So, the Championship season has started **Spoilers**

Don
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Norwich & Sheff United taking top two ahead of the likes of Leeds, WBA, Boro, Stoke etc. shows that you simply can't buy promotion.

Both Norwich & United dominated their opponents today and definitely deserve promotion.

Surely your signings were the reason you were promoted? Or are you talking money spent? I’m not sure dominating Blackburn and Ipswich are worthy of being promoted but over the course of the season yes you achieved the most points so of course you deserved it. Sheff U even more so.

I just hope Sheff U invest and don’t expect the success of this season to be replicated next or it will just all be a waste. Like Cardiff attempted.
 
Associate
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Surely your signings were the reason you were promoted? Or are you talking money spent? I’m not sure dominating Blackburn and Ipswich are worthy of being promoted but over the course of the season yes you achieved the most points so of course you deserved it. Sheff U even more so.

I just hope Sheff U invest and don’t expect the success of this season to be replicated next or it will just all be a waste. Like Cardiff attempted.

Yes I mean in money spent. Norwich definitely bought very intelligently with a small budget as well as bringing through youth. Both Norwich & Shef Utd bought undervalued players that fit with the way they want to play, rather than spending huge figures on big name players like Bamford.

Between them, Ipswich & Blackburn managed just two shots on target. Now admittedly as a Norwich fan I take great pleasure in saying that Ipswich are incredibly poor, but Blackburn are a good team. Both Norwich & Utd were expected to finish around mid table so to dominate those two teams shows just how much they both overachieved on a shoe-string budget.
 
Don
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Yes I mean in money spent. Norwich definitely bought very intelligently with a small budget as well as bringing through youth. Both Norwich & Shef Utd bought undervalued players that fit with the way they want to play, rather than spending huge figures on big name players like Bamford.

Between them, Ipswich & Blackburn managed just two shots on target. Now admittedly as a Norwich fan I take great pleasure in saying that Ipswich are incredibly poor, but Blackburn are a good team. Both Norwich & Utd were expected to finish around mid table so to dominate those two teams shows just how much they both overachieved on a shoe-string budget.

I love how Leeds get brought into every discussion, we spent 8m on one player (who has scored 1 goal every other game and been injured for half the campaign), hardly comparable to teams spending nearly double that on a single player. Your club also spent a lot more in previous seasons than us so just because you've been a success this season doesn't mean you've done it the 'right' way in previous seasons.

We finished 14th last season with the same team bar 3 players, you can hardly say we trying buy the league, give Bielsa and the team some respect at least.
 
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Soldato
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I think Leeds and Biesla in particular have helped made this season very exciting. It'll be tough on them if they don't go up, however it looks like the momentum is with Villa atm heading into the play-offs.

45 minutes till kick off and maybe Leeds with prove me wrong.

From a Boro perspective, I just hope Pulis goes, if that means missing out on the play offs then so be it.
 
Don
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I think Leeds and Biesla in particular have helped made this season very exciting. It'll be tough on them if they don't go up, however it looks like the momentum is with Villa atm heading into the play-offs.

45 minutes till kick off and maybe Leeds with prove me wrong.

From a Boro perspective, I just hope Pulis goes, if that means missing out on the play offs then so be it.

Yeah, its complete lottery play offs. We will see how today goes, it will be a disaster if we lose again just for confidence and momentum that is so important. I think I'd rather Derby than Boro despite on paper them probably being the easier opposition, the psychological aspect hopefully comes into play with us dominating Derby in both games this season, Boro not so much!
I can take not going up this season if I know Bielsa is staying on, the heart says he will have had enough and then it's back to mid table mediocrity, no one will be able to replicate the success of performances this season :(

My wife and daughter go to most Boro home games, I'm sick of their moaning even when you do win :p Pulis will definitely go regardless I think.
 
Soldato
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Fair play Sheff Utd. Deserved. That’s how you get up on a shoe string budget @toshj ,)

Ha - their revenues are huge compared to ours. £20m+ in revenues last season and average attendance of 24k. We can barely scape 9k...

The fact that they can loan in Hogan, who is on £40k a week at Villa shows that we're nowhere in the same financial league as them. They're very much a mid-table Championship side in terms of balance sheet. We're still bottom 4.

That said, they've done exceptionally well this season. Very difficult to beat and Wilder really gets the best out of players. For them to go up automatically when the lines Villa, Derby, etc haven't got near them is a major achievement.
 
Soldato
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Can't say I have ever seen anything like that?

We shouldn't be down to 10 :/
Don't think most of us have :eek:.

I agree El Ghazi shouldn't be off but Elmohamady I think it was is lucky to be on for pushing him to the floor. Pretty sure the assistant thought it was El Ghazi that pushed him over.
 
Don
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48140118

Bamford quite rightly gets a two game ban for his clear and blatant dive. I still have no idea how the linesman got that decision so badly wrong.

Means he is out of the last game of the season and first leg of play off semi. How costly could that moment of madness be?

What’s your opinion on Hourihane’s punch?
 
Soldato
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Not sure that's conclusive evidence a punch was thrown, could be argued as anything really and I certainly don't think I'd be happy with a suspension being given on that.

I've seen people get off with more blatant punches as the FA have said it wasn't clear enough so if they were to suspend a player for this would just smack of an 'even stevens' suspension.
 
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