Do you want us to get promoted this season?

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YF Dan
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Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by YF Dan »

Interesting this from our friend oxblogger, and tbf not an isolated view:

It’s debatable as to whether a charge for the play-offs is truly desirable. With games in hand, the play-offs are in our hands, but it’s questionable just how ready we are as a club to play Championship football. Any run-in involving the play-offs – whether it ends in success or failure – will be hugely intense. It will mean the club will have played something like 120 games – including many many big ones - in two years. Great for the fans, exhausting for people like Liam Sercombe and John Lundstram and maybe even Michael Appleton. If we did manage to get promoted, we will suddenly be presented with a whole new world to deal with, are we really ready?
My instinct is, never halt momentum. I often wonder what would have happened had Chris Wilder not dismantled the team that took us up from the Conference. Of the players he felt weren't up to it, many went on to forge better careers than those whom replaced them. I think of Matty Green, Jack Midson, Danny Bulman... there were probably others but the memory fades. I think Mark Chreighton too would have done well for a season or two. What Wilder did was rip the heart from that team, and it lost the confidence and heart that could have kept us moving upwards. When he pens his biography, maybe CW will reflect on that and let us know his thinking.

This season, I think not going for it would be a huge mistake. Next season, we may have to have a clearout voluntarily or involuntarily. It could be we need to sell to balance the books, or it could be someone comes in and makes offers we can't refuse. This includes for our manager. At the moment, we're charging. We're full of confidence and we have a great team and squad. We may never get an opportunity, or team, like this again.

Yes, we face massive challenges if we do go up. But we probably do if we stay where we are. And if I was a player, I wouldn't want to be at a club that had a chance for promotion and decided it didn't want it.
Werthers Original
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Werthers Original »

I guess I share his reservations- I'm worried that if we go up we'll lose our manager and best players and could plummet again. But you're right, you have to go for these chances, look at Burton and even Bournemouth
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

YF Dan wrote:When he pens his biography, maybe CW will reflect on that
If Wilder ever writes an autobiography, I think it's more likely he'd use a crayon than a pen.
theox
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by theox »

I don't think that the players and manager would (or even could) actively choose not to go for it. They are professionals and want to win every game. We, as supporters, want them to win every game as well.

Of course, the question really is whether ultimately promotion this season would be a good thing. The money for a competitive Championship squad would need to come from somewhere. Eales has already made noises that he does not want to keep putting his own money in and we know the stadium situation limits other income streams. We are already overspending at League 1 level.

The lower leagues are littered with former 'big time' clubs who overspent for their moment in the sunshine (OUFC are one of them to a degree) so the potential problems of a sport overshadowed by money are plain to see.

Realistically, it would be better if we had a real and workable plan for sustainability before progressing further. Hopefully, Eales, Oxvox and all other parties who have a relevant say are working on this as I type!
ty cobb
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by ty cobb »

But we do have a plan don't we - pick up players from the Premier league academies, showcase their talent, develop them and then sell at a profit. Ledson I would argue is worth at least £2m.

Throw in a couple of decent players on loan with a excellent scouting network bringing in the likes of Dunks we won't be a million miles off. We will get more money from being in the Championship as well which will help with wages. I don't think we should be aiming to compete with the likes of Newcastle but a settled team and good manager can take you a long way. I would much rather a season in the Championship battling relegation than one hanging around mid table in league 1.

I also think many of our players could hold their own in the Championship, as demonstrated by the performances against Rotherham Newcastle and M'boro.
slappy
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by slappy »

I've linked to this blog before on "the other site". http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2017/ ... oment.html

If you've got a spare hour, it is very informative as to how the Championship is skewed into clubs with Premier League parachute payments, clubs with rich owners who can subsidise losses, etc.

It is very arguable as to whether the club (ie. Eales) could afford the increased player wage bill, even taking into account higher tv money / solidarity payments and higher match-day attendances, when we would have one of the smallest grounds in the league, and with the stadium situation leaving us unable to maximise ancillary revenues on match-days and otherwise.

As Evans (Ipswich owner) says "“In summary, a focus on the Academy; a competitive wage structure; careful use of our transfer budget on developing players and a stable management team are factors which I believe provide us with the best chance of promotion out of the Championship, which is one of the toughest - and getting even tougher - leagues in the world.”

For us, I think we would replace 'promotion out of the Championship' with 'staying in the Championship'.
Isaac
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Isaac »

Yes, never halt momentum. I can see the points, but there's no reason that Eales has to bankrupt the club if we get to the championship - there are some basket case clubs every season in the Championship, a sensibly run club might be able to outperform those. Burton are currently just about holding their own so it is possible. There's nothing to say that we'll be as close next season as we are this season, take the chance and go for it.

Appleton has pretty much done a Wilder and dismantled last years promotion winning side, only Skarz (and he's not a regular), Lundstrom, Sercombe and Maguire remain. To do that and re-gain the momentum is impressive.
ty cobb
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by ty cobb »

Isaac wrote:Yes, never halt momentum. I can see the points, but there's no reason that Eales has to bankrupt the club if we get to the championship - there are some basket case clubs every season in the Championship, a sensibly run club might be able to outperform those. Burton are currently just about holding their own so it is possible. There's nothing to say that we'll be as close next season as we are this season, take the chance and go for it.

Appleton has pretty much done a Wilder and dismantled last years promotion winning side, only Skarz (and he's not a regular), Lundstrom, Sercombe and Maguire remain. To do that and re-gain the momentum is impressive.
Don't forget Dunks!
Radley Rambler
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Radley Rambler »

I asked Darryl a couple of weeks ago what his aspirations would be if we made it into the Championship. I expected him to say 'hold our own etc.' but he replied immediately with 'get into the Premiership' so I think we know where he stands.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Kernow Yellow »

theox wrote:I don't think that the players and manager would (or even could) actively choose not to go for it. They are professionals and want to win every game. We, as supporters, want them to win every game as well.

Of course, the question really is whether ultimately promotion this season would be a good thing. The money for a competitive Championship squad would need to come from somewhere. Eales has already made noises that he does not want to keep putting his own money in and we know the stadium situation limits other income streams. We are already overspending at League 1 level.

The lower leagues are littered with former 'big time' clubs who overspent for their moment in the sunshine (OUFC are one of them to a degree) so the potential problems of a sport overshadowed by money are plain to see.

Realistically, it would be better if we had a real and workable plan for sustainability before progressing further. Hopefully, Eales, Oxvox and all other parties who have a relevant say are working on this as I type!
I agree with all of this, and especially the highlighted bit. How do you actively try not to get promoted without effectively throwing games? And why would ambitious players with short careers (or an equally ambitious manager) do so anyway? I can't see it.

Also there's no time like the present. Anything could happen in the next 12 months, and there's absolutely no guarantee we'd be challenging at the right end of the table again. I don't see why we'd be in more danger of losing our manager with another promotion - he'd be more likely to be tempted away if we don't go up, and if there's no movement on the stadium situation we could find ourselves in eg Sw*ndon's position in no time. I don't think we'd be saying then 'it's a good thing we didn't get promoted last year'! We probably weren't 'ready' as a club for top flight football in 1985, but that didn't stop us having three seasons there.

Having said that, it's so nice to be in the situation where promotion is just a lovely possibility at the end of an already enjoyable season (rather than the last 15 or so years when it was desperately needed to try and rescue OUFC from the abyss). These are enjoyable times thanks to Eales and Appleton. Long may they last.
Mooro
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by Mooro »

Personally, my instinct is that promotion this season could be a step too far, or perhaps more accurately, too soon.

There are better sides in this league than us, and probably at least six of them, so to get into the playoffs and/or get promoted would be a smash and grab job and could leave us horribly exposed and underprepared for a season in the Championship.

Above all else, our priority for this season was to avoid relegation, anything else would be a bonus while we established ourselves at this level before kicking on.

Therefore, I would actually take the reasonably high-profile FA cup run, plus the CheckaTrade win (final), and a solid top ten finish that we are on track for this season, over going out of all the cups early on and maybe/maybe not scraping into the playoffs and in all likelihood going out in the semis.

Next season however, I would be looking at the playoffs as the priority with a lower profile given to the cups (and using the trophy to blood more kids than in recent years)
SmileyMan
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by SmileyMan »

It's a pretty poor philosophy though....don't try too hard to succeed, in case the expectations are hard to live up to.

Be the best you can be, ever and always. Anything else is a life half lived.
theox
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Re: Do you want us to get promoted this season?

Post by theox »

Sounds like Mapp has given up on the play-offs or maybe it's just mind games! You can never be sure with football managers...

http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/sport/ox ... f_Wembley/
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