about the club and subscribe to Sky Sports just in case the lads are live on TV.

 

[duffer]

The usual 'you'd move jobs for a substantial payrise' has been rolled out multiple times on here but there has to be more reasoning than money to get out of bed in the mornings, surely?
Hamer can't seriously be enjoying this seasons chastening experience despite a substantial paycheck and what will next season bring in the championship?
It looks like a gamble that hasn't paid off for him.

If my career could be over in an instant, then I'm pretty sure I'd take the money when I got a chance.

I know where you're coming from, but from a financial point of view the gamble has already paid off.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

I just feel like the gap between the top sides and the likes of Sheffield utd, Luton and any teams that get promoted, especially teams such as us who haven’t been in the prem for a very long time (and thus not benefitted from the dosh) is getting so big now it’s almost impossible to compete.
Obviously the likes of wolves, Brentford and Brighton have been very smart with what they’ve done to allow them to stay there for a bit and build, but how often did we see teams like arsenal and Liverpool (Man Utd and Chelsea back when they were winning) smashing teams for 5 or 6 regularly like we do now? It happened the odd time but not regularly. Sheff it’s got beat 6-0 last night and 8-0 earlier in season?
One of the pundits said it last week in the Luton Man City game, that those two teams are in the same league, and it was worlds apart.

But considering the losses even PL teams make it seems like that 'dosh' isn't that important. If many of them came down they'd have massive financial problems within a couple of years if they stayed down.

Even with hundreds of millions of income it's still down to super rich owners being willing to absorb eye-watering losses while finding away around FFP

 

[AJB1983]

But considering the losses even PL teams make it seems like that 'dosh' isn't that important. If many of them came down they'd have massive financial problems within a couple of years if they stayed down.

Even with hundreds of millions of income it's still down to super rich owners being willing to absorb eye-watering losses while finding away around FFP

That is true I guess.