Is the gap that big from the premier league to

the top half of the championship?


The gap semmed to have narrowed the last couple of years

No. With a motivated confident organised team fresh from a promotion season. You need to get a good start, a settled team and steal a few early points before teams suss you.

I think the lower prem teams seem to have a base of players similar in standard to the top of the championship, the main difference is a couple of star players who have the spark needed. When teams come down from the prem, some of their better players either didnt click or get sold and they are then left with the base team of championship standard players on big wages. Most who come down, unless they keep their squad in tact end up this way and finish mid table.

If we go up this year I think we need to be careful to make sure we dont buy championship standard "Prem" players who are on big wages but add nothing except recent prem experience. We have a good core of the team and so I think 2-3 "stars" with the standard malky work ethic as well as a few more good standard core players would see us well. I hate to say it but Swansea have managed this with their okay team + Michu, de guzman, vorm, hernandez etc.

I suppose the alternative is to build slowly like West Brom have done a few seasons ago, yo yo around, dont sell when you go down but eventually have a squad full of prem standard players. I cant see that being good enough for our owners though to be honest, if we get to the prem they will want to stay there, especially with the Fair play rules coming in for the championship next season.

I disagree.

Southampton are down there in the PL however I feel we are way behind them in terms of ability at the moment. Southampton were alot stronger going up than what we will be I think that is for sure. We would need to compliment our current crop with 4/5 quality signings to be competitive in the Prem.

I disagree.

Southampton are down there in the PL however I feel we are way behind them in terms of ability at the moment. Southampton were alot stronger going up than what we will be I think that is for sure. We would need to compliment our current crop with 4/5 quality signings to be competitive in the Prem.

You may well be right about needing more like 4/5 signings however I'm not convinced that they were a lot stronger going up that we are / (hopefully) will be? We are top by 10pts after all.. Southampton finished with 88 - only 25 more than we have now, plus they had just come up from L1. Maybe they didn't actually have that good a core? They have also spent a lot of money, but haven't really bought that well imo.

Last season Southampton played with a gusto that we have rarely seen (over recent months anyway). I am not moaning. Winning is winning. But last season Southampton were regularly winning by 2 goal plus margins. The reason I am using Soton as an example is because I feel we aren't hitting the heights they hit last season in terms of perfomances (and let's face it, in the Prem League you can't play how we are CURRENTLY) and expect wins. Southampton were an inventive attacking team. How often do you see us perform a move in and around the box. Like a neat one touch move. It's quite rare isn't it?

I feel if we go up we have a lot to change in terms of style. But then that's probably obvious to most as the PL imo is still way ahead in quality.

I agree we may need to change if we get to the prem, we currently play very consistently, nothing amazing but always good enough to win at this level. In the prem we may also play consistently but not be good enough to ever win, which is where we would need to take risks.

If we go up, it will be interesting to see how Malky adapts to be honest, I am not sure whether grinding out results is the way he likes to play, or just they way he thinks will get us promoted. I seem to recall Watford used to be quite attacking under him?

Yep Watford were very attacking. This was shown in their two very good performances against us that season. However he had a lot less to lose at Watford which probably allowed him to be more experimental in an attacking sense.

I think 17 of the 24 teams in the Championship are ex-prem 14/15 in the last decade. So the infrastructure in this league has improved a lot and that makes a big difference on the pitch.

If we go up we we likely to need easy 7 players. Probably 5 of those first team.

I'd say on our day we're as good as the likes of Reading and Wigan.

which would mean relegation at the moment.

we need to be a bit better than reading and wigan in the PL. and not just on 'our day', but most days.

which would mean relegation at the moment.

we need to be a bit better than reading and wigan in the PL. and not just on 'our day', but most days.

No.

We are at their level NOW. Next season if we're promoted we will get 5+ quality signings in to take us way beyond their level.

It's not that big a gap, Around 10 years ago, maybe, but not now. It's about sensible management, picking your fights, and trying to stabilise/survive for a couple of seasons...and then, who knows?

It's decreased massively, infact it's not just the lower prem teams but the entire premiership.

The top 4 ain't no where near what they used to be.

I'd say on our day we're as good as the likes of Reading and Wigan.

Agree...if not better

On their day any team in the championship or even the lower leagues would give the big four a good run for their money in a cup game as has been proven this year, but doing this week in week out is a totally different ball game

I love championship football, but i would also love to see us at least play the big guns week in week out, but it would hurt me to see us having hammerings week in week out

Premierships been poor last couple of years. I think the gap is going down because more of the clubs going up have the foundations to go up, with a top quality stadium, training ground, managers who have managed in the top flight. This then quickly allows them to attract better players.