Norridge away

[robinrover]

Totally agree on Smallwood and mulgrew
Time to say goodbye however we need to tread carefully with our finances
We are being watched sadly clubs like derby and villa are not.
Why is this?only the football league can answer this
Probably with a answer fluffed up as usual.
It's a tricky one
We need to aim for the hallowed grail of the premier league but if we spend big and fail,bang goes all the stable footings we have in place.
Defensively we are very weak and poor we desperately need players of a certain quality to come into those areas but with a limited budget some magic is needed.

[alfinyalcabo]

Totally agree on Smallwood and mulgrew
Time to say goodbye however we need to tread carefully with our finances
We are being watched sadly clubs like derby and villa are not.
Why is this?only the football league can answer this
Probably with a answer fluffed up as usual.
It's a tricky one
We need to aim for the hallowed grail of the premier league but if we spend big and fail,bang goes all the stable footings we have in place.
Defensively we are very weak and poor we desperately need players of a certain quality to come into those areas but with a limited budget some magic is needed.

You are far better staying in the championship Robin,phook knows how we have managed to stay in the premier again against all the odds.. Unbelievable stuff..

[robinrover]

Sadly Alf for us and many other clubs the finances the prem gives teams is a bit of a must.
Venkys don't need the money however our books look a right mess and the 130 million plus would certainly help matters.
I love the championship but the gulf in the the 2 leagues financially is massive.

[AucklandRover]

I'm not as convinced as Champs that the outside world considers Rovers to be a bigger club than Wednesday.
Apart from anything else, their average attendance this season is about 10,000 more than ours!
All the financial stuff mentioned by Robin is a worry, and picking up Alf's point, the only sound reason for wanting to be in the PL is the money. The football itself is almost irrelevant. If you get there, it's just about survival for most clubs. Burnley have done brilliantly in that respect...but look at Huddersfield.
Then there's Fulham - they've spent a fortune and are still heading down.
I'd love a promotion challenge because it's exciting, but we follow football in its own right, as well as a team. Unfortunately, that love of the sport tends to get lost in the fight to be "successful".
That reminds me of Despair. I wonder where he is.

[champs95]

I'm not as convinced as Champs that the outside world considers Rovers to be a bigger club than Wednesday.
Apart from anything else, their average attendance this season is about 10,000 more than ours!
All the financial stuff mentioned by Robin is a worry, and picking up Alf's point, the only sound reason for wanting to be in the PL is the money. The football itself is almost irrelevant. If you get there, it's just about survival for most clubs. Burnley have done brilliantly in that respect...but look at Huddersfield.
Then there's Fulham - they've spent a fortune and are still heading down.
I'd love a promotion challenge because it's exciting, but we follow football in its own right, as well as a team. Unfortunately, that love of the sport tends to get lost in the fight to be "successful".
That reminds me of Despair. I wonder where he is.

Would you say the footballing world consider two times European cup winners Notts Forest are a bigger side than Rovers? Much bigger place, bigger fan base, bigger ground.

None of that stopped one of their best young players leaving them to join us. Coming out of Div One.

[champs95]

Totally agree on Smallwood and mulgrew
Time to say goodbye however we need to tread carefully with our finances
We are being watched sadly clubs like derby and villa are not.
Why is this?only the football league can answer this
Probably with a answer fluffed up as usual.
It's a tricky one
We need to aim for the hallowed grail of the premier league but if we spend big and fail,bang goes all the stable footings we have in place.
Defensively we are very weak and poor we desperately need players of a certain quality to come into those areas but with a limited budget some magic is needed.

I think our defence needs a CH. And Its true we are in for Bauer who we wont pay anything for. As we have tracked him.
Williams and Lenihan are absolutely fine. As good as anything around. As is Bell. Nyambe is ok, sometimes he gets caught, but as a young player I expect that.

We are going to end the season 3 wins off the play offs, and I can name at least 4 games this season we wont lose next year. I think we need a defender, maybe 2. A new CM to replace Smallwood, and a striker.
If we sold Dack, all that could be raised. And we would likely end up stronger. If we keep Dack, we keep one of the best players in the league. Are we going to build around him?

The FFP with us, in comparison to all the other sides, is our crowds compared to Derby, Sheff Utd, Sheff Wed, Leeds etc. We cant generate any money in gate receipts.

Bournemouth play in a league where they are dwarfed. They play in an 11k stadium. They managed it.

[champs95]

Fulham went down, and had a disasterous season. Like Wigan have in our league.
Because those clubs didn't have a plan. They went up, and replaced all the same players with new ones. Who didn't work out. And when they needed to turn back to the players who got them up, their noses where out of joint. Ok, Fulham spent a fortune. Wigan didn't. But both changed almost their full 11 on moving up a league.

You simply don't do that. Its a nieve thing to do.
If you have a plan over a 2/3 year timescale (which we have) then you build slowly, which we are doing.

Wolves went up, and spent a fortune, they dared to dream. Like Bournemouth. And it paid off BIG TIME!!!
How can AFC Bournemouth compete season on season in an 11k stadium? And Auks, if you think we, one of the only select few clubs to have actually won the Prem league, cant sign players from sheff wed, how on earth are they buying players off clubs like Napoli? Reckon that Greek international has a damn clue where Bournemouth is? And what happens when they show him around that little Lego stadium? Compared to the last one he was playing in, in Napoli? In front of 50k. with other bigger English sides wanting to buy him? How can Bournemouth even compete with Newcastle? yet they manage it, season on season.

Why? because they made a calculated risk and spent big getting up. And every season they massively reap the benefits.
Auks, if you pose the question, are we bigger than Sheff Wed? Are AFC Bournemouth bigger than us? Historically? Attendance wise?

[AucklandRover]

I'm really trying to look at it from a player's perspective. Obviously, if more money is involved, that adds a different element, but I doubt that Barry Bannan - presumably having no link with Rovers and not being particularly interested in our club's history - would automatically regard us as a step up.
I think that's just realistic.
As for promotion for us, well that is what every club aims for, and all supporters would obviously be delighted to see such success. However, I have no problem with being in the Championship, long-term, either. I think it's a more natural home for a club like ours.
The finances are a different matter, of course, but that is not really what I'm focusing on.

[champs95]

I'm really trying to look at it from a player's perspective. Obviously, if more money is involved, that adds a different element, but I doubt that Barry Bannan - presumably having no link with Rovers and not being particularly interested in our club's history - would automatically regard us as a step up.
I think that's just realistic.
As for promotion for us, well that is what every club aims for, and all supporters would obviously be delighted to see such success. However, I have no problem with being in the Championship, long-term, either. I think it's a more natural home for a club like ours.
The finances are a different matter, of course, but that is not really what I'm focusing on.

I'm not sure I agree with that notion Auks.
Football doesn't respect any of that. Or Bournemouth wouldn't be sat in the Premier league, playing against Man Utd.
Nor would Sunderland be playing in the English 3rd tier who are going to get over 41k tomorrow for a league game.
Andy Cole certainly didn't see us as a step up after winning the Champions League, treble and everything else at Man Utd. And I'm pretty sure our history was not a factor in why he chose to join us. He still joined us.
We can't afford to just sit and go nowhere down here. Its a poor league. And I just don't think we can afford to keep losing money either,. Which we do every single season.

[AucklandRover]

I agree about the money, but struggling in the bottom six or seven of the PL isn't really my idea of footballing fun!
That takes me back to my old hobby-horse of a European super-league. Just look at the PL again. Man. Utd. have had a relatively "poor" season, but there they are, 13 points ahead of the seventh club! Is that really a sign of fair competition? How much more enjoyable that league would be if the top six were elsewhere.
It won't happen - again because of the money - but the whole point of a hierarchical league-system is to create a reasonably level playing-field, and that just isn't the case in the PL.
I wonder how Huddersfield fans are feeling at the moment, and even Cardiff - under that great saviour, Warnock - may not survive!