as stated got me on this one ,but its not black and white here, peterbough loans vis fergersons connections, Brighton spent money ,yes on lower league players but i think they will fade. southampton don't know enough about them to comment. Derby had a sticky patch last season but have stuck with the manager.
I may have been hasty with the 'buy lower league players' etc comment but The teams above have all done things that we have failed to do ie spend money use loan players and stick with the manger, something that some are calling for Thorn to go
Thing is you could rewind 3 years and say the same: Coleman (longest serving manager since relegation) a team that cost several million to assemble (even if many on here don't like to admit that SISU spent cash on players once upon a time) several loanees from the Prem.
Yet we still nearly got relegated.
The longer I support this club, the more I think that it's just rotten to the core, no matter what we never seem to progress, never get the luck of other teams, etc. Over the years we've had money (Strachan) managers with a record of success (BFR, WGS, Dowie, Coleman, Hoofroyd, etc.) decent players (the Coleman team for this league, the Strachan team for the Prem) yet we consistently underperform. The last time we played above ourselves was 1987!
I'm off to cry into my beer until we pick up 3 points and I can dream of the playoffs again.