Championship Contra The Premier League (and vice versa)

[rbf]

The chance for goals, the chance for wins

And ultimately success,

Made many think that Championship

Life might be for the best,

But up to now redeeming features

Are few, I confess

In the Championship contra the Premier League

Not only because our good start

Has left us for a while,

Or because just for the moment

We´re not top of the pile,

But games down here just don´t contain

The same panache and style,

In the Championship contra the Premier League

And I´m in the minority

Perhaps, thinking this way,

But Premier games gave us the chance

To surprise on the day,

A little fish we might have been

But here we are big prey,

In the Championship contra the Premier League

Up there I always was content

To finish seventeenth,

And a bonus it would have been

To leave more underneath,

But this year if we´re not top six

Some will get out the wreath,

In the Championship contra the Premier League

It´s not the prestige or the cash

Why I feel as I do,

But competing against the best

Was the key in my view,

It kept us on our toes and brought

The best out of our crew,

The Premier League contra the Championship

And every point seemed massive there

Even one helped our need,

And should we win occasionally

Then three seemed huge indeed,

And when it happened, well the joy

Was special, we agreed,

The Premier League contra the Championship

So despite all the odds against

And games we knew we´d lose,

The years we had up there still shine

As the best, as I muse,

And hopefully our name again

Will be part of their news,

The Premier League contra the Championship. OTBC

 

[GazzaTCC]

The Premier League for me wins hands down, even if there's less wins.

 

[rbf]

Me too, Gazza - cast us in the role of underdogs every time for me, at least then we have the chance to surprise, here the only surprises we´re going to spring are likely to be negative ones. And anyway, when you´ve got the favourite´s tag, it definitely affects how you approach, and play games, and can easily give you a false sense of security.

 

[Killiecanary]

I don't mind having a season away from the greedy nonsense of the PL (or BPL as it now nauseatingly known, summing up the influence of corporate life over the sport at the top level) but only one! The championship is an exciting league with much less predictability but I also miss seeing us compete against the top teams...

 

[splutcho]

I want us to be as good as we can be, and that means Premier League. What people don't seem to understand is that while it's all fun and games winning more down here, if we don't go up, our best players leave and we revert to losing more often against terrible sides. Do we really want to go back to the late 90s/early 00s? or worse yet, Grant and Roeder's era?

 

[Lake District Canary]

We should always strive to be the best we can be and the best thing anyone can do in any league imo, is treat that league with the utmost respect and not wish ourselves out of it prematurely.  We may have the best players, but there are teams in the championship that have been here for quite a while and are more streetwise about this division than us. We have to match that before we can earn the right to be promoted.  So to answer the op, the best division for the club is in whichever division it is at the time.

Striving to be the best we can be means the same in the top division too - I don't think we did that in the second season or the third season.  Imo we were trying to adapt to a way of playing that would see us survive.   If we go up again I want us to go for it with all guns blazing and hang the consequences.  The Hughton experiment was tough to watch for everyone and wouldn't want a repeat of that.   Unless the club gets significant investment it must be obvious to most that we will never be able to compete long term with the richer clubs - which means most of them, so yes, great if we go back up, but the pressure from the fans has to be to play attractive and open football, not survive at all costs football, just so we can get a few million to waste on players that can't cut it.  If we get relegated back down to the championship again as a result, so what..........we'll still all support and want the team to do well again.   

So Premiership or Championship - makes little difference in the great scheme of things - unless we get a rich investor - and that brings its own problems and pitfalls...........

 

[rbf]

We should always strive to be the best we can be and the best thing anyone can do in any league imo, is treat that league with the utmost respect and not wish ourselves out of it prematurely.  We may have the best players, but there are teams in the championship that have been here for quite a while and are more streetwise about this division than us. We have to match that before we can earn the right to be promoted.  So to answer the op, the best division for the club is in whichever division it is at the time.

Striving to be the best we can be means the same in the top division too - I don't think we did that in the second season or the third season.  Imo we were trying to adapt to a way of playing that would see us survive.   If we go up again I want us to go for it with all guns blazing and hang the consequences.  The Hughton experiment was tough to watch for everyone and wouldn't want a repeat of that.   Unless the club gets significant investment it must be obvious to most that we will never be able to compete long term with the richer clubs - which means most of them, so yes, great if we go back up, but the pressure from the fans has to be to play attractive and open football, not survive at all costs football, just so we can get a few million to waste on players that can't cut it.  If we get relegated back down to the championship again as a result, so what..........we'll still all support and want the team to do well again.   

So Premiership or Championship - makes little difference in the great scheme of things - unless we get a rich investor - and that brings its own problems and pitfalls...........

I´m certainly not suggesting that we haven´t got to earn the right to get out, Lake District, but I do remember qute a few fans on various message boards, after our relegation, saying that the Championship could just be a blessing in disguise, I didn´t actually agree at the time, and nothing has changed to make me think differently. As splutcho rightly says, the longer we have down here, the sooner our best players will get taken, and naturally then the harder it wll be to get out. In fact, I would be so bold as to suggest that if our league postion doesn´t improve much between now and Christmas, the vultures will already descend in January for folk like Redmond, and possibly others.

I´d hate to see that happen, as this year is still the best chance we will have, to get back up.

 

[GazzaTCC]

LDC - this rich investor concept is a myth. For Norwich to survive and thrive, we have to live within our means. If we have a £90m turnover, we should budget accordingly.

We shouldn't be looking for someone to come in and spunk an extra £5m - £10m pa simply because it's unsustainable should they sufferingly suddenly up sticks and leave.

If you want an example, just look down the A140 where Marcus took over with circa £30m debt and now they're £80m+ and no way of repaying it.

 

[Lake District Canary]

RBF and Gazza - agree with you both.   We have to live within our means and I wouldn't want it any other way.  As for vultures descending, the only player I think is at risk atm is Redmond.  A premiership player in the offing if ever there was.   Not the finished article yet, but signs that he is getting there. Why he was left out against Forest and didn't even get on as a sub is a mystery to me.  Just hope we can kick on with the U21 and full international players coming back with renewed confidence after the  break.

 

[Canaryboy]

The Championship this year would have been great fun if we'd the whole year in 1st place watching our team win 3-0 every week, whilst wearing "on loan to the Championship" t-shirts. Or indeed, any season challenging for and achieving automatic promotion. It is much less fun when you are mid-table and know that each season in this league is going to see players leave to balance the books. 

LDC.... Olsson doesn't look too up for it this season does he? Wonder whether he is looking for an exit. Other than him and Redmond, I can only really think of Ruddy, Howson and Hooper who would attract a decent transfer fee (although doubt we would get our money back on Hooper!). Plenty of people say that we have the strongest squad in this league, yet the list of players likely to attract any interest at all from clubs in the league above is probably quite short? 

 

[rbf]

 As for vultures descending, the only player I think is at risk atm is Redmond. 

Talking of which  http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/southampton-eyeing-nathan-redmond---4636231

Our recent slump has obviously not gone unnoticed.

 

[Lake District Canary]

LDC.... Olsson doesn't look too up for it this season does he? Wonder whether he is looking for an exit. Other than him and Redmond, I can only really think of Ruddy, Howson and Hooper who would attract a decent transfer fee (although doubt we would get our money back on Hooper!). Plenty of people say that we have the strongest squad in this league, yet the list of players likely to attract any interest at all from clubs in the league above is probably quite short? 

I don't think Ollson has been that bad - often ploughing a lone furrow on the left with Hoolahan disappearing around the pitch didn't help the left side of the pitch.  One or two goals have been on that side, but usually an error by someone else or lack of covering from midfield has contributed to that.   I don't think he will attract premiership sides to the extent they will offer big monay, which is what it would take to get him.   

Redmond, however, will attract big money and we will find it difficult to keep him. We may not have to sell for financial reasons, but he may want away if he feels he is not getting what he needs footballing wise at Norwich.........especially if Adams doesn't play him.

 

[Canaryboy]

Our days of being able to turn down offers awaiting "big money" for players may be numbered though? Whilst we can only speculate on our current financial position, we do know that we carried over a £6m profit this season, if that forms part or budget this season then that is £6m we'd need to find in the summer. 

The summer after that, if we are still in this division, we then see our income fall by a further £14m. That's a huge amount of money. Of course, I'm still hopeful of being able to get out of this division, but if we don't then that is the reality of our situation. Difficult to see how the club can contend with that without selling players and cutting the wage bill. 

John Ruddy would of course be another player who we could probably get "big money" for, subject to an established Premier League side needing a goalkeeper, and the prospect of losing him doesn't overly concern me. Declan Rudd is a tremendous young goalkeeper and worthy of his chance at this level. 

 

[morty]

Our days of being able to turn down offers awaiting "big money" for players may be numbered though? Whilst we can only speculate on our current financial position, we do know that we carried over a £6m profit this season, if that forms part or budget this season then that is £6m we'd need to find in the summer. 

The summer after that, if we are still in this division, we then see our income fall by a further £14m. That's a huge amount of money. Of course, I'm still hopeful of being able to get out of this division, but if we don't then that is the reality of our situation. Difficult to see how the club can contend with that without selling players and cutting the wage bill. 

John Ruddy would of course be another player who we could probably get "big money" for, subject to an established Premier League side needing a goalkeeper, and the prospect of losing him doesn't overly concern me. Declan Rudd is a tremendous young goalkeeper and worthy of his chance at this level. 

I just read this, an excellent piece :-

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/2014/11/16/nice-or-nasty-are-city-now-just-a-little-too-nice-off-the-pitch-to-be-successful-on-it/

 

[Yellow Fever]

The trouble with looking back is that everybody seems to remember the best bits and forget the disasters. We currently have the same number of points as we did after 15 games with Lambert in the Championship. Not many talk about the 3-1 loss to lowly Doncaster when the 3 at the back experiment went disastrously wrong. Lambert had his good times but he had sticky patches as well. What I felt was missing was the development of players. I see improvement in the play of Redmond, Tettey, and Howson, for example. There is also the developemnt of young players coming through. A change in manager would take us back to square one, IMO. I personally wouldn't want to see Lambert back. Second shifts seldom work, especially with the extra friction itwould cause.

 

[morty]

The trouble with looking back is that everybody seems to remember the best bits and forget the disasters. We currently have the same number of points as we did after 15 games with Lambert in the Championship. Not many talk about the 3-1 loss to lowly Doncaster when the 3 at the back experiment went disastrously wrong. Lambert had his good times but he had sticky patches as well. What I felt was missing was the development of players. I see improvement in the play of Redmond, Tettey, and Howson, for example. There is also the developemnt of young players coming through. A change in manager would take us back to square one, IMO. I personally wouldn't want to see Lambert back. Second shifts seldom work, especially with the extra friction itwould cause.

I don't think there is anything wrong with reflecting on the past, hopefully doing so stops you repeating previous mistakes.

I don't think the board have any intention in sacking Adams, and I believe they want to emulate the likes of Swansea and Southampton in creating a specific ethos within the club, and they have chosen Adams to be the man to do that, and ( as was shown with the brief appointment of Royle) will surround Adams with the people to help him achieve the aim.

Personally I wouldn't want Lambert back, but its very clear that we need to get back to winning games, and quickly, however that is achieved.