League 1 General Chat Thread

[Guernica]

It'll be ages until something else in introduced/existing rules tightened up. Ultimately, the PFA want their members earning as much money as they can, they're not going to be in a rush to change anything.

Tbh though, there's going to be a natural lowering of wages etc due to Covid anyway for the next year or two.

On another note, our Chairman has said that the funding to cover gate receipts was 40% less for L1 and L2 than expected.

Without proper stringent rules, there will be clubs potentially going out of business to even employ players!

 

[Super_horns]

Sunderland’s new owner will be younger than most of the players!

Louis-Dreyfus completes Sunderland takeover

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus becomes Sunderland chairman at the age of 23 after buying a controlling interest in the club.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Marked Ox]

Lincoln will be beating us at ours on March 26th as Sky have chosen our game to be shown live. Also, a bit rubbish as it'll be on Friday night.

 

[Luke Imp]

Lincoln will be beating us at ours on March 26th as Sky have chosen our game to be shown live. Also, a bit rubbish as it'll be on Friday night.

Bit of a weird one because it's a game we've pencilled in as being postponed due to expected international call-ups.

 

[Marked Ox]

Bit of a weird one because it's a game we've pencilled in as being postponed due to expected international call-ups.

I would genuinely laugh if you did. Would moving it to the Friday, take it outside of the call up window or are the internationals that weekend or are they the following week?

 

[Super_horns]

Fans at a play off game /final ?

10k fans allowed from 17th May.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1363876101764882434

 

[Luke Imp]

I would genuinely laugh if you did. Would moving it to the Friday, take it outside of the call up window or are the internationals that weekend or are they the following week?

I'm assuming the internationals are that weekend because a couple of weeks ago when the Accrington game was postponed, we played it on the Sunday because we only had three midweeks free. One of which would have been filled by the re-arranged Accy game, the second because we still had to play our Pizza Cup semi-final and the third one because of the Oxford game clashing with internationals.

I'm not even sure who's eligible for a call-up tbh. Brennan Johnson will be one for Wales but not sure who else to get to three for a postponement.

 

[WhiteRussian]

I know there have been loans and grants to help but I'm still amazed we have got this far into the season with zero clubs at any level going bust. Hopefully we can all struggle on until the middle of May and crowds return.

 

[Indian Dan]

Season will be finished by 17 May. So clubs will have to go without income until August

 

[Boletus Edulis]

Season will be finished by 17 May. So clubs will have to go without income until August

I know they have got rid of the tier system, but Plymouth’s rate per 100,000 are the same or lower than when Cornwall and Isle of Wight were tier 1. I am not arguing we should have fans present, because we should not yet. It is just to highlight an example of inconsistency of message. It feels very often that the Government are making up their message as they go along.

 

[Guernica]

Imps manager Michael Appleton has signed a new contract which takes him up to the summer of 2025. Great news, what he has done this season no matter where we finish the season has been remarkable. Produced the best football I have seen since the early 90's all with the youngest and smallest squad in the EFL.

If I was a Championship chairman he would be at the top of my list and hopefully we'll be well compensated in the event that he does leave.

Edit to add Remy Howorth who has signed on for next season and Anthony Scully until the summer of 2023. Nice to have a real stable squad to take us into next season. Not many to add in the summer especially in comparison to the last 3 windows which should stand us in good stead no matter what division we're in.

 

[PuB]

A four year contract is pretty unheard of at this level. Well done to him of course, and he deserves it, but I can’t help but think you’ll be paying him off sooner than you think.

Especially if you guys go up.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

A four year contract is pretty unheard of at this level. Well done to him of course, and he deserves it, but I can’t help but think you’ll be paying him off sooner than you think.

Especially if you guys go up.

Even if we come straight back down, I doubt we will get rid of him. I think more likely we will be getting a tidy compensation package once he is poached by WBA after they get rid of Fat Sam.

 

[eric read]

A four year contract is pretty unheard of at this level. Well done to him of course, and he deserves it, but I can’t help but think you’ll be paying him off sooner than you think.

Especially if you guys go up.

Karl Robinson signed a four year deal with us last September, so unusual, but not unheard of.

 

[Agombar stool]

A four year contract is pretty unheard of at this level. Well done to him of course, and he deserves it, but I can’t help but think you’ll be paying him off sooner than you think.

Especially if you guys go up.

As usual we have an example of how this kind of behaviour can end up re when we had the very good coach Luke Williams in charge back in 2016.

"Williams was appointed as head coach on 9 March 2016 on a 5-year contract, after winning 6 of his 10 games in charge as interim manager.[9]

On 5 May 2017, it was announced Williams had left Swindon by mutual agreement after relegation to League Two was confirmed.[10]"

The comparison between a 10 game spell at shambles FC and what Appleton is currently doing at Lincoln is not really comparable, but longer contracts at lower levels are perhaps not as rare as you'd think.

 

[SF_]

Good to see Appleton doing well, great player who had his career cut short.

Always amuses me that he managed Blackpool with a PNE tattoo.

 

[Luke Imp]

Appleton's the sort of manager you'd stick with even if you got relegated back into L1 if we did the unthinkable and got promoted to the Championship. Not just because he's more than a capable manager in L1, but because a long term stint in the Championship for us isn't likely so it'd be unfair to judge anyone too much against that.

He signed a 3.5 year deal when he first arrived and before him, the Cowley's ended up signing 5 year deals in their final contracts so it's not been too unusual for us to tie managers down for a decent length.

One thing we've never been hamstrung by is having to pay off silly fees for managers, we've always put pretty standard clauses in despite contract lengths.

I suspect it'll cost £1m+ to poach him, which would make our two highest incoming fees both for managers.

Really pleased he's signed a new deal though, we've seen some excellent football this season, and a young energetic side but one with a sprinkling of experience (albeit some of that's currently missing through injury!) performing way above expectations for this season. Just a shame we aren't there to see it because regardless of how the season pans out for us it's been enjoyable.

 

[Indian Dan]

Before anyone accuses me of pissing on your chips, I’d be careful if you go to the Championship with a large number of your present players. Good in L1 they may be, but the Championship is a different beast. All 3 promoted clubs from last season are struggling. A club needs to just hang on in there past the first season and you have a chance. Luton struggled first season up and are comfortable now. Likewise Barnsley would have been relegated last season if not for the omnishambles at Wigan - this season they look PO contenders.

 

[Luke Imp]

Much like going from L2 to L1 (albeit a bigger gap in quality). I think we've only got 10 or so under contract next season (two are first year pros), and a couple of those are arguably on their way out anyway regardless of where we are next season.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Before anyone accuses me of pissing on your chips, I’d be careful if you go to the Championship with a large number of your present players. Good in L1 they may be, but the Championship is a different beast. All 3 promoted clubs from last season are struggling. A club needs to just hang on in there past the first season and you have a chance. Luton struggled first season up and are comfortable now. Likewise Barnsley would have been relegated last season if not for the omnishambles at Wigan - this season they look PO contenders.

I don’t think anyone at the club would be surprised at how hard a job it would be if we were to get into the Championship. I would imagine Rotherham and Coventry currently would be in a better position than us and they are both still struggling. It wasnt that long ago that staying in League One would have been a good achievement, so even one season in the Championship would be perfectly acceptable.

Like Luke, I don’t see Appleton being tarnished if we did come straight back down anyway.

 

[SF_]

Same as Wycombe, Rotherham & Coventry, none of them will be sacking their managers. Stability is their best chance of going back up if they get relegated, look at Farke at Norwich & Dyche at Burnley before him.

Surviving that first season in the Championship is tough.

 

[Davidimp]

How much is the TV money for the championship??

 

[Boletus Edulis]

Karl Robinson signed a four year deal with us last September, so unusual, but not unheard of.

Lowe and his assistant Schuey signed a three year extension two weeks ago. I suspect in part this is to get a bigger pay off if a championship side comes in for him.

 

[dannylad01]

Cotterill signed a 3.5 year deal with us when he joined in November. Probably needed the security to get him with us, but unlikely to be sacked as he's been friends with our chairman for 20 years or so going back to when Cheltenham first came into the league. He's given the chairman advice over the years, so I'd assume he's got the job as long as he wants it. Made an unbelievable start so far, especially managing from hospital/home for the last 2 months

 

[TractorBoys]

US investor group takeover of Ipswich Town now gathering pace, seems close to completion.

Will see the removal of Lambert as manager and Evans effectively writing off £100m of debt owed to him, although retaining a 5% stake in the club and retaining ownership of some of the land/training facility.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

How much is the TV money for the championship??

Pretty sure I’ve read that staying up last season meant that we got 7 million extra than we would have had we gone down. Not massive in grand scheme of football finance but massive to clubs like ours.

The jump to the championship is massive. easily the biggest of the jumps I’ve seen us make. Last season especially pre lockdown when we were in stadiums, the quality of football was just so far above what we saw in League 1. The intensity and pressing in particular is just levels above anything we ever saw in this league and you could play as well as you think you can and still get done by a moment of quality from fairly average championship sides.

This season the quality has dropped off quite significantly though. Last I saw there was a 20% drop on goals scored and there seems to be far more teams keeping tight and looking to make it 15 minute game at the end. Might be the schedule which has been brutal but the rewards and punishments for failure for a lot of clubs who are heavily invested in promotion to the promised land has made teams very cagey this season.

 

[Luke Imp]

US investor group takeover of Ipswich Town now gathering pace, seems close to completion.

Will see the removal of Lambert as manager and Evans effectively writing off £100m of debt owed to him, although retaining a 5% stake in the club and retaining ownership of some of the land/training facility.

Seems like Evans, although in theory writing off £100m, is still holding enough to pull some of it back at a later date.

 

[Super_horns]

Paul Lambert left Ipswich.

Typical after they won a couple of games!

 

[SuffolkBlue]

Paul Lambert left Ipswich.

Typical after they won a couple of games!

Thank god. It’s like Christmas and birthday all in one! By far the worst manager in our history all things considered. Never known a manager so tactically inept and a team so poorly coached. He’ll struggle to get another job in England. Have no sympathy with him

 

[Gills4years]

Thank god. It’s like Christmas and birthday all in one! By far the worst manager in our history all things considered. Never known a manager so tactically inept and a team so poorly coached. He’ll struggle to get another job in England. Have no sympathy with him

Any odds yet on his replacement?