[Archived] The nPower Championship 12/13

[Gally]

6th is still fairly doable, but will require us to be one of the real form teams from now til May.

Also makes you think, as disappointing as we've been this season, if we had managed to defend a few more leads for the last 5 minutes or so we would be right in the mix.

[Parsonblue]

Based on the last 10 years final standings in the championship - the max needed should be 75 points to get into the play-offs.

So basically 35 from 51pts available

The only problem with that is that there are an awful lot of teams between us and sixth place who need fewer than 35 points to reach the 75 points mark.

[thenodrog]

6th is still fairly doable, but will require us to be one of the real form team from now til May.

[longsiders1882]

One team tends to do it every year but it is looking tough at the moment. That said a lot of the teams up there will still have to play each other so anything is possible. We've just dropped 5 points we should have picked up so I think our slim chance has gone.

[Plastics]

It's going to take something special for it to be us, given the rest of our fixtures this month.

Where do you think you will finish Longsiders? And where do you think Blackburn will finish?

[OJRovers]

Its so hard to say how Rovers are going to finish this season. We're due a good run and the squad seem to be positive now Appleton has come in. I don't think it is too big a gap, but we're going to have to perform every game from now til the end of the season and make sure we win the '6 pointers' against the teams above us.

[longsiders1882]

Never easy to call but I would expect us to finish around 10th, always barring an amazing run of course.

Yourselves? No idea, I'm not entirely convinced by Appleton or indeed that your ship is 'steady'. What I would say is anybody from yourselves up could make top 6 IF they can go on a very good run, basically as said above, be THE form team between now and the end of the season.

[Plastics]

Thanks for the input.

[roversR4ever]

Its not impossible to get into one of the play off positions, win the game in hand and we go above 3 teams. Boro arent in great shape at the moment either. We will certainly have a better idea after our next two games. We at least are starting to look much better defensively and better organised, and lets face it Rhodes and CKR are quite capable of nicking a goal. I just cant believe how up and down results are for a lot of teams in this league. Just look at recent results for our next opponents Ipswich, lost to Bristol draw against Barnsley yet beat Boro and draw against Cardiff.

[Plastics]

Its not impossible to get into one of the play off positions, win the game in hand and we go above 3 teams. Boro arent in great shape at the moment either. We will certainly have a better idea after our next two games. We at least are starting to look much better defensively and better organised, and lets face it Rhodes and CKR are quite capable of nicking a goal. I just cant believe how up and down results are for a lot of teams in this league. Just look at recent results for our next opponents Ipswich, lost to Bristol draw against Barnsley yet beat Boro and draw against Cardiff.

This is why we may sometimes need for our fans to look at the bigger picture and the underlying trends in this division to see that even what appear to be the most routine of fixtures can become anything but. It becomes important not to write off your chances after a bad result against a lowly team and conversely not to build your hopes up too much after any fantastic results against those high above. It's going to be a long few months.

Naturally that doesn't mean some disappointment won't seep through due to the fact we should have had a better season thus far had we been better run, but still, it's important to now concentrate on making progress in this league and supporting the team along the way, something we have improved in since Appleton arrived.

[GanG2245]

35 points from 17 matches.

=

10 wins , 5 draws and 2 losses.

OR

11 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses.

----------------------------------------

Very difficult IMO..

[thenodrog]

I just cant believe how up and down results are for a lot of teams in this league. Just look at recent results for our next opponents Ipswich, lost to Bristol draw against Barnsley yet beat Boro and draw against Cardiff.

A point I've made many times. The Championship is a far more intriguing competition than the Premier league procession. Lots of dog eat dog results. A couple of seasons ago at Easter the only team that knew they would be in the Championship the year after were QPR. Every other team could still mathematically be either promoted or relegated! The mandarins who run the Premier league should take note.

[riverside returns]

A point I've made many times. The Championship is a far more intriguing competition than the Premier league procession. Lots of dog eat dog results. A couple of seasons ago at Easter the only team that knew they would be in the Championship the year after were QPR. Every other team could still mathematically be either promoted or relegated! The mandarins who run the Premier league should take note.

Agreed but that would require them to admit that the set up is wholly inequitable and designed to further the claims of the top 6. What would make it more realistic would be to ensure each team had the same money each year and therefore it was down to the abilities of the coaches and management to build a competitive team.

[philipl]

On paper, too far away with too weak a squad.

Somebody will drive a tank through that awful central midfield of our's and it could be a club nobody to fancies to do it to us.

Ipswich is a big test for our lingering dreams.

[Mike E]

On paper, too far away with too weak a squad.

Somebody will drive a tank through that awful central midfield of our's and it could be a club nobody to fancies to do it to us.

Ipswich is a big test for our lingering dreams.

The same paper that said we'd walk this league at the start of the season

[Plastics]

A point I've made many times. The Championship is a far more intriguing competition than the Premier league procession. Lots of dog eat dog results. A couple of seasons ago at Easter the only team that knew they would be in the Championship the year after were QPR. Every other team could still mathematically be either promoted or relegated! The mandarins who run the Premier league should take note.

A lot of it is mainly down to the amount of tripe in this league though. And some awful pitches and referees. Makes things a lot more random.

That and less money inequality of course.

[philipl]

With the players coming in and if Williamson is the beast he is reputed to be and if Rhodes plays every game, we have a chance of winning the 12 out of 17 probably needed to nail a play off place.

[Kelbo]

I think McCarthy and Allardyce have proved, that if you have a gameplan and are organised, you can compete anywhere, especially in the Championship.

Like Majiball, I am an advocate of total football, love watching Barca and Arsenal for those reasons, unfortunately, we havent got the midfield personell to play that way so we have to play with what we have, be organised, focused and be as fit as we can, given that we didnt do a proper pre season!!

[rovers11]

I think we are seeing something I thought I'd never see - another club having worse owners than we do. Mcleish leaves Forest after 6 weeks. They scapped a deal for George Boyd on deadline day and signed two Kuwaiti players instead. There's only one man who would work under those circumstances; STEVE KEAN.

[Aberdeen Blue]

Obviously did not see eye to eye with the Board over the Boyd signing........... I’ll get my coat.

[alexanders]

What are the odds on us going up?

[Neil Weaver]

What are the odds on us going up?

Realistically, nil.

But if you're a hopeless optimist, 16/1 at Paddy Power.

[Daniel Louis Grabko (Dan)]

Agreed but that would require them to admit that the set up is wholly inequitable and designed to further the claims of the top 6. What would make it more realistic would be to ensure each team had the same money each year and therefore it was down to the abilities of the coaches and management to build a competitive team.

This is probably the wrong thread to get into this in, but -

I personally think that the only way to achieve this is the player salary cap. Giving all teams equal money every year would negate performance incentives for finishing higher in the league, or managing a long cup run to a final or advancing as far as possible in the European competitions.

There should be a salary cap and a mandatory reinvestment of a percentage of annual profits in internal infrastructure (i.e. paying off debt, upgrading facilities, etc) and/or youth development.

This way, it becomes an art putting together and refining a balanced and successful playing squad within the salary cap, and all clubs would be equal in respect to attracting players via wage levels. Players would still be millionaires and clubs would suddenly become more than sustainable overnight. All clubs should post profits (before player trading) under a salary cap.

Turnover franchising is the other big thing that should be adopted. Since all clubs in a particular competition, (i.e. the Premier League) not only benefit from, but also contribute to, the value of the branding of that competition, the idea that every club in said competition should benefit from the sales of competition branded and associated merchandise is not strange at all. Clubs should get 100% of the profits from their own defined catchment areas, but profits from sales outside of those areas, and all international sales should be shared in some form with the member clubs of that competition.

The biggest clubs would still earn more money, but they wouldn't be allowed to use it to pay wages that most clubs can't afford to offer. These two things would do far more to fix the financial problems clubs have than the FFP rules in their current form.

The only problem is, of course, it is a pipe dream in the current climate. This would have to be an initiative pushed through by FIFA and fully backed by all the regional member federations, UEFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF, AFC, and OFC. Not really realistic at the moment...

[Plastics]

Realistically, nil.

But if you're a hopeless optimist, 16/1 at Paddy Power.

Realistically it is impossible for us to gain promotion?

Sounds like your a hopeless pessimist. Unlikely I will give you, but impossible I will not.

[Neil Weaver]

Realistically it is impossible for us to gain promotion?

Sounds like your a hopeless pessimist. Unlikely I will give you, but impossible I will not.

Yes, IMO it is realistically impossible. Mr Power will gladly take your money though.

Get back to me in May and if I was wrong I'll gladly apologise if that view was mistaken.