It kinda feels like there is a time limit on it at the moment. If we don't go up this season or next then it is hard to see it happening once the money dries up. There is only so long you can rely on producing and selling on players combined with low crowds and limited revenue streams. Add onto that the increased spending power of the teams who come down from the Championship these days and it becomes increasingly hard for a club in our predicament to progress. Even this year the likes of Sunderland, Ipswich, Rotherham and Peterborough can blow us out of the water from a financial standpoint.
As for whether Robins is the man to do it, I'm not sure. There is no denying that he's done a good job since he's come in but there are definitely some flaws there that maybe go a bit under the radar. Our inability to ever really go on consistent winning streaks, or to put lesser teams to the sword, aren't really the attributes of a team that can challenge for automatic promotion. Robins' in-game management is also very suspect, especially his substitutions and in-game tactical flexibility. There have been a lot of games where I've come away feeling like the opposition manager has tactically out-thought Robins, particularly in the second half of games, and it has led to some rather disappointing defeats to teams we should have beaten.
There are obviously upsides though. We play some nice stuff most of the time and tend to look defensively as a unit (although perhaps not individually) and I certainly think we'd be able to challenge for the play-offs this season or next season under him.