Promotion this year

[Madejski]

Burnley are the best of the current top 6 i've seen this season. And that was without Gray I think.

 

[Rammy]

This league's better than the Premier League anyway.

 

[Luke_1884]

Mad how things change so quickly, 4 games ago we had made our best ever start to a season. Now it feels like we've started a meltdown all because of a couple of poor performances and a few hear say rumours. Nuts.

We've got to put in a performance against Birmingham and make a bit of a statement now.

 

[big mean bunny]

Morgan went in the Wolves dressing room to shout at the players, we were fucking brilliant afterwards, well, we were either brilliant or shit and got relegated, twice. It was one of the two.

 

[MagpieBee]

With Jota gone as well now, you can definitely count us out of this.

 

[M Dogg]

With Jota gone as well now, you can definitely count us out of this.

Gone where?

 

[markwwfc1992]

Gone where?

Eibar I think

 

[M Dogg]

Am I going mad, I can't see this anywhere.

 

[Veggie Legs]

It's in the Transfers Rumours thread, some might consider that a reliable source...

 

[M Dogg]

Yeah I just saw that. I'll trust the Brentford fans on this one as they seem a good sort.

 

[MagpieBee]

Yeah I just saw that. I'll trust the Brentford fans on this one as they seem a good sort.

He's had personal problems so we've allowed him to go on an 18 month loan to try and sort them out, but he's had to take a pay cut (because Eibar can't pay all of his wages, they're skint - I'm also guessing we aren't getting a fee out of this) and extend his contract by a year.

Not confirmed by the club yet, he's having a medical today so should be confirmed by this evening / tomorrow. Think the Mirror have picked it up now, but they do tend to repeat a lot of what is said on our message boards.

 

[Hurrikeen]

Is Tarkowski going or what???

 

[M Dogg]

He's had personal problems so we've allowed him to go on an 18 month loan to try and sort them out, but he's had to take a pay cut (because Eibar can't pay all of his wages, they're skint - I'm also guessing we aren't getting a fee out of this) and extend his contract by a year.

Not confirmed by the club yet, he's having a medical today so should be confirmed by this evening / tomorrow. Think the Mirror have picked it up now, but they do tend to repeat a lot of what is said on our message boards.

Without sounding insensitive, when you say personal problems, do you mean problems settling in the UK, or are there family things back home?

 

[mpmbee]

Is Tarkowski going or what???

Oldham don't have a sell on for him if he does go..

 

[Hurrikeen]

Oldham don't have a sell on for him if he does go..

We do.

 

[toshj]

Without sounding insensitive, when you say personal problems, do you mean problems settling in the UK, or are there family things back home?

Family tings. Oddly they're not directly impacting him, but it seems it's to do with the family of his girlfriend's first child. Blah, not especially enjoying the season so far

 

[toshj]

We do.

The relatively reliable rumours at our end indicate that we bought you out of the sell on last year!

 

[Hurrikeen]

The relatively reliable rumours at our end indicate that we bought you out of the sell on last year!

It would make very little sense for us to put the sell on clause we did in the deal when we sold him only to let you buy it out a year later - unless the amount was 7 figures.

Utterly pointless.

 

[MagpieBee]

It would make very little sense for us to put the sell on clause we did in the deal when we sold him only to let you buy it out a year later - unless the amount was 7 figures.

Utterly pointless.

I heard this too - you were in need of some cash so we helped out. Happened with us before and other players.

 

[Walkley_Owl]

106 - Champions 2006
105
104
103
102 - Champions 2010, 2014
100
99
98
97
96
95
94 - Champions 2005
93 - Promoted 2014 - PREDICTED CHAMPIONS
92
91 - Promoted 2010
90 - Champions 2009, 2015; Promoted 2006
89 - Champions 2012; Promoted 2015
88 - Champions 2007, 2011; Promoted 2012
87 - Champions 2013; Promoted 2005
86 - Promoted 2007
85
84 - Promoted 2011
83 - Promoted 2009
82 - PREDICTED PROMOTION
81 - Champions 2008;
80
79 - Promoted 2008, 2013
78 - Play offs 2015
77
76
75 - Playoffs 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012
74 - Playoffs 2009
73 - Playoffs 2005
72 - Playoffs 2014 - PREDICTED PLAY OFFS
71
70 - Playoffs 2008, 2010
69
68 - Playoffs 2013
67
66
65
64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
56
55 - Middlesbrough (26); Safety 2013
54
53 - Hull; Safety 2008
52
51 - Safety 2009
50 - Safety 2005, 2006
49 - Derby; Safety 2007, 2010
48 - Safety 2011, 2012
47 - Brighton
46
45 - Wednesday, Ipswich; PREDICTED SAFETY
44 - Safety 2014
43 - Birmingham
42 - Safety 2015
41
40 - Cardiff
39
38
37 - Wolves
36 - Brentford
35 - Preston, Nottingham Forest
34 - Reading, QPR
33
32 - Huddersfield, Leeds
31
30
29 - Blackburn (26)
28 - Fulham
27
26 - MK Dons
25
24 - Rotherham, Bristol City
22
21
20 - Charlton
19
18
17 - Bolton

 

[mistermagic]

The Derby inconsistency strikes again I see.

Hull destroyed Charlton and Middlesbrough lost at a relegation fodder. You could say it's a good day for dem tigres.

 

[M Dogg]

A year to the day since our last minute winner at Derby. They just don't like this weekend do they

 

[Rammy]

A year to the day since our last minute winner at Derby. They just don't like this weekend do they

You Forest fans...always living in the past...

 

[JoshBCFC]

we are going up i think

 

[El Guapo]

We’re going to make the play-offs. Derby over two legs, please.

 

[Nuttall]

beginning to think we have a good chance of the play-offs, we're in them for the first time, if you take away the first 6 games before we'd really built our squad we'd be knocking on the door of the top 2 so we've got to feel there's every chance of the play-offs.

 

[blademan89]

beginning to think we have a good chance of the play-offs, we're in them for the first time, if you take away the first 6 games before we'd really built our squad we'd be knocking on the door of the top 2 so we've got to feel there's every chance of the play-offs.

No doubt you would probably end up winning the fuckers. Although i cant see you beating boro,derby,hull over 2 legs so if you avoid them in the semis its anyones in the final.

 

[Rammy]

Depends what state we're in. Even Bolton could beat us at the minute.

 

[blademan89]

Depends what state we're in. Even Bolton could beat us at the minute.

Nah youre squads way too good to fuck it up this time surely to god. Pressures building with ffp if you fail again though

 

[Turkey]

You may have had a few injuries, but firstly that is what squad depth is for, you'd expect a few injuries at a time throughout the season.

But I think it's quite clear that Brighton were running on confidence. Still just Brighton and Bolton who haven't won a game this season by more than a goal. You weren't tearing teams apart when you were on form / fully fit, and now just slightly weaker and out of form it has all gone crashing down.

As i've said in this thread I thought you'd spend well in January to keep up a top 6 finish, but your form is much worse than I could have imagined and is now looking reasonably likely that you won't even make that. Despite going 20 odd games unbeaten.

7 players who would go into your starting 11 injured at the same time is more than 'a few' I think but anyway, yes, it is what squad depth is for. We continued our good run for a long time with a number of key players out but I think the inability to rotate the squad and fatigue setting in hurt us in December.

I think far to many football fans and pundits place too much emphasis on form. You see it every season, fans and pundits saying things like 'you can't look beyond the top two' or earlier this season, 'the top 5 are gone'. Form changes. Our next three matches are all at home, against Huddersfield, Brentford & Bolton. You never know in football but they're three very winnable games. If we were to do that, we'd have won 4 games in a row. Hull meanwhile have 3 away games on the bounce, Fulham, Burnley & Blackburn. In just as short a space of time that people changed their opinions on us as 'finished', you could very well find everyone saying Brighton are back on a charge and all the old cliches.

We haven't beaten anyone by more than one goal but it's grasping at straws to suggest that means we're not very good. Our stats throughout the season in terms of average shots and so on have been very good. We've consistently been one of the strongest sides in the http://experimental361.com/category/divisions/championship/ analysis every few weeks look at attacking and defending strengths and weaknesses.

Also during our bad run, it was fine margins (Boro excepted). Derby and QPR grabbed last minute equalisers. Ipswich and Wolves won at the Amex due to two defensive howlers gifting them goals. I'm not suggesting any of the sides didn't deserve the points they won against us but my point is the very fine margins mean you can't get too bogged down on a handful of results. Over 27 games this season, a pretty large sample size, we're ranked 5th, everything works itself out in the end.

I've only seen one team this season where you thought, 'wow, they're better than us' and that was Middlesbrough. Everyone can say Club X, Y or Z is the best they've seen in the top 6 and generally people will give different answers. The top clubs don't play well every week. The league is too competitive for that. Someone like Burnley might have played better than us against a given opponent, but then teams like Rotherham, Bristol City and Preston have played just as well against us than other supposedly better sides. Every game is hard and you need a team who work very hard to achieve in this league.

Who knows how the season will pan out for us but I've seen 25 of our 27 games this season and just like you'd say your as good as anyone we can say exactly the same. We got into the play-offs two seasons ago with a much poorer side than this. We've got a decent chance of finishing in the top 6 this season, which hardly anyone predicted, and having seen all the top sides, we could go into them with the confidence that we could win them too. Which would be a nice change to last time when we knew we'd be humped by Derby.