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Honesty time


PFree

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I believe that like many on here, we didn't expect to be anywhere near the top-six at this stage of the season - I was one predicting a relegation scrap being honest.

I would also argue that we aren't quite ready to go up though neither?

Let's say we were able to sneak up, can anybody see us staying there for more than a season? Yes, in some senses it would be good fun and we would all be delighted to get there, but when you are getting turned over heavily every week, would it be that enjoyable? I work in Cardiff and with many CCFC fans and for both seasons they have been up there, it's been pretty sole destroying for them - it's simply a case if they can get adequate results against the 'small clubs' and enough points to 'just survive'. If we were to go up, I have no doubt SL would also spend conservatively, he wants to run the club commercially and rightly so I guess.

My point is that we are absolutely going the right way and providing we build further each season, the Premiership will come. We are 'big enough' to complete but need to get there in a position of strength and where we can hopefully sustain our time there (Like a Burnley, Bournemouth or Watford of this world). We are up against bigger sides at the top at the moment, many of whom have better squads and resources, and who are better equipped - let's be honest that we are punching above our weight and over-performing.

I have never been an LJ fan, and being honest, kept my eye out in the press last season hoping that he had gone - but, I have to say that the progress being made is highly positive and my opinion has undoubtedly changed. 

Here's hoping the progress continues but should we miss out on the play-offs, lets recognise what has been achieved..

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We have to go up at some point, even if it turns out to be a disaster on the pitch, to even be able to compete financially in the Championship. 

Unlike some who implode off the back of a Premier league stint, I honestly believe that getting there, just for one season, initially, would be the making of this club (under SL’s guidance) and make us serious challengers on our return to the Championship. 

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If we go up, I would happily take not going crazy in the transfer market and suffering relegation as it would put us in a much stronger position in terms of building a team that can compete in the Prem.  Don't underestimate the power of the parachute payments when you have someone running the show who made his money in Financial Management.

So yes....I would happily accept promotion this year.

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8 minutes ago, PFree said:

I work in Cardiff and with many CCFC fans and for both seasons they have been up there, it's been pretty sole destroying for them

Must be a long walk to the games if their shoes are getting wrecked…
 

 

8 minutes ago, PFree said:

If we were to go up, I have no doubt SL would also spend conservatively, he wants to run the club commercially and rightly so I guess.

Yes, I think he would, too. Wouldn't want to do a Fulham and bring too many players in. 

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2 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

No reason in the world we can't do that whether we are 'ready' at the moment or not.

Agree with this. There tends to be lot of talk about being 'ready', 'over-achieving', 'deserving', 'not deserving' etc. Ultimately, if we did make it, we would be there on merit. And I hope every City supporter would want us to go up.

 

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3 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Just need to check Burnley to see what is more than possible with the right management. Promoted, relegated with money, strengthened, promoted, consolidated.

No reason in the world we can't do that whether we are 'ready' at the moment or not.

There also has to be an argument made for our record against Premier league teams over the past 18 months. 

I know that they were “one off” games and very different to the relentless rigours of a league campaign, but it must read something like, without looking it up.... P8 W5 D0 L3. And that includes 2 fixtures, home & away against the best team in the country.  

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There is never a “right” time to go up.

In 2008 people said we weren’t ready. But what happened after, a few years more in the Championship and then back to League One.

You have to take promotion whenever you can get it, because that opportunity might not come again for a very long time.

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1 minute ago, Bar BS3 said:

There also has to be an argument made for our record against Premier league teams over the past 18 months. 

I know that they were “one off” games and very different to the relentless rigours of a league campaign, but it must read something like, without looking it up.... P8 W5 D0 L3. And that includes 2 fixtures, home & away against the best team in the country.  

which if we extrapolated that win rate would give us 61 (60.8) points over the course of a PL season.

He's taking us to Europe, mind ?

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I would take promotion in a heartbeat. Like others have said it's a great chance to get the club where it needs to be and sustainable in the future with prudent management.

I was lucky enough to see us in the old first division and believe me it was absolutely brilliant. I know there would be the inevitable beatings but what IF we competed and stayed there,what a lift for the club and the city in general and no longer referred to as a footballing backwater.

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I always knew we would be top half. And was confident of top 6.

I still think we'll sneak into 6th.

Do i think we'll get promoted? probably not. But we can beat anyone on our day, so if we make the play-offs, we've got nothing to lose.

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2 minutes ago, Riaz said:

I always knew we would be top half. And was confident of top 6.

I still think we'll sneak into 6th.

Do i think we'll get promoted? probably not. But we can beat anyone on our day, so if we make the play-offs, we've got nothing to lose.

Well, technically we have.

Two play off games for starters.

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The timing of winning promotion to the Premier League is a lot like the conundrum for newly married/partnered couples to decide when they can afford to have children.

The answer is very simple. It is never a good time and you'll never have enough money to do everything you want to!

So promotion, with maybe three or four signings that do not wreck the team spirit yet give us better quality in all positions, is the best way to go. If relegation follows, then we are not a basket case but one ready to go again.

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Promoted Championship clubs via the pray off final very often struggle to survive in the PL and if City get up via that route we would undoubtedly struggle. 

None of our managerial team have any experience of the PL.......very few of our current squad are of PL quality and even with the £120m would the likes of LJ/MA know what kind of players they’d want. Add to that ending the season later than everyone else makes getting in new signings even more difficult.

All That said - Burnley ( who I see as a similar size club to City ) did exactly that. Got relegated, bounced straight back up and now are fairly established as a PL club.

Dyche said that the initial experience of the PL was a huge maturity factor for the club, Dyche and the players and stood them in great stead. 

No reason that couldn’t happen to City.

 

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49 minutes ago, PFree said:

I believe that like many on here, we didn't expect to be anywhere near the top-six at this stage of the season - I was one predicting a relegation scrap being honest.

I would also argue that we aren't quite ready to go up though neither?

Let's say we were able to sneak up, can anybody see us staying there for more than a season? Yes, in some senses it would be good fun and we would all be delighted to get there, but when you are getting turned over heavily every week, would it be that enjoyable? I work in Cardiff and with many CCFC fans and for both seasons they have been up there, it's been pretty sole destroying for them - it's simply a case if they can get adequate results against the 'small clubs' and enough points to 'just survive'. If we were to go up, I have no doubt SL would also spend conservatively, he wants to run the club commercially and rightly so I guess.

My point is that we are absolutely going the right way and providing we build further each season, the Premiership will come. We are 'big enough' to complete but need to get there in a position of strength and where we can hopefully sustain our time there (Like a Burnley, Bournemouth or Watford of this world). We are up against bigger sides at the top at the moment, many of whom have better squads and resources, and who are better equipped - let's be honest that we are punching above our weight and over-performing.

I have never been an LJ fan, and being honest, kept my eye out in the press last season hoping that he had gone - but, I have to say that the progress being made is highly positive and my opinion has undoubtedly changed. 

Here's hoping the progress continues but should we miss out on the play-offs, lets recognise what has been achieved..

No club getting promoted to the PL is 'ready' unless they were relegated in the previous season or two and have retained some players from their time in the PL and spent the PP money wisely. You could argue though in those circumstances that they were relegated so were they players they may have retained, good enough in any case?

Of course we wont be 'ready' IF we go up this season and I would wager that we wont be ready next season or the next or the next!

You have to take your chance when it comes along as there are no guarantees about when you might get it again. Should we go up I don't believe we should do a Fulham or anything remotely like it yes, we should spend some  of our new found wealth but be realistic and realise we will probably come straight back down again. BUT with a load of cash that means we can compete and try again.

It may take two, maybe three attempts to get established but it can be done, the secret is to be very wise with the cash windfall and for the supporters to have patience.

BTW - I agree, I did not think we had a cat in hells chance of being in the top 6 in April and the players and coaches deserve immense credit for what they have achieved.

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Do I think we will be promoted this season?   No, I still think we will just miss out on the top 6.

Honesty for me is expecting the club to mount a serious top 2 challenge next season.  I feel we have done our period of consolidating and even building, now is the time to tell everybody at the club, that top 2 should be the aim.

If you want to achieve it, you have to aim for it relentlessly from the first whistle.  This is what we should recruit and develop for in the summer.

The clubs being relegated don't by any stretch of the imagination look like clubs that will threaten at the top 2 immediately.

NEXT SEASON COULD BE HUGE FOR CITY!

 

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37 minutes ago, devoncider said:

which if we extrapolated that win rate would give us 61 (60.8) points over the course of a PL season.

He's taking us to Europe, mind ?

People laughed when he said that but once we get promoted this season and finish top 6 in the PL next I think he will be a year ahead of schedule..........

I think top 4 will be a push next season so I can't see us in the Champions League until the 21/22 season myself.........

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4 minutes ago, MigratedRobin said:

If we go up that would be amazing. If we don't then at least we look like proper contenders in this division, which should hopefully put us on the radar for better players in the summer to strengthen the squad. It seems like a win/win to me.

True and it’s only been four years since we came up from the third division, with the stadium rebuild and all so it’s been a fantastic season however it ends up .

Progress is the word . 

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1 hour ago, Steve Watts said:

If we go up, I would happily take not going crazy in the transfer market and suffering relegation as it would put us in a much stronger position in terms of building a team that can compete in the Prem.  Don't underestimate the power of the parachute payments when you have someone running the show who made his money in Financial Management.

So yes....I would happily accept promotion this year.

I would hope we would give it a good go at staying up like Cardiff have. Huddersfield have been pathetic and just accepted relegation from the start of the season, I wouldnt want us to be like them.

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9 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

No reason in the world we can't do that whether we are 'ready' at the moment or not.

Im not sure how much more “ready” anyone thinks we will ever be..?!

Stadium is sorted, crowds are good, team is good, infrastructure is good. 

The only way we can really progress any further is by getting there and taking our slice of the Premier league money. 

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1 hour ago, PFree said:

I believe that like many on here, we didn't expect to be anywhere near the top-six at this stage of the season - I was one predicting a relegation scrap being honest.

I would also argue that we aren't quite ready to go up though neither?

Let's say we were able to sneak up, can anybody see us staying there for more than a season? Yes, in some senses it would be good fun and we would all be delighted to get there, but when you are getting turned over heavily every week, would it be that enjoyable? I work in Cardiff and with many CCFC fans and for both seasons they have been up there, it's been pretty sole destroying for them - it's simply a case if they can get adequate results against the 'small clubs' and enough points to 'just survive'. If we were to go up, I have no doubt SL would also spend conservatively, he wants to run the club commercially and rightly so I guess.

My point is that we are absolutely going the right way and providing we build further each season, the Premiership will come. We are 'big enough' to complete but need to get there in a position of strength and where we can hopefully sustain our time there (Like a Burnley, Bournemouth or Watford of this world). We are up against bigger sides at the top at the moment, many of whom have better squads and resources, and who are better equipped - let's be honest that we are punching above our weight and over-performing.

I have never been an LJ fan, and being honest, kept my eye out in the press last season hoping that he had gone - but, I have to say that the progress being made is highly positive and my opinion has undoubtedly changed. 

Here's hoping the progress continues but should we miss out on the play-offs, lets recognise what has been achieved..

Lets be realistic, no team really is ever ready for the premier league, Fulham spent 100 million and look where they are now, if we have that attitude that were not ready we may as well stay were we are, let's get there then worry about it.

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Firstly, I think the fact that we are competing at the top end of the Championship speaks volumes for how much progress the club has made over the last few seasons. I don’t think we’ll get promoted this season (I think we’ll get beaten in the play-offs) but it seems like expectations have been raised and we now see ourselves as a club with realistic aspirations for promotion rather than just being happy to be an established Championship club. 

If we get promoted to the Premier League, like others have said on this thread I expect we’d be relegated after one season, but the hope is that we could build from there after benefitting from the experience, raised profile and extra cash. I assume we’d also be more attractive to potential signings. 

On a side note, part of me is wary of being in the Premier League and I suspect the journey to get there might be better than the reality of being there. Having said that, we have to have ambitions to compete at the highest level and the club seems to be in the healthiest state I’ve seen it since I started attending games as a child in 1981.

 

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2 hours ago, PFree said:

I believe that like many on here, we didn't expect to be anywhere near the top-six at this stage of the season - I was one predicting a relegation scrap being honest.

I would also argue that we aren't quite ready to go up though neither?

Let's say we were able to sneak up, can anybody see us staying there for more than a season? Yes, in some senses it would be good fun and we would all be delighted to get there, but when you are getting turned over heavily every week, would it be that enjoyable? I work in Cardiff and with many CCFC fans and for both seasons they have been up there, it's been pretty sole destroying for them - it's simply a case if they can get adequate results against the 'small clubs' and enough points to 'just survive'. If we were to go up, I have no doubt SL would also spend conservatively, he wants to run the club commercially and rightly so I guess.

My point is that we are absolutely going the right way and providing we build further each season, the Premiership will come. We are 'big enough' to complete but need to get there in a position of strength and where we can hopefully sustain our time there (Like a Burnley, Bournemouth or Watford of this world). We are up against bigger sides at the top at the moment, many of whom have better squads and resources, and who are better equipped - let's be honest that we are punching above our weight and over-performing.

I have never been an LJ fan, and being honest, kept my eye out in the press last season hoping that he had gone - but, I have to say that the progress being made is highly positive and my opinion has undoubtedly changed. 

Here's hoping the progress continues but should we miss out on the play-offs, lets recognise what has been achieved..

Did they walk to away games?

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