[Archived] Relegation Fear

[Presty On Tour]

With 5 straight defeats, we're 19th in the premiership.

If wba and spuds win tomorrow, we will be 5 points adrift from safety which might as well be 6 with our inferior goal difference.

This season is a nightmare and before anyone starts, this is not another anti-ince thread. We are in serious trouble and if it hasn't hit home yet, it should do now. There is along way to go admittedly but if we go down to the championship, it really could be curtains.

Look at Leeds, Forest, Southampton, Wednesday and Coventry City. These where established top flight clubs and for whatever reason they were relegated and some even had back to back relegation's. Once you start sliding it's very difficult to stop and even harder to climb back up.

We would lose all of our top players, fans will disappear and even though we are a well run club the money will dry up for not being in the premiership.

We went down before, with the credit crunch and finances in football it will be 100x more difficult with the gulf and the cut throat league the championship is.

The next few games for us will make or break our season whoever is in charge, they are winnable games but if we fail and are bottom at xmas then we know what the outcome usually is.

It's do or die, keep the faith.

[insiderover79]

With 5 straight defeats, we're 19th in the premiership.

If wba and spuds win tomorrow, we will be 5 points adrift from safety which might as well be 6 with our inferior goal difference.

This season is a nightmare and before anyone starts, this is not another anti-ince thread. We are in serious trouble and if it hasn't hit home yet, it should do now. There is along way to go admittedly but if we go down to the championship, it really could be curtains.

Look at Leeds, Forest, Southampton, Wednesday and Coventry City. These where established top flight clubs and for whatever reason they were relegated and some even had back to back relegation's. Once you start sliding it's very difficult to stop and even harder to climb back up.

We would lose all of our top players, fans will disappear and even though we are a well run club the money will dry up for not being in the premiership.

We went down before, with the credit crunch and finances in football it will be 100x more difficult with the gulf and the cut throat league the championship is.

The next few games for us will make or break our season whoever is in charge, they are winnable games but if we fail and are bottom at xmas then we know what the outcome usually is.

It's do or die, keep the faith.

Couldnt agree more and this really is a scary time for all rovers fans. We are now standing on the edge of a dangerous cliff

[American]

I've said it before, I wouldn't be surprised if the trustees view us in the Championship as self-sufficient, so don't mind us going down while they get the balance sheet back to even by selling off our best players and not replacing them.

[FourLaneBlue]

With Hull and Stoke continuing to pick up points there is a good chance that at least one other established Premiership side will go down as well. This would make it all the more difficult to get back up.

If we did not bounce back at the first attempt with the board supporting us then I would expect a lengthy stay outside the top flight.

We have to stay up this season.

[John]

I just find this sad, the club we love is getting ruined by a novice......

[scotchrover]

We have to stay up this season.

Dam right we do.

Its in the interests of all parties.

Paul Ince so it doesn't cock up his managerial career.

The board so they can sell the club

The town so it doesn't effect the local economy.

Players like Robinson who need to get an England call up because that won't happen if he's in the CHAMPIONSHIP-AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The fans so they can be in prem next season against teams like Burnley(yes its going to happen)

[FourLaneBlue]

The club has never really recovered from the last relegation.

The season before our relegation I think we were in the top 3 as late as February. Then in our relegation season we were the BIGGEST spenders in the country*. The relegation cost the club so much that we were never really able to compete again. It would have been fascinating to see just what the Trustees would have invested in the club should that have been the case. Despite 5 top-ten finishes since coming back up we have never challenged the top 4 either on the pitch or financially in terms of transfers since 1999. Whatever we did have was frittered away on Grabbi and Cole who cost a fortune between them and left for nothing.

We would likewise probably never fully recover from relegation. A yo-yo team between the top two divisions would likely be our best hope.

It must be the only time the biggest spenders in the country have ever been relegated? We are up there with West Ham in 2003 as being the clubs that should never have gone down since the start of the premiership.

[Tom]

Out of interest if the worst happens which first team players would stay? Many would leave for sure.

from the current squad our team could look like:

Brown

Simpson samba nelsen olson

gallagher andrews dunn treacey

derbyshire roberts

Scary times lets just hope we sort it out.

[BRFC1995]

----------------------------Bunn-------------------------------

Trainee-----------Khizinishvilli---Trainee----------Olsson

Dunn------------Tugay---------Grella-------------Treacy

-------------Derbyshire--------Roberts-------------------

DEFENCE

We'd get money and buyers for Nelsen and Samba, Ooijer would be back in Holland, Simpson would'nt be bought anyway. Warnock is a certainty to be gone,

and we can only pray that someone would take robinson off the wages.

MIDFIELD

Emerton and Pedersen would find buyers, Reids contract will never be renewed if it ain'nt pay as you play, Not sure on Mokos contract but hopefully a fresh start begins without him, Grellas on a long contract and his injury proneness will put off any possible buyer, We'd have to pray that a miracle happens and dunn stops being injury prone, Tugays a lifer.

ATTACK

Benni and santa would find buyers, we'd never shift roberts.

[Mr. E]

Well when the other clubs drive us out of business, that's what happens.

The premiership is not a place for football clubs but for franchises.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Doncaster at home on a wet and freezing December night while Burnley entertain Utd at home.

[Stuart]

If we did not bounce back at the first attempt with the board supporting us then I would expect a lengthy stay outside the top flight.

We will find out in January if the board a prepared to support us. Bad as it is it'll be easier to stay up this season than get promoted next season. If the board/trustees won't spend to keep us in this division they damn sure won't spend to get us back here.

[1864roverite]

The reality of relegation ?

No more Premiership football.

Aclub that will fall into the abyss and fall furthr down the leagues.

2nd Div football faster than the likes of Leeds United

a club never to recover

O B L I V I O N to the lower echelons of football, a mirror image of Colne Dynamoes - continued success then disappearance

[joey_big_nose]

The reality of relegation ?

No more Premiership football.

Aclub that will fall into the abyss and fall furthr down the leagues.

2nd Div football faster than the likes of Leeds United

a club never to recover

O B L I V I O N to the lower echelons of football, a mirror image of Colne Dynamoes - continued success then disappearance

you're a fun fella!

[vintageadidas]

Blackburn Rovers is the only reason i stayed in this ###### hole. I am out of here if we go down!

[Brownie]

Blackburn Rovers is the only reason i stayed in this ###### hole. I am out of here if we go down!

And of course the saturday nights in The Hordens ?!

[den]

What will happen?

One things for certain, some of those who are vehemently pro Ince wont go to another rovers game. Nor will some of those that are anti Ince.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Back to the original question, one of six things will happen: We'll either come back up stronger after a through cleansing ('Boro); we'll come back up as a bottom 1/3rd Prem team, always in danger of the drop (B'ham, Baggies, S'land), we'll find a level in the Championship and hope for an eventual good season (Wolves); we'll find a level in the Championship and stay there (Ipswich, Sheff Utd); we'll struggle in the Championship (Watford, Norwich S'oton, Charlton), or we'll drop like a stone (Leeds, Forest, Wednesday)

While the doomsday scenario is a possibility, it is by no means inevitable.

And I posted a couple of years ago that, from my perspective, the worst fate of all is to be in a perpetual 10-17th in the Prem where fans never experience winning a cup, a heart-stopping relegation near miss, the pain of relegation or the ecstasy of promotion. Where's the bloody point of that? They are the only seasons I can remember anyway.

[thenodrog]

Relegation? Hmmm

1. Well for one we would find ourselves in a much more interesting Division. A purer division where there is a much better possibility of success rather than the boring procession that the Premier has become with the only emotion available for all supporters of all but 4 teams being relegation fears .

2. Unfortunately the football would be like food without salt.

3. Biggest fear is would we even manage to stay in the Championship next time?

[vintageadidas]

Of course Brownie. Haha!

[G Somerset Rover]

At least Jason Roberts will be reunited with his true level and Keith Andrews can have a crack at being "a top Champoionship player".

[frosty]

It would be a disaster! We'd end up signing people like Nigel Quashie.

[mattyboy6000]

we'd find our natural level. which is probably mid-table championship. I doubt we'd ever be better than a boing boing team.

[thenodrog]

we'd find our natural level. which is probably mid-table championship. I doubt we'd ever be better than a boing boing team.

Our natural position pre JW WAS a boing boing team......... but between the 2nd and 3rd Divs!

[Fylde Coast Fan]

We wouldn't even pull big enough crowds in the Championship to be as "big" as Southampton or Coventry. Relegation turns us into PNE.