Championship 21/22

[davulsukur]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Reading agree SIX point deduction in the Championship with the EFL... and could be hit with a further six points if the Royals breach spending rules again

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10212587/Reading-agree-SIX-point-Championship-deduction-EFL.html

Is this why we sold our training ground, to avoid a points deduction?

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Is this why we sold our training ground, to avoid a points deduction?

Yes

Read this article 

 

[JHRover]

So the extent of Reading's punishment for exceeding permitted losses by almost £20 million is a 6 point deduction.

Better than nothing but not exactly a game changing sanction is it? With their squad they will likely have more than enough to survive and can go again with a clean slate. 

Not sure it is worth selling the training ground for or cutting costs back and risking Championship status over, or allowing all our best players to leave for nothing because we supposedly can't offer them better terms. Think I'd sooner ensure we had a good quality squad of contracted players and take the 6 points myself.

[JacknOry]

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Yes

Read this article 

 

Thats a thread, not an article.

[JacknOry]

5 minutes ago, JHRover said:

So the extent of Reading's punishment for exceeding permitted losses by almost £20 million is a 6 point deduction.

Better than nothing but not exactly a game changing sanction is it? With their squad they will likely have more than enough to survive and can go again with a clean slate. 

Not sure it is worth selling the training ground for or cutting costs back and risking Championship status over, or allowing all our best players to leave for nothing because we supposedly can't offer them better terms. Think I'd sooner ensure we had a good quality squad of contracted players and take the 6 points myself.

They just loaned in Andy Carroll yesterday.

[RoverinYorkshire]

On 17/11/2021 at 18:10, JHRover said:

So the extent of Reading's punishment for exceeding permitted losses by almost £20 million is a 6 point deduction.

Better than nothing but not exactly a game changing sanction is it? With their squad they will likely have more than enough to survive and can go again with a clean slate. 

Not sure it is worth selling the training ground for or cutting costs back and risking Championship status over, or allowing all our best players to leave for nothing because we supposedly can't offer them better terms. Think I'd sooner ensure we had a good quality squad of contracted players and take the 6 points myself.

To be fair, they were put under an embargo which pretty much relegated us when we had one. But ours was clear cut and seemed like we were singled out a bit. Readings is some sort of embargo light but still probably best to avoid...

[chaddyrovers]

Neil Critchley signed a new contract until Summer 2026 with Blackpool 

https://www.blackpoolfc.co.uk/news/post/neil-critchley-signs-new-long-term-contract

[booth]

FFP is a huge stupid pile of dog shit.

[USABlue]

17 hours ago, booth said:

FFP is a huge stupid pile of dog shit.

Another way to keep the little clubs little and the big clubs big.

[superniko]

Looking at our remaining fixtures this calendar year, I'd be extremely disappointed if we're not sat in the Top 6 on New Years Day:

Peterborough (H) - 22nd in the league

Stoke (A) - 4th in the league

Preston (H) - 16th in the league

Bournemouth (A) - 2nd in the league

Birmingham (H) - 15th in the league

Hull (A) - 21st in the league

Barnsley (H) - 23rd in the league

7 games left before New Year and we play 3 of the bottom 4 (3 worst teams in the division excluding Derbys point deduction) and only 2 teams ahead of us. We will be favourites in 5 of those 7 matches and need to show it.

A minimum of 13 points hopefully, and that should set the 2nd half of the season up nicely!

 

However, I do recall a similar feeling last Xmas though when we only got 1 point from Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Birmingham (all below us), and worse still, the Christmas before, we were 1 point outside the playoffs and had the ticket offer on the Wigan game, Dack picked up his injury and we subsequently picked up 2 points from Wigan (H), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (A) and Forest (A) and in the space of 8 days we went from 8th to 13th in the league.....so I'm not holding on to too much hope!

Edited November 23, 2021 by superniko

[Ghost7]

1 minute ago, superniko said:

Looking at our remaining fixtures this calendar year, I'd be extremely disappointed if we're not sat in the Top 6 on New Years Day:

Peterborough (H) - 22nd in the league

Stoke (A) - 4th in the league

Preston (H) - 16th in the league

Bournemouth (A) - 2nd in the league

Birmingham (H) - 15th in the league

Hull (A) - 21st in the league

Barnsley (H) - 23rd in the league

7 games left before New Year and we play 3 of the bottom 4 (2 at home) and only 2 teams ahead of us. We will be favourites in 5 of those 7 matches and need to show it.

A minimum of 13 points hopefully, and that should set the 2nd half of the season up nicely!

 

However, I do recall a similar feeling last Xmas though when we only got 1 point from Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Birmingham (all below us), and worse still, the Christmas before, we were 1 point outside the playoffs and had the ticket offer on the Wigan game, Dack picked up his injury and we subsequently picked up 2 points from Wigan (H), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (A) and Forest (A) and in the space of 8 days we went from 8th to 13th in the league.

 

Was that all under the same manager? He doesn't sound up to it.

[Admiral Nelsen]

1 hour ago, superniko said:

Looking at our remaining fixtures this calendar year, I'd be extremely disappointed if we're not sat in the Top 6 on New Years Day:

Peterborough (H) - 22nd in the league

Stoke (A) - 4th in the league

Preston (H) - 16th in the league

Bournemouth (A) - 2nd in the league

Birmingham (H) - 15th in the league

Hull (A) - 21st in the league

Barnsley (H) - 23rd in the league

7 games left before New Year and we play 3 of the bottom 4 (3 worst teams in the division excluding Derbys point deduction) and only 2 teams ahead of us. We will be favourites in 5 of those 7 matches and need to show it.

A minimum of 13 points hopefully, and that should set the 2nd half of the season up nicely!

 

However, I do recall a similar feeling last Xmas though when we only got 1 point from Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Birmingham (all below us), and worse still, the Christmas before, we were 1 point outside the playoffs and had the ticket offer on the Wigan game, Dack picked up his injury and we subsequently picked up 2 points from Wigan (H), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (A) and Forest (A) and in the space of 8 days we went from 8th to 13th in the league.....so I'm not holding on to too much hope!

 

We've been here before, like you say, but we should be looking at those home fixtures (with Hull away included) and really be licking our lips. A real opportunity to plant ourselves in the top six and put some distance between us and the rest of the chasing pack.

 

Whether we will actually manage this however...

[only2garners]

Where we are after the Birmingham game will be instructive as we will then have played everyone once and be half way through the season.

[superniko]

On 23/11/2021 at 12:26, superniko said:

Looking at our remaining fixtures this calendar year, I'd be extremely disappointed if we're not sat in the Top 6 on New Years Day:

Peterborough (H) - 22nd in the league

Stoke (A) - 4th in the league

Preston (H) - 16th in the league

Bournemouth (A) - 2nd in the league

Birmingham (H) - 15th in the league

Hull (A) - 21st in the league

Barnsley (H) - 23rd in the league

7 games left before New Year and we play 3 of the bottom 4 (3 worst teams in the division excluding Derbys point deduction) and only 2 teams ahead of us. We will be favourites in 5 of those 7 matches and need to show it.

A minimum of 13 points hopefully, and that should set the 2nd half of the season up nicely!

 

However, I do recall a similar feeling last Xmas though when we only got 1 point from Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Birmingham (all below us), and worse still, the Christmas before, we were 1 point outside the playoffs and had the ticket offer on the Wigan game, Dack picked up his injury and we subsequently picked up 2 points from Wigan (H), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (A) and Forest (A) and in the space of 8 days we went from 8th to 13th in the league.....so I'm not holding on to too much hope!

Good start anyway….beat Stoke and you’d hope for a great atmosphere at PNE. 

Coventrys next 4 fixtures are all against top 8 teams too so the Top 6 should be ours at the half way point if we do our job.

[chaddyrovers]

Have to say I'm not surprised one bit by this news

[1864roverite]

Looks like they have imploded !

[Bigdoggsteel]

13 hours ago, superniko said:

Good start anyway….beat Stoke and you’d hope for a great atmosphere at PNE. 

Coventrys next 4 fixtures are all against top 8 teams too so the Top 6 should be ours at the half way point if we do our job.

Stoke away is a real barometer of where we are at. Would take a draw tbh , all day long 

[DE.]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Have to say I'm not surprised one bit by this news

Yeah not surprising, They were one of the worst teams we've played this season so far, and are hugely underperforming this season.

[davulsukur]

Modern day foreign ownership in a nutshell.

Why the hell would they do this?

[Hasta]

This is by no means meant to undermine what has been a start to the season far better than what I hope for this year But this league is once again pretty poor.

The top 2 are clearly superior to everyone else, which is showing in the big gap between 2nd and 3rd.  But from QPR in 4th down to Reading in 21st there seems very little difference in quality. Simple organisation, work ethic and team spirit will get you a long way in this league.

Normally you say that even if certain teams sneak into the top 6, the chances are there are better team above them in the play offs, but that doesn't seem to apply this year. 

West Brom could spend some money and turn a corner in January, but if you were in the play offs along with QPR, Coventry and Stoke you wouldn't be fearful.  Big opportunity this year, and I'm talking for all clubs not just Rovers.

 

 

 

[DE.]

48 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Modern day foreign ownership in a nutshell.

Why the hell would they do this?

He stepped in as caretaker when Wilder left, so assume it's more that than Heckingbottom being given the role permanently. Who knows, though. Not to dissimilar to us giving Bowyer the job back in the day.

[DE.]

It's definitely a more even league this year in the sense there are a lot of teams at a very similar level, with the top two breaking away (although Bournemouth are wobbling a little recently) and the bottom six being some way below the general standard of the divison. 

From 4th down there are no outstanding sides, and even WBA are significantly underperforming relative to their budget. Their gamble on Ismael not really paying off yet.

I've said we have a team capable of the top six from early on in the season. That's not saying we're great, it's just an observation that the rest of the division is very, very average. Any side able to maintain consistently and have good luck with injuries has a chance of top six this season.

[roversfan99]

Sheffield United seemingly tossing away any ambition and settling for a stay in the Championship.

Jokanovic is notoriously a slow burner, the same happened at Fulham, I get why they might question his future but to sack him to be replaced by someone with such an underwhelming CV on such a long deal? Crazy.

[JHRover]

All not well behind the scenes at Sheff Utd. Only earlier this week there were reports that their Saudi owner was trying to sell up or bring in more investment.

It was a strange situation when Wilder left. Jokanovic seemed like a solid appointment for a club looking to bounce back but it hasn't really got going. Presumably he was looking for serious backing in January to rebuild their squad and it wasn't forthcoming.

Handing the job to Heckingbottom just sounds like they want a coach in place who will do as he is told and not complain whilst perhaps promoting some academy lads through. All sounds lovely but will ensure they don't get promoted any time soon and with Heckingbottom's track record I wouldn't be confident of staying in the Championship long.

[Blue blood]

Sheffield United fans aren't happy. Rightly so imo. the sacking of the manager is  arguably harsh - and I think there's a decent case for saying that.  But the appointment of Heckingbottom is a joke. A yes man for the owners never ends well.