Go for it Tony

[Timbertop]

Having witnessed most games in this awful league this season I am convinced that Wigan and Blackburn are nailed on for an immediate return to the Championship but that third place is there for the taking. Solid and astute recruitment in January can take us into the play-offs if only Mr Stewart is prepared to financially back his manager. There's an opportunity here to bounce straight back because most of the opposition are woeful. It might not be as easy next season.

[great_fire]

Play-offs more realistic.

[BramleyMiller58]

And 3rd place = Play offs

[MillerBill]

Must agree,this is such a poor league.It will be much more difficult next season with the likliehood of some big" proper massive" clubs coming down.If we could bring in two "league1" full backs and inject some pace up front and midfield,we must have every chance of being strong contenders in the playoffs.Come on Tone,back the manager.

[mellowmiller]

......and then what? Another awful season in the Championship unless our Tone is prepared to spend millions of pounds to put together a squad that can compete......which he won't be.

[MillerBill]

......and then what? Another awful season in the Championship unless our Tone is prepared to spend millions of pounds to put together a squad that can compete......which he won't be.

Try and show a little more optimism.Are you saying we should not bother,if so what's the point of competing in any competition?

[gwru]

All I want is give us something to play for at the right end of the table. If we sign a striker give us one right age/ability. A few loans depends if Emmanuel stays: right back. A centre back need one. Replacement for Potter. A proper left sided forward. Don't know if it's me but leagues seemed to have dropped a notch in quality incl' the championship. League 1 is nowhere near the quality of the last time we were in it.

[frogmiller]

I don't want promotion not this season anyway! Even if we buy two or three players with a decent track record it won't be enough. Relying on loans should mean that we not only get a stronger team but it should give us more deapth.

Deapth is something that we don't have, never had and will probably won't see whilst water flows in the Don. Our better, more experienced players are injury prone and the ones who are there to replace or cover them are loans or too inexperienced.

We still don't have the facility needed for the Championship even though there have been massive improvements the improvements themselves are just a stop gap.

Our kids are at least a season away from being tried as first team players. I don't know how long it'll take each one of the young talented players to transfer from the youth set up to play regular in the first team. I bet we won't transfer enough for until the start of next season to enable them to be effective on the pitch. This would mean us signing more players which in turn will push these young players down the pecking order.

If we're going to be effective in the Championship when we get there again then we need a base of 16 players who are on decent long term contracts to keep them together.
Then with that in mind if these players are good enough then they'll be bought by bigger clubs with us not having the scouting system in place to replace them and the set of youth that are coming through aren't in efficient numbers to keep up with the demand we'll have.

In short. We don't have enough players, coaches, or development staff. We don't have enough money to buy what we need and we still don't have the facilities to attract the players or staff we need.

If we go up this year we'll set ourselves back another 2 years at least!

It's just my opinion but I'd rather have a couple more seasons developing the core of the club to enable us to at least put up a fight in the Championship.

[caytonmiller]

Frog. Rufc have had 97 years to set up what your proposing. Why do you think it will take another 2 year?

[frogmiller]

I don't Cayton but I do think that it will take at least that to get this set of staff and players in a position where they stand any chance of competing in the Championship.

If that is what TS wants for the club then we can't go up and acheive stability with bringing through young tallent without having a solid stable core of the club.
To have another year like last will be a disaster.