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.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?
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.