Championship Tonight's Championship Games - 4th March

[Northstandboy]

 

[carefreeoufc]

Left arm, I have a full sleeve tattoo on my right that cost too much to lose!! And how about we both throw £25 to the Joey Foundation when we're safe.

Seems fair to me! The left arm and the £25

 

[Marked Ox]

Has a team second in the third division, in pretty much their best season ever, pulled in such low crowds? Other than the absolutes minnows of former non league teams like Morecambe or Harrogate I don’t think any other clubs in the top four divisions and even some below would get such such low crowds. Their crowds are actually as bad or worse than when they were in the fourth division struggling, all while crowds are up everywhere else.

Genuinely don't know but what about Bury or Crewe (back in the day), Yeovil or Burton more recently?

 

[Stranger]

Prospective Championship Club Wycombe Wanderers had a home attendance of 3,456 tonight as we approach the business end of the season. Gosh.

That's nothing. In their last promotion season they didn't get anyone watching them, not even at Wembley

 

[werthersoriginal]

Has a team second in the third division, in pretty much their best season ever, pulled in such low crowds? Other than the absolutes minnows of former non league teams like Morecambe or Harrogate I don’t think any other clubs in the top four divisions and even some below would get such such low crowds. Their crowds are actually as bad or worse than when they were in the fourth division struggling, all while crowds are up everywhere else.

Mid table Southend got 6,000 last night in the Conference.

 

[Lost Marbles]

The only problem with Hull winning last night is that’s a nice confidence boost for them, only one game before playing us…

Hopefully Bristol City can do us a favour and hammer them on Saturday, so when we play them in a week there’s a few more doubts creeping in.

Having beaten Sheffield United 3-0 away, Hull lost their next game 2-1 at home to Stoke. Having beaten Sunderland, they lost to Cardiff. Hull are consistently inconsistent. Their result / performance on Saturday will have little impact on how well they play against us. Let's hope they have one of their off days.

 

[holdsteady]

Genuinely don't know but what about Bury or Crewe (back in the day), Yeovil or Burton more recently?

Think Yeovil and Crewe (who currently have higher crowds than Wycombe despite being a league lower) were hitting 5/6000 average, Wycombe are currently just below 5,000. Maybe the other two, but they are small towns virtually joined onto bigger places, Derby and Manchester. Although Wycombe is near London its not quite the same.

They currently have the 82 highest average in England, despite sitting 46th, have the advantage of higher away crowds from being in league one over those below him and no sell outs limiting crowd numbers like us and Luton as well.

Its strange how a club in their most successful years, having their best year, during a time of increased crowds and a high profile league one are getting lower crowds even with the backing of a multi billionaire, you wonder what would get the crowds in? Be interesting to see what sort of uplift they get in the championship, its a small ground but looking unlikely they will sell out even that against anyone except the biggest clubs.

 

[Carpy]

Depressing to see Wycombe and Birmingham buy success.

If we get anywhere near midtable in the Champ with only 11k fans, we're 'buying' success. The number of our fans who s**t all over the likes of Wrexham, Birmingham and Wycombe but who fail to see that we also spend well beyond our means is incredible.

 

[werthersoriginal]

If we get anywhere near midtable in the Champ with only 11k fans, we're 'buying' success. The number of our fans who s**t all over the likes of Wrexham, Birmingham and Wycombe but who fail to see that we also spend well beyond our means is incredible.

It's a question of degree, isn't it? Nearly every club spends beyond its means and runs a deficit.

 

[Carpy]

It's a question of degree, isn't it? Nearly every club spends beyond its means and runs a deficit.

For a club of our size, our deficit is going to be very high given we have no stadium and much fewer paying fans every week. Especially if we push on next season which I have no doubt we will. Just think some of our fans need a little self-awareness about just how much success we are 'buying' ourselves, I have no issue with it, but then I don't ridicule Birmingham or Wrexham for doing it either.

 

[tonyw]

It's a question of degree, isn't it? Nearly every club spends beyond its means and runs a deficit.

Sure - Wycombe lost £3m in their last accounting period, Wrexham lost £5m and we lost £6.2m.

And whilst we'll find out pretty soon how things looked for last season, most ITKs think that our losses will have gone up substantially!

 

[holdsteady]

Sure - Wycombe lost £3m in their last accounting period, Wrexham lost £5m and we lost £6.2m.

And whilst we'll find out pretty soon how things looked for last season, most ITKs think that our losses will have gone up substantially!

Wycombes will have gone through the roof for this year though, signed players on good money and a couple of scandinavians on big fees all while somehow getting smaller crowds despite being successful, still turned down £6.5 million for Kone (something we would never have don) despite the losses. Owner can obviously afford it though so no real problem for them.

How many clubs can compete to get promoted to the championship without racking up the debt though? You look at the bottom of that table and its the clubs trying to do it on moderate outlay (probably still at a loss though).

 

[tonyw]

Wycombes will have gone through the roof for this year though, signed players on good money and a couple of scandinavians on big fees all while somehow getting smaller crowds despite being successful, still turned down £6.5 million for Kone (something we would never have don) despite the losses. Owner can obviously afford it though so no real problem for them.

How many clubs can compete to get promoted to the championship without racking up the debt though? You look at the bottom of that table and its the clubs trying to do it on moderate outlay (probably still at a loss though).

I'm not going to argue at all that football finances are so screwed that it's almost impossible to be ambitious and upwardly mobile without racking up big debt.

Just agreeing with Carpy that it's a bit rich to throw stones at Wycombe and Wrexham (for overspending.....fair game to call them out for being tinpot and the Disneyfication respectively!) when we're living in an extremely glassy glass house, and have been for several years now!

 

[werthersoriginal]

I'm not going to argue at all that football finances are so screwed that it's almost impossible to be ambitious and upwardly mobile without racking up big debt.

Just agreeing with Carpy that it's a bit rich to throw stones at Wycombe and Wrexham (for overspending.....fair game to call them out for being tinpot and the Disneyfication respectively!) when we're living in an extremely glassy glass house, and have been for several years now!

I think there's a difference in that we need to overspend just to compete, due to our stadium situation. 'Buying the league' would be another big step!

 

[Big Ron]

You suggested 3 weeks ago that Plymouth had a sensational transfer window and they would give anybody a game ..........
What's happened ???

I believe the bottom 3 are down ,none can gather any momentum & will need a play off push now to survive .

I think the target for survival will be 44-45 points .

Good spot, that 'sensational' comment stuck in my memory as well. I watched a bit of the game last night and they presented little or no threat. As soon as Hull scored, the game looked over, even if the 2nd was woefully offside!

 

[holdsteady]

I'm not going to argue at all that football finances are so screwed that it's almost impossible to be ambitious and upwardly mobile without racking up big debt.

Just agreeing with Carpy that it's a bit rich to throw stones at Wycombe and Wrexham (for overspending.....fair game to call them out for being tinpot and the Disneyfication respectively!) when we're living in an extremely glassy glass house, and have been for several years now!

I wouldn't argue with that, doubt you can find a promoted side who haven't splashed out now, but the third division seems to have taken a big leap this year with a team spending £15 million on a forward, another absolute minnow turning down £6.5 million for a player and a club from a small north wales town who have only just got back into the football league splashing the Hollywood dollars, if others try and compete then that just pushes the price of running a third tier team in England even higher. We have contributed to it with our wealthy backers as well, not many innocent parties.

With the a pretty uncertain economic future in the world where it ends could be interesting

 

[Steve Gilbert]

I wouldn't argue with that, doubt you can find a promoted side who haven't splashed out now, but the third division seems to have taken a big leap this year with a team spending £15 million on a forward, another absolute minnow turning down £6.5 million for a player and a club from a small north wales town who have only just got back into the football league splashing the Hollywood dollars, if others try and compete then that just pushes the price of running a third tier team in England even higher. We have contributed to it with our wealthy backers as well, not many innocent parties.

With the a pretty uncertain economic future in the world where it ends could be interesting

Within 10 years when the 'big 6' move to their super league. That is when football will go pop for the rest of the Premier League and EFL.

 

[tonyw]

I think there's a difference in that we need to overspend just to compete, due to our stadium situation. 'Buying the league' would be another big step!

We didn't need to blow up our wage structure to outbid a Championship club for Cam, or pony up for Josh Murphy's wages, or pay half a mill for a young, promising striker from one of our division rivals. We did it all because we wanted a short cut to success and we have absurdly wealthy owners who can bankroll it.

I just don't see how what we've done is any different to Wrexham or Wycombe.

(Birmingham are a special case, because £15m for any player in League One is a whole other level of nuts)

 

[holdsteady]

Within 10 years when the 'big 6' move to their super league. That is when football will go pop for the rest of the Premier League and EFL.

Depends, Sky or whoever will still need content when that happens and outside of the top 6 still some well supported clubs that will need a league to play in. Be different though so who knows what will happen then.

 

[holdsteady]

We didn't need to blow up our wage structure to outbid a Championship club for Cam, or pony up for Josh Murphy's wages, or pay half a mill for a young, promising striker from one of our division rivals. We did it all because we wanted a short cut to success and we have absurdly wealthy owners who can bankroll it.

I just don't see how what we've done is any different to Wrexham or Wycombe.

(Birmingham are a special case, because £15m for any player in League One is a whole other level of nuts)

I don't think we would ever have turned down £6.5 million for a player, we used to jump if they offered anywhere £2 million, so that another change.

 

[tonyw]

I don't think we would ever have turned down £6.5 million for a player, we used to jump if they offered anywhere £2 million, so that another change.

If we were in Wycombe's position? Hard to say.

If they had sold Kone at the end of the window, it would have utterly derailed their promotion efforts. So they were basically deciding whether it was worth giving up their promotion ambitions for £6.5m.

I'd like to think that, under our current owners, we would turn down the money too if put in that sort of position. But we haven't had that situation since pre-Thohir/Bakrie (Baptiste in 2020 was the last time I remember us taking the money mid-season and the hit to our promotion hopes)

 

[Oxymoron]

Of course, it's not only us that are "investing" in the Championship

Cardiff City announce £11.6m loss after major investments made

The Bluebirds have published their annual accounts for the year ending May 31, 2024

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[m]

Within 10 years when the 'big 6' move to their super league. That is when football will go pop for the rest of the Premier League and EFL.

Don't. You'll set me off laughing again. Do you remember that time when some wag said that Tott....Totten......

No, it's just too absurd to repeat.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Don't. You'll set me off laughing again. Do you remember that time when some wag said that Tott....Totten......

No, it's just too absurd to repeat.

What were the big six again? Spurs, Everton, Man U ... who else was it?

 

[BicesterU]

All I can say is that after the way we've played for the last few weeks I'm amazed that we're still 7 points above the drop zone. Someone's looking out for us.

So if we stay up it’ll be down to nothing but divine intervention?

 

[stokeu]

What were the big six again? Spurs, Everton, Man U ... who else was it?

Tranmere, Stevenage, Marston Saints

 

[Oxfordpete]

You also said, two months ago, Tyler Goodrham was a £10m footballer destined for the PL, whereas I said he’s a £3-4m footballer destined for the bench, at best, with a top half Championship side. We’ll see who’s right with that in the summer. I’ll disagree again here, I think we will lose three of those five matches but still survive - finishing 20th and topping off a great season back in the Championship.

The way Tyler has been playing in recent games we’d be lucky to get 500k

 

[Steve Gilbert]

What were the big six again? Spurs, Everton, Man U ... who else was it?

Spurs (lol), Everton (lol), Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea. I think it could have been Arsenal too.

Edit: It was Arsenal not Everton in the 6.

 

[NorthWestOx]

Spurs (lol), Everton (lol), Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea. I think it could have been Arsenal too.

Edit: It was Arsenal not Everton in the 6.

It was only the 'Big 5' oringinally no Chelsea or Man City.

 

[holdsteady]

It was only the 'Big 5' oringinally no Chelsea or Man City.

Be a bit weird to have Everton and especially Spurs above Chelsea and Man City now though, Spurs have won a much this century as we did in the last one.

 

[Village-Yellow]

I think there's a difference in that we need to overspend just to compete, due to our stadium situation. 'Buying the league' would be another big step!

There is no difference, no matter how you try to justify it.