Will going down be a bad thing? poll added.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yes, it would be a bad thing. The specific 'problem' we have is not quite that our players aren't good enough, and I'd argue that Stam's squad was even better, but that they are under-performing. In the event that we go down, they all leave, almost to a man. Does Bodvarsson stay and play in League One when he has Iceland ambitions? Does Swift, who has obvious technical ability but needs better coaching, play in League One or does he join another Championship side? And Mannone, Moore, Ilori, O'Shea, Gunter, Yiadom, Barrow, Bacuna, Blackett. All Championship level players, or better.

If we go down, I'd say we're building a team around Walker, Omar Richards, maybe Gunts, Meite, McNulty, Callum Harriot, and maybe Aluko if no-one will have him, but we'd probably look to shed his wages. Less money coming into the club, which means half the matchday squad is from the academy.

None of this is necessarily a bad thing, but it would certainly be 'back to square one', with promotion not even visible in the distance.

Interesting. You see a player exodus as a negative, whereas i see it as essential no matter the division.

Besides, an exodus on the level you describe is extremely unlikely. These players would all have to find Championship clubs who wanted them, were prepared to pay us for them and willing to offer them wages comparative to what they are stealing here. Simply won't happen for the majority.

The good ones find clubs and the shit ones stay.

That sounds promising.

Not really, because as the contract holder we largely set the price - see Moore this summer. So we can over price the ones we want to keep and underprice the ones we actively want shot of, as well as incentivising them to try to find clubs by sticking them to rot in the ressies. The good ones we do sell have then funded at least an adequate replacement for a lower division, and possibly more than one.

It will help us lose some of the mediocre bloat we've accumulated.

[Snowflake Royal]

Relegation would be a disaster for the club. We have a core of awful players who are on long term contracts so we can't release them like that. I also couldn't see many clubs wanting to buy them. That leaves a number of players on big wages at a lower level. Those high wages could cripple the club.

Attendances would often be sub 10K as well making the former more likely. Lower league clubs rely more on gate reciepts to stay afloat and we'd be a smaller prospect for commercial sponsorship. We'd get next to no TV revenue either.

We'd have no guarantee of bouncing back. Yes your Wigan's, Blackburn's, Barnsley's, Norwich's, Wolves' have bounced back quickly but we'd have as much chance of going the other way like Pompey, Bradford, Charlton and Coventry have done.

It's out of the question, relegation would not be a good thing.

You've highlighted four clubs in more dire straits than we are as the worst case scenario, and a bunch of clubs in more similar situations to us for the best case. Attendances aren't going to stay above 10k for long in the Championship if we keep winning less than 10 home games a season.

[BR0B0T]

list all the clubs for the last twenty years or so (since football began in '92) and how they have fared following relegation.

If it's positive then cool but i have a feeling it's overwhelmingly negative

[BR0B0T]

fcuk it i might do it myself

[Zip]

Relegation would be a disaster for the club. We have a core of awful players who are on long term contracts so we can't release them like that. I also couldn't see many clubs wanting to buy them. That leaves a number of players on big wages at a lower level. Those high wages could cripple the club.

Attendances would often be sub 10K as well making the former more likely. Lower league clubs rely more on gate reciepts to stay afloat and we'd be a smaller prospect for commercial sponsorship. We'd get next to no TV revenue either.

We'd have no guarantee of bouncing back. Yes your Wigan's, Blackburn's, Barnsley's, Norwich's, Wolves' have bounced back quickly but we'd have as much chance of going the other way like Pompey, Bradford, Charlton and Coventry have done.

It's out of the question, relegation would not be a good thing.

+1

[Royalwaster]

list all the clubs for the last twenty years or so (since football began in '92) and how they have fared following relegation.

If it's positive then cool but i have a feeling it's overwhelmingly negative

Just can't see it being a good thing - going down is absolutely no guarantee that it will be any easier. Look at teams like Stoke this season - I'm sure their fans thought it would be 'easier' in the Champ too.

[Ascotexgunner]

Less income (gate receipts/merchandise) resulting in having to pay lower wages, means attracting a different type of player, plus being in lower League means we wouldn't be competitive in trying to get the players the fans crave.
In addition, reducing resources of club infrastructure (pitch maintenance/marketing/funding for academy) will have a knock-on effect, plus less coverage means less TV revenue, resulting in further reductions.

To counter some of this, the cost of "stuff" e.g. pints / programmes / merchandise would possibly go up.

On the plus side, it would mean more parking being available and perhaps easier queues at half-time to buy a pie. So, not all doom and gloom.
And we may win more than we lose. Then, again, we may not.

Didn`t hurt the teams that went down the season before last too much did it? they all bounced back at the first time of asking. Of course it`s not a given.
I put this up for debate, as I said in my post I expected to be shot at,
Sticks and stones and all that, I don`t get upset by keyboard abuse.

TBH Blackburn and Wigan seemed prepared for relegation. Gormless and the rest of his crew wouldn't know how to prepare a club for that. I would prepare for our impending doom if we do with this lot at the helm. Useless b#stards would probably try and do a Maxwell and merge us with Oxford and sell the stadium off and call us the Carabao Thames Valley Royals and we will ground share with Wycombe and........I'm just ranting now.....

[NewCorkSeth]

The poll really improved this topic.

Also I accidently voted no...

[Jagermesiter1871]

It will be a bad thing if the owners and Gormlessly stay.

The sooner the pfuck off the better. I would not mind going down to L1 much, IF we make a success of it. Bring in Loader, Nova, Walker 1st team GK, Yiadom etc.

Sorry but what have the owners actually done wrong other than plough record amounts of cash into the club?

[BR0B0T]

list all the clubs for the last twenty years or so (since football began in '92) and how they have fared following relegation.

If it's positive then cool but i have a feeling it's overwhelmingly negative

Ok real quick and dirty run through. Based upon getting relegated from Prem or Champ and where they are now

prem = 1
champ = 2
lg 1 = 3
lg 2 = 4

Prem (1 - current league) = -39
Champ (2 - current league*) = -33

So as expected getting relegated is pretty shit. Rebuilds are the exception i.e. Leicester unless you get bought by a billionaire Man City

Obvs the timeframe is an issue etc

[Old Man Andrews]

Everyone needs to bear in mind nobody at this club is clever enough to write relegation clauses into players contracts. They are all too complacent to think that could happen so we'd be stuck with several players on 10k-30k a week in League 1. The owners would probably look to sell too which again could be a disaster if they decide they won't make any more financial contributions following the relegation.

In short we'd be f*cked, at least short term anyway.

[John Smith]

Yes still early days but nothings seems to change does it? with a likely defeat at the baggies on Saturday we could arguably be back in the bottom 3
5 wins in 2018 is a shameful stat and unless improvement is forthcoming we will almost certainly be playing league 1 football next season.

I'm not even going to entertain responding to this topic with utter drivel posting like what I've just read here ^

What the hell are you on about you daft clown?

That`s a bit rich coming from you. and BTW you did just respond .

Just go and follow Man United or Liverpool from your armchair and don't bother trying to get involved

[Snowball]

If we go down, do we have to use cheaper computers
and listen on transistor radios?

Asking for a friend

[Sanguine]

Yes, it would be a bad thing. The specific 'problem' we have is not quite that our players aren't good enough, and I'd argue that Stam's squad was even better, but that they are under-performing. In the event that we go down, they all leave, almost to a man. Does Bodvarsson stay and play in League One when he has Iceland ambitions? Does Swift, who has obvious technical ability but needs better coaching, play in League One or does he join another Championship side? And Mannone, Moore, Ilori, O'Shea, Gunter, Yiadom, Barrow, Bacuna, Blackett. All Championship level players, or better.

If we go down, I'd say we're building a team around Walker, Omar Richards, maybe Gunts, Meite, McNulty, Callum Harriot, and maybe Aluko if no-one will have him, but we'd probably look to shed his wages. Less money coming into the club, which means half the matchday squad is from the academy.

None of this is necessarily a bad thing, but it would certainly be 'back to square one', with promotion not even visible in the distance.

Interesting. You see a player exodus as a negative, whereas i see it as essential no matter the division.

Besides, an exodus on the level you describe is extremely unlikely. These players would all have to find Championship clubs who wanted them, were prepared to pay us for them and willing to offer them wages comparative to what they are stealing here. Simply won't happen for the majority.

The point I was trying to make is summed up by leon's sentence - the good players leave. And as I said, 'starting afresh' isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I was countering the point being made in the OP that by going down we could look to bounce straight back up. My view is if we go down there's no timetable at all on promotion from League One.

[Hopeful]

Less income (gate receipts/merchandise) resulting in having to pay lower wages, means attracting a different type of player, plus being in lower League means we wouldn't be competitive in trying to get the players the fans crave.
In addition, reducing resources of club infrastructure (pitch maintenance/marketing/funding for academy) will have a knock-on effect, plus less coverage means less TV revenue, resulting in further reductions.

To counter some of this, the cost of "stuff" e.g. pints / programmes / merchandise would possibly go up.

On the plus side, it would mean more parking being available and perhaps easier queues at half-time to buy a pie. So, not all doom and gloom.
And we may win more than we lose. Then, again, we may not.

Didn`t hurt the teams that went down the season before last too much did it? they all bounced back at the first time of asking. Of course it`s not a given.
I put this up for debate, as I said in my post I expected to be shot at,
Sticks and stones and all that, I don`t get upset by keyboard abuse.

Wasn't shooting, WR. Just adding to debate - and it's a good question you ask. Had same discussion with mate after QPR match on way home. I personally think that financially it wouldn't be great, but not working close to any football club's finances, it is gut feel alone.

And FTR, I don't do keyboard abuse - is that when you type really hard?

[Forbury Lion]

If we go down, there's no guarantee we'll be any good against League 1 opposition. Our better players will all be sold to cover the budget short fall and we'll be left with the rubbish ones who will still think they deserve to be in the Premier League

[NewCorkSeth]

If we go down at least Future England Star Liam Kelly will find his level.
I still don't think we'll get relegated.

[Forbury Lion]

Whether relegation hurts or helps you in the long run is 99% down to the finances of the club and owners. If they have the capacity and willingness to fund us whilst we're in League One it would probably be ok.

The Financial Fair Play rules are currently restricting our ability to sign players, Being in a lower league with less revenue isn't going to help at all.
Gone are the days when owners are allowed to throw £m's at a club to fund transfers.

[RFCMod]

Depends if shes washed

[BR0B0T]

Relegated from the Prem...currently not in the prem

Oldham Athletic
Swindon Town
Barnsley
Bradford City
Charlton Athletic
Coventry City
Portsmouth
Sunderland
Wimbeldon
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Blackpool
Bolton Wanderers
Derby County
Hull City
Leeds United
Middlesbrough
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest
Queens Park Rangers
Reading
Sheffield Wednesday
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Aston Villa
Ipswich Town
Sheffield United
Wigan Athletic