Tonight’s games

Luton and Barnsley look good for promotion.lottery for Sunderland in play offs but they’ll probably go up.
If they don’t we have the prospect of them, Portsmouth, Bolton and Reading challenging for the championship.
Could be a very hard league to get out off next year if we manage to stay in L1
That’s not forgetting Ipswich

That will always be the case though and whilst the aim should alway be Automatic promotion let's be blunt we have been a million miles away from it since we got back into league 1.

people complain about our manager/recruitment but just look at the some of the teams mentioned above and their resources and they will always have first pick of the better players.

Time people lowered their expectations and started to realize we are a third tier team, the Lottery of the play offs give a false picture of where clubs are really at, yes they were introduced to keep the season alive and more interesting but when you're around 28-30 + pts from the top table it shows how far behind you really are and the difficult task of maintaining higher league status even if you scrape through the play offs.
 
That will always be the case though and whilst the aim should alway be Automatic promotion let's be blunt we have been a million miles away from it since we got back into league 1.

people complain about our manager/recruitment but just look at the some of the teams mentioned above and their resources and they will always have first pick of the better players.

Time people lowered their expectations and started to realize we are a third tier team, the Lottery of the play offs give a false picture of where clubs are really at, yes they were introduced to keep the season alive and more interesting but when you're around 28-30 + pts from the top table it shows how far behind you really are and the difficult task of maintaining higher league status even if you scrape through the play offs.
Was it last season that all three relegated clubs to L1 went straight back up again?
Whatever our squad budget is we've massively underperformed this season, and I think even it was top 7, there are still clubs that have much better resources and are going to be promotion favourites, and a small club like Burton getting to the Championship for a few seasons is going to very much be the exception.
 
Luton and Barnsley look good for promotion.lottery for Sunderland in play offs but they’ll probably go up.
If they don’t we have the prospect of them, Portsmouth, Bolton and Reading challenging for the championship.
Could be a very hard league to get out off next year if we manage to stay in L1
That’s not forgetting Ipswich

I fully agree with your point albeit will challenge on a small point. Bolton (should they come down) won't be the team they were the previous time, people think we've had problems financially then take a look at them. They're a financial basket case (far more so than last time) and they will be desperate to shift players off the wage bill as they are struggling to pay them now!
 
That will always be the case though and whilst the aim should alway be Automatic promotion let's be blunt we have been a million miles away from it since we got back into league 1.

people complain about our manager/recruitment but just look at the some of the teams mentioned above and their resources and they will always have first pick of the better players.

Time people lowered their expectations and started to realize we are a third tier team, the Lottery of the play offs give a false picture of where clubs are really at, yes they were introduced to keep the season alive and more interesting but when you're around 28-30 + pts from the top table it shows how far behind you really are and the difficult task of maintaining higher league status even if you scrape through the play offs.
I agree, it’s probably wrong to expect, but as supporters, we should never give up hope of better times and promotion to the championship.

ahem Especially as Tigers aim is the Premier league ahem....
 
At what point will Sunderland fans realise they won’t be getting promoted this season? Doncaster/Charlton/Portsmouth all better than Sunderland in the play offs.
And it's a year further away from the parachute payments. Bet some Oxfordshire bums are getting squeaky up there
 
We might have to get the buckets out for Charles if they don't sort it out on the pitch. I suppose we owe him, seeing as there'd be no OUFC without him.
 
And it's a year further away from the parachute payments. Bet some Oxfordshire bums are getting squeaky up there
There was always the risk that they wouldn't go up this season (of Grigg starts scoring heavily they still could)
I would imagine that the plan was to go up within a couple of years.
 
If Blackpool get docked 12 points - as might be the case - they’d only be two points above us.
 
There was always the risk that they wouldn't go up this season (of Grigg starts scoring heavily they still could)
I would imagine that the plan was to go up within a couple of years.

Although those at the club might publicly say that their business plan was to stabilise and aim for promotion in a year or two, privately they would be desperate for promotion this season to start cashing in. The level of parachute payments drops of significantly next season and disappears entirely the year after. As we see, the league never gets any easier and whilst a second season in league 1 may not be terminal, it would still be seen by most to be a massive failure not to bounce straight back up.
 
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Although those at the club might publicly say that there business plan was to stabilise and aim for promotion in a year or two, privately they would be desperate for promotion this season to start cashing in. The level of parachute payments drops of significantly next season and disappears entirely the year after. As we see, the league never gets any easier and whilst a second season in league 1 may not be terminal, it would still be seen by most to be a massive failure not to bounce straight back up.
Don't forget that the club was an absolute basket case with a load of players on PL wages.
So yes the hope would undoubtedly be to go up but Stewart and Charlie knew enough about L1 to know that they couldn't guarantee a Promotion (Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan for example kept a lot of their Championship players and added top quality L1 players)
Agree that it will be disappointing if they don't go up but I would suspect that they badly need to go up next season if not rhis.
Oh and they could well still go up.
 
Although those at the club might publicly say that there business plan was to stabilise and aim for promotion in a year or two, privately they would be desperate for promotion this season to start cashing in. The level of parachute payments drops of significantly next season and disappears entirely the year after. As we see, the league never gets any easier and whilst a second season in league 1 may not be terminal, it would still be seen by most to be a massive failure not to bounce straight back up.

Especially after spending £6m on transfer fees*.

* Figure from Sunderland fans on their forum from the matchday thread Vs us.
 
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